Vol. 105 Issue 48
@thepittnews LOVE IS FOREVER
Pittnews.com
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Anthony Jeselnik
Comedian talks about Twitter, death
page 7
Game, Set, Match Volleyball wins twice over weekend
Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer
page 11
Lovebettie performs at Oakland Forever in Schenly Plaza on Saturday. Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer
Statue raises concerns over Columbus Day legitimacy Abbey Reighard Senior Staff Writer Its hands are now clean, but they were once the color of blood. The statue of Christopher Columbus in Schenley Park, just outside of Phipps Conservatory, is a monument many Pitt students pass by as they enter the park. The statue, which has been a feature in the park since 1958, has been a target for vandals in the past few years who have defaced the bronze and Barre granite statue’s
hands and body. This Columbus Day passed without incident. In the past few years, there were multiple incidents of vandalism according to reports filed by Morton Brown, Pittsburgh’s public art manager under the Department of City Planning’s Public Art Division, with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. In 2010, vandals painted the statue’s hands red and sprayed words and phrases such as “Butcher” and “Death to civilization.”
Brown reported the incidents, which occurred on three separate occasions, to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. He said although the police took the reports “very seriously” and staked out the area surrounding the statue during that time and in the following years, the police never identified the culprits. Brown said he hasn’t filed any reports of the statue being vandalized since 2010. The monument in Schenley Park is one of many across the country that have been vandalized every year, especially around
Columbus Day, which, Brown said, may relate to the controversial nature of the statue and Columbus Day. Though nearly all Americans know Columbus to be the “discoverer” of America, many also know him to have enslaved and killed many indigenous people in the West Indies, where he landed in 1492. Four U.S. states — Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon and South Dakota — do not celebrate Columbus Day, according to Hawaii.gov. Seattle, Wa., Brown said,
Statue
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