BALTIMORE – Baltimore protesters downloaded a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the city’s Inner Harbor on Saturday night.

News agencies reported that the demonstrators used ropes to topple the monument near the small Italian neighborhood.

Protesters, driven by George Floyd’s death to the police, called for the removal of the sculptures of Columbus, the Confederate figures and others. They say that the Italian explorer is responsible for the genocide and exploitation of indigenous peoples in America.

According to the Baltimore SunThe statue is owned by the city and was dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan.

Spokesperson of Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young told the Sun that the overturning of the statue was part of a national and global reconsideration on monuments that “could represent different things to different people.”

Lester Davis said, “We understand the dynamics played in Baltimore as part of a national narrative.

Columbus statues have also been toppled or destroyed in cities such as Miami; Richmond, Virginia; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Boston, where someone’s head was cut off.