Buffalo removes Christopher Columbus statue to prevent vandalism

A statue of Christopher Columbus was removed from Columbus Park on Buffalo’s West Side at the request of an Italian American group to prevent vandalism and demonstrate how change can be peaceful in the community.

Don Alessi, past president of the Federation of Italian-American Societies of Western New York, said the Columbus statue would be relocated to another site in the upstate city, the Buffalo News reported.

The federation hoped to replace the statue with another that will honor Italian immigrants, and Mayor Byron W. Brown said the park’s name would also likely be changed to something that would honor those of Italian heritage.

Alessi said the federation was considering “a number of locations” for the Columbus statue, and that an “indoor, museum-like” location was a possibility.

Alessi added that moving the statue would not necessarily end the controversy over the 15th-century explorer.

“We’re not just going to put it another place down the street, because then it’s just relocating it to another place where there’s a potential for controversy,” Alessi told the paper.

Brown praised the move.

“I thank the Federation of Italian-American Societies of Western New York for their courage in making this decision,” he said.

Alessi and Brown spoke at a Friday morning news conference at the park at Niagara and Porter avenues.

Brown said the Columbus statue had been dedicated to the city by the Italian federation and was returned at the federation’s request.

“With all that’s going on in the nation, with all that’s going on in the city, this should not be a distraction for the very, very important work that Mayor Brown has to do with regard to reconciling the differences in the city,” Alessi said.

Columbus, among the first Europeans to have contact with the Americas, is a source of pride for many Italian Americans.

But others castigate him for being a symbol of European colonialism.

Several statues commemorating the explorer had already been taken down prior to Friday’s action in Columbus Park.

Last weekend in Baltimore, a statue of Columbus was taken down by protesters and thrown into that city’s Inner Harbor.

“We saw what happened in Baltimore, we saw what happened in Boston and other places,” Alessi said.

“We don’t want it to be thrown in the Niagara River, because that would be an insult. We don’t want to be insulted.”

The city of Bridgeport, Conn., also removed a statue of Columbus from the waterfront Seaside Park this week to prevent vandalism.

A statue of Columbus was taken down in Columbus, Ohio, earlier this month amid renewed criticism over the legacy of the explorer.

In New York, the NYPD has been guarding the statue of Columbus in Columbus Circle as protesters have toppled others in cities across the US.