Christopher Columbus Statue In Boston Park Is Beheaded, For The Second Time

A statue of Christopher Columbus in Boston was found beheaded amid the ongoing protests over police brutality and racial inequality, the latest among a string of such incidents across the United States.

After receiving a call about an act of vandalism at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Boston Police Department discovered the decapitated Columbus statue, which was still standing. The statue's severed head was found nearby.

According to NBC Boston, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced that the damaged Columbus statue will be placed in storage while assessing the damage and officials contemplate on the "historic meaning" of the statue. The beheaded statue has been vandalized twice before — when it was beheaded in 2006, and the words "Black Lives Matter" splattered over it in red paint in 2015.

This is reportedly the third incident of protesters vandalizing Columbus statues. Recently, protesters in Virginia burned and threw a Columbus statue to a nearby lake, while another statue of the explorer was pulled to the ground.

The vandalism of Columbus statues comes amid the protests on racial inequality and police brutality, with Columbus being controversial for his violent role in history, particularly toward Native Americans. In fact, many cities and states have recently replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day.

Elsewhere, protesters have been vandalizing and removing monuments that are deemed to represent racism. For instance, a confederate statue in Charleston, S.C. was spray painted with the words "Traitors" and "BLM," which stands for Black Lives Matter.

Earlier in the month, several Confederate statues in Alabama were vandalized and taken down. On June 4, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans to remove the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The Richmond council has announced plans to remove four other Confederate statues from its Monument Avenue.

Protesters have been calling for removing the statues of controversial historical figures who played prominent roles in slave trade and racial discrimination. In Bristol, U.K, for instance, protesters toppled a statue of known slave trader Edward Colton, who is believed to have transported around 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas between 1672 and 1689.