Christopher Columbus Statue in Central Park Is Vandalized<br />12, 2017<br />A more than century-old statue of Christopher Columbus inside Central Park was discovered defaced on Tuesday morning, its hands stained with red paint<br />and its pedestal scrawled with graffiti including the hashtag "#somethingscoming." A parks worker alerted the police to the defacement of the 1892 bronze, which stands north of the 65th Street transverse, at 7 a.m., according to the New York Police Department.<br />Mark Hollander said that New Yorkers are by and large respectful of public property and we don’t see that changing in any meaningful way.<br />Following the removals of such statues nationwide in the aftermath, Mayor Bill de Blasio convened a commission to review of the city’s iconography for possible<br />removal, including images of Columbus, whose 1492 voyage to the Caribbean, historians say, was at the grave cost of the indigenous people there.<br />"People need the full history to pay attention." The Central Park statue is about half a mile north<br />of the more famous depiction of Columbus that towers over Columbus Circle at 59th Street.<br />"Maybe Christopher Columbus wasn’t the most ethical person or kind person,<br />but his accomplishments stand for themselves." Angelina and Dylan Peace, who were visiting from California on their honeymoon, stood at the base as workers scrubbed at the red hands.<br />On Tuesday morning, a worker from the Central Park Conservancy’s conservation team stood atop a ladder, methodically<br />rubbing a solvent-soaked rag on Columbus’s right hand, which was stained bright red, a bronze flag in its grasp.
