statue removal from demonstrations

George Floyd was tortured unto death by the Minneapolis Police on May 25th. One of a series of such extra-judicial killings by police of people, usually black men. Police brutality has long been a civil rights issue, especially in the black community. The movement, Black Lives Matter began in 2013 after vigilante George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin. Street demonstrations began after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri. The demonstrations were rekindled after Floyd's killing, and they spread worldwide.

As a side effect of some violent demonstrations, that separated from non-violent protests, statues have been toppled. The first targets have been Confederate statues, then it expanded to other representations of racists, and slaveholders, and sometimes whatever was there.

Yesterday, an equestrian statue of General Stonewall Jackson has been removed in Richmond Virginia. Also, yesterday, a second statue of Christopher Columbus has been removed in Columbus Ohio. The first one had been vandalised. There is another statue of Columbus by the state house.

In the states that remained loyal to the Union, statues and memorials began appearing soon after the conclusion of the failed war of secession. The statues of the rebellious traitors started to appear more than a full generation after the war surrender. That Jackson statue was raised in 1919. The immediate aftermath of the war included the freeing of black slaves, and of the recognition of constitutional rights of all black people. Those freedoms were chipped away at, and by the late 1890s the successors to the confederates were thoroughly entrenched. The false myth of the noble lost cause was successful. Four years of a lost war, was followed by an incubation of romanticising antebellum power. NAACP was formed in 1909. The three years with the most new Confederate statues were 1909, 1910, and 1911. The year most Confederate statues (36) removed was after the White Power/Nazi Demonstration in Charlottesville Virginia 2017. Long time ago, i read the person most often depicted was Robt. E. Lee. The second was Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first leader of the Klu Klux Klan. Those public statues were all treasonous, and all a message to black people "you do not matter".  The Germans have not made statues to the twelve year Nazi heritage. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe statues were taken away of  Communists.

Some changes are happening. The police have not been reformed. At times in the response to demonstrations against police brutality, police have demonstrated brutality [click].  Donald Trump has egged on brutal police responses, and wants to protect the statues. Black Lives Matter has been demonised by 'conservatives', who have more sympathy for property than any concern for the injustices that caused the eruptions. The biggest slam is that they are Marxist. There are many chapters of a de-centralised movement. Individuals may be Marxist, but that is immaterial to the cause. For some days, Trumpsters were blaming the violence on Antifa. The police could not find antifas to arrest; occasionally they had to arrest right wing thugs, sometimes they would tip them off to stand clear. Another thing that bothers these people is the painting of the phrase "Black Lives Matter" on the street.

Ettore Boiardi was born in Italy, and went to Paris, then London, then New York before he was eighteen. Eventually, he became a restaurateur in Cleveland. By 1928 packaged products were sold and distributed beyond Cleveland, under the name of Chef Boyardee. In America, at this time, Italian food, spelling, and pronunciation was exotic. ConAgra now owns the brand, and they have a statue of Boiardi in Omaha.  Recently, someone using the name "sammy pizzano" put on an internet petition to replace Cleveland's Columbus statue with Boyardee, it was sarcasm. Local Italians were not amused.

Someone took off the tip of Chris's nose (sometime after 2017). Cleveland's statue of Columbus is kitty korner from Holy Rosary (an Italian parish).Cleveland's Columbus Parade used to be downtown, it is now in the Little Italy neighborhood. His statue gazes at the church.

High up the facade of Holy Rosary is a statue of Mary, and other statues. This year she has ivy about her.

About seven years ago a statue of General Milan Štefánik was placed in the Slovak Cultural Garden, it had been in a traffic island below the Art, and Natural History museums. Since he was a minister of war, some people were not happy with him being in a peace garden. In this pose he looks like a birdwatcher.

With all the statue vandalisations, and removals someone has made this cartoon. Is the toon asking people to see what they are doing? It had already happened in Cleveland.

Auguste Rodin's "TheThinker" outside of Cleveland Art Museum was bombed on 24 March 1970. At the time, local police blamed the Weather Underground. It is not known who was responsible.

2 of  2 essays, the previous concerned ethnic advertising