San Francisco, US
AP
San Francisco Archbishop Salvadore Cordileone criticised the pulling down of the Junipero Serra statue in Golden Gate Park.
“What is happening to our society? A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” he said in a statement Saturday night.
Park police and neighbouring residents survey the damage in Golden Gate Park, on Saturday, 20th June, after a statue of Junipero Serra was among those toppled while graffiti was spray painted over many walls and pedestals. PICTURE: Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group via AP.
Serra was an 18th century Roman Catholic priest who founded nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions and is credited with bringing Roman Catholicism to the Western United States.
Serra forced Native Americans to stay at those missions after they were converted or face brutal punishment. His statues have been defaced in California for several years by people who said he destroyed tribes and their culture.
The statues targeted in San Francisco also included a bust of Ulysses Grant, who was the US President after he was the general who finally beat the Confederates and ended the Civil War. Also torn down was a statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the Star Spangled Banner. Key owned slaves.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed acknowledged “the very real pain in this country rooted in our history of slavery and oppression, especially against African-Americans and Indigenous people,” but said she didn’t condone the damage done to Golden Gate Park by dozens of protesters who defaced and tore down statues.
“Every dollar we spend cleaning up this vandalism takes funding away from actually supporting our community, including our African-American community,” Breed, who is Black, said in a statement. “I say this not to defend any particular statue or what it represents, but to recognise that when people take action in the name of my community, they should actually involve us. And when they vandalise our public parks, that’s their agenda, not ours.”
Breed said city officials will work with community members to evaluate public art and make sure it reflects San Francisco’s values.
Besides the toppled bust and statues, the park’s old museum concourse was widely spray-painted, including commemorative benches, drinking fountains, pathways and balustrades. Heavy equipment operators and cleanup crews arrived late Friday and worked through the night to remove damaged statues, paint over the graffiti and power wash the area, the parks department said.
Statues have been destroyed in numerous US cities amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the 25th May police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the African-American man who died in police custody.
