Christopher Columbus Statue Defaced

**Lowell** · October-12-15, 06:14 PM

"It's Columbus Day — the annual time of year where Americans take the day off of work to reflect upon the problematic legacy of Christopher Columbus.

In the spirit of the holiday, it appears that someone has vandalized the bust of Columbus located outside of Detroit's Renaissance Center. A photo posted to Reddit shows what looks like a bloody hatchet blow to the statue's head.

Located at Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street, the statue was created by Italian sculptor Augusto Rivalta and dedicated to the city of Detroit on Oct. 12, 1910."

http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...tue-vandalized

DetroitBoy · October-12-15, 06:30 PM

What an insult to Italian Americans in this country. I hope they find and punish the hoodlum that did this.

DetroitBoy · October-12-15, 08:14 PM

And now this shit show has made the national news. Way to go hoodlum.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ue-in-detroit/

**Dbest** · October-12-15, 08:16 PM

Judging by the looks of the left side, it needs some attention anyways. Not trying to condone the behavior but it may be a blessing in disguise. Send it over to MetalDoctor.

**Dbest** · October-12-15, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitBoy

And now this shit show has made the national news. Way to go hoodlum.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ue-in-detroit/

You're so petty DB. It was a taped on axe and some red paint, looked pretty sweet. Oh-no not red paint! Don't be so uptight...

**bmick67** · October-12-15, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

"It's Columbus Day — the annual time of year where Americans take the day off of work to reflect upon the problematic legacy of Christopher Columbus.

aside from government employees, how many Americans get the day off?

**canuck** · October-12-15, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitBoy

What an insult to Italian Americans in this country. I hope they find and punish the hoodlum that did this.

It probably wasn't directed at Italian-Americans, Detroitboy. They would have used a straight razor for that I believe.

**gazhekwe** · October-12-15, 10:04 PM

I like it. It made an artistic statement about Columbus' rightful devolution as someone who should be celebrated. Italian-Americans should be about as proud of him as the Germans are of Hitler.

DetroitBoy · October-12-15, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by gazhekwe

I like it. It made an artistic statement about Columbus' rightful devolution as someone who should be celebrated. Italian-Americans should be about as proud of him as the Germans are of Hitler.

"Artistic statements' that deface and vandalize public property are crimes. Shepherd Fairey went to jail and the criminal who did this should also.

**ABetterDetroit** · October-12-15, 10:40 PM

Every few years I celebrate Columbus day by rattling a bank's doors and being unhappy that I missed the news. Next year though I have a plan, I will row over to Canada stab a flag in the ground and claim it for myself. There has to be some gold that I can ship back home somewhere, so that makes everything that happens after with the indigenous people OK.

**canuck** · October-13-15, 02:39 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitBoy

"Artistic statements' that deface and vandalize public property are crimes. Shepherd Fairey went to jail and the criminal who did this should also.

Tell Illitch to strap some lumber around those trees and protect what is left of beauty on his vacant lots instead of crapping on it. That is a bigger crime. There is a statue of Giovanni Caboto in a park close to where I live put up by the Italian community here in the thirties. He was an "explorer" that roamed a bit closer to our neck of the woods, the first European since the Vikings to visit North American shores. Although Basque and Portuguese fishermen established small communities in Newfoundland without claiming it à la king...

This bit of vandalism looks like something that Red Green would have done. Lol.

**Scottathew** · October-13-15, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitBoy

What an insult to Italian Americans in this country. I hope they find and punish the hoodlum that did this.

I don't see how you jump to that conclusion. Columbus was a bad dude according to various sources. He has a lot of blood on his hands.

**detroittrader** · October-13-15, 07:48 AM

"As soon as I arrived in the Indies, in the first island which I found, I took some of the natives by force, in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts. And so it was that they soon understood us, and we them, either by speech or by signs, and they have been very serviceable." — Christopher Columbus

**Bham1982** · October-13-15, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by gazhekwe

I like it. It made an artistic statement about Columbus' rightful devolution as someone who should be celebrated. Italian-Americans should be about as proud of him as the Germans are of Hitler.

That's an idiotic statement, for obvious reasons. Columbus was not a "bad dude" and is famous as an explorer; Hitler was probably one of the most odious people who have ever lived and is infamous as a mass murderer.

**illwill** · October-13-15, 09:14 AM

Now that we've become more educated on REAL American History, this will become more common place around the country. However, I doubt the sculptor who took the time IN 1910 to create this work of art had no idea that Columbus did NOT discover America. The artist work should be preserved and not defaced. But history needs to be corrected.

**dtowncitylover** · October-13-15, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by Bham1982

That's an idiotic statement, for obvious reasons. Columbus was not a "bad dude" and is famous as an explorer; Hitler was probably one of the most odious people who have ever lived and is infamous as a mass murderer.

Yeah because enslaving natives, bringing deadly diseases, and starting hundreds of years of forcibly taking over land makes him a "good dude".

While I'm mixed about what happened [[I support the right to protest what is wrong but hate to see things defaced), Christopher Columbus is a man we should not be honoring every year. I fully support a federal/national holiday honoring our native peoples on his former day.

There's plenty of Italians Italian Americans can honor. He is not one of them.

**Hermod** · October-13-15, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Yeah because enslaving natives, bringing deadly diseases, and starting hundreds of years of forcibly taking over land makes him a "good dude".

While I'm mixed about what happened [[I support the right to protest what is wrong but hate to see things defaced), Christopher Columbus is a man we should not be honoring every year. I fully support a federal/national holiday honoring our native peoples on his former day.

There's plenty of Italians Italian Americans can honor. He is not one of them.

The deadly diseases which wiped out 90% of the native American population would have occurred regardless of whether or not Columbus came for conquest, trade, or sightseeing. The Indian tribes of the eastern seaboard were decimated by disease through contacts with European fishermen. The Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were not driven back into the sea by the Indians because the areas had been so depopulated and the surviving Indian tribes were so weak and didn't need the land. In fact, the Indians welcomed the colonists because they saw them as potential allies in dealing with the still strong tribes of the interior.

Columbus Day was promulgated in 1934 by FDR and congress as a political payoff to the Italian-Americans. At the time, Democrat strength in northern states was concentrated in the big cities and in the 3-I ethnic groups [[Ireland, Italy, Israel).

**EastsideAl** · October-13-15, 10:52 AM

Don't support defacing public property. Do support erasing Columbus Day.

**Dan Wesson** · October-13-15, 11:08 AM

Cosa fanculo! Guardate cosa hanno fatto per Chris Columbus!

**Scottathew** · October-13-15, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

Don't support defacing public property. Do support erasing Columbus Day.

Bingo. Exactly how I feel.

**Wesley Mouch** · October-13-15, 12:19 PM

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada.

**EASTSIDE CAT 67-83** · October-14-15, 06:12 AM

I've always found it overly simplistic how people are inclined to assign today's social, moral and ethical standards of present day to those who lived centuries ago. It doesn't matter who was on that first ship. It WAS going to happen with the same outcome regardless. Conquest in the name of ones motherland was the order of the day in the era of early ocean exploration and someone was gonna bump into North America eventually, what if Africans were great seafarers back in the 15th century and planted their flag here, would we vilify them? It doesn't make it right or acceptable by today's standards but jeezz some people just take this stuff a bit to far. Its gonna take a lot of paint to deface all the other statues of the rest of those evil Caucasian people of European decent who defiled the globe with sins against humanity!

**Bham1982** · October-14-15, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Yeah because enslaving natives, bringing deadly diseases, and starting hundreds of years of forcibly taking over land makes him a "good dude".

Except Columbus didn't do any of those things. Columbus was an explorer, and is recognized with a holiday because he's a famous Italian, so it's more or less celebrated as a day of Italian heritage.

If there were no Columbus everything you described would have happened. It had zero to do with Columbus; it's because the U.S. was virtually empty at the time and filled with mostly poorly organized and less developed peoples.

**dtowncitylover** · October-14-15, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by Bham1982

Except Columbus didn't do any of those things. Columbus was an explorer, and is recognized with a holiday because he's a famous Italian, so it's more or less celebrated as a day of Italian heritage.

Except he did do those things as evidenced by the quote by Columbus you seem to have skipped over.

And you and someone else like mention, "well if would've happened anyway and it was already depopulating" as if European contact with Indians makes what happened for the next 500 years less forgivable.

Columbus didn't "discover" any part of the continental US so why we continue to "honor" him, knowing what kind of leader he was, is beyond me. We don't live an age any more of getting ethnic white votes, so pandering to the Italian-American community seems pretty archaic. We can have a Marconi or di Vinci Day.

"In response to native unrest and revolt, Columbus ordered the a brutal crackdown in which many natives were killed; in an attempt to deter further rebellion, Columbus ordered their dismembered bodies to be paraded through the streets."

http://www.history.com/topics/explor...us-controversy

On the flip side, I'm not in favor of taking it down [[like they've been to doing to Confederate statues and Cecil Rhodes statue in South Africa) nor do I support defacement. But we need to know the complete truths about history not just what makes us look good.

**Bham1982** · October-14-15, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Except he did do those things as evidenced by the quote by Columbus you seem to have skipped over.

No, he didn't do those things. He wasn't exterminating people or enslaving people or conquering lands. He was an explorer.

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

And you and someone else like mention, "well if would've happened anyway and it was already depopulating" as if European contact with Indians makes what happened for the next 500 years less forgivable.

There is nothing to "forgive" and Columbus has nothing specifically to do with the formation of the U.S. There was mostly empty land only occupied by a few scattered tribes, and those tribes were horribly mistreated, but that has zero to do with Columbus and everything to do with weak societies being cast aside by stronger ones throughout human history. The Natives were not "good" in any sense relative to others; they killed and abused and were incredibly ignorant just like everyone else back then. They were weak however and that's why their tribal societies crumbled.

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Columbus didn't "discover" any part of the continental US so why we continue to "honor" him, knowing what kind of leader he was, is beyond me. We don't live an age any more of getting ethnic white votes, so pandering to the Italian-American community seems pretty archaic. We can have a Marconi or di Vinci Day.

Columbus Day is not just celebrated in the U.S. but in much of the Americas. It's a recognized day in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, etc. He "discovered" the Americas in the sense that his explorations prompted the eventual formation of these nations.

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

"In response to native unrest and revolt, Columbus ordered the a brutal crackdown in which many natives were killed; in an attempt to deter further rebellion, Columbus ordered their dismembered bodies to be paraded through the streets."

This is neither here nor there. Columbus did exactly what any leader would have done back then when faced with a lethal adversary. He isn't going to passively accept being slaughtered, as was the norm for explorers/settlers unable to defend themselves [[see Roanoke).