Vandals damaged a Christopher Columbus monument in Baltimore Sunday night, and posted a video of the incident to YouTube, Newsmax reports.
The inscription on the statue, which read “Sacred to the memory of Chris. Columbus Oct. XII MDCC VIIIC,” was unreadable due to a hole being smashed in the statue, according to Baltimore Brew. Signs left in front of the vandalized monument read, “Racism: Tear it down,” and “The future is racial and economic justice.”
The monument is 225 years old, and is said to be the oldest Columbus monument in the world that is still standing, according to the Monument City blog.
“Racist monuments have always bothered me. Baltimore’s poverty is concentrated in African-American households and these statues are just an extra slap in the face,” the video’s narrator said.
“They were built in the 20th century in response to a movement for African-Americans’ dignity. What kind of a culture goes to such lengths to build such hate-filled monuments? What kind of a culture clings to these monuments in 2017?” the narrator added.
Other monuments recently have been vandalized, including an Arizona monument to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, which was tarred and feathered.
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