NYPD guards Christopher Columbus statue as other monuments are torn down

The statue of Christopher Columbus that towers over Columbus Circle got a special NYPD envoy Thursday — after protesters beheaded and toppled controversial monuments nationwide this week.

Two officers were guarding the 75-foot Midtown monolith Thursday morning, and cops later gated-off the surrounding area and parked a police vehicle next to it.

“This statue is a known target. You’ve been seeing in the news and what [protesters] have been doing to statues and monuments all over the country that they consider offensive. Our concern is that they might do that here, which is why we have the whole circle blocked off,” a police source told The Post.

“The gates are going to stay up indefinitely until the powers that be decide that things have calmed down sufficiently for us to remove them,” the source said, without revealing who gave the protection order.

The police presence comes after five Confederate statues were beheaded, damaged or pulled down — including one that cracked a vandal in the skull as it fell — in Virginia Wednesday night amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd.

In Miami, a Columbus statue was vandalized with a red spray-painted fist and “BLM,” for Black Lives Matter, along with Floyd’s name and a hammer and sickle.

A statue of a Confederate general in Forsyth Park, Ga., was also defaced.