Monuments to racism toppling around the world.

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A quiet evening of demonstrations for racial justice and police reform in Portland ended with the razing of a George Washington statue on the eve of Juneteenth.

A separate group of about 20 people met at NE Sandy Boulevard and NE 57th Avenue around 10 p.m. at the site of a large bronze statue of George Washington. Some wrapped the statue’s head in an American flag and lit the flag on fire. Their numbers grew over the next hour until there were enough people to pull the statue to the ground. They quickly scattered. A KOIN 6 News crew found the statue face down and covered in graffiti. Portland police arrived a short time later.

A group of City Council members, including Island Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore), are calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to remove the statue of Thomas Jefferson from the City Hall Council chambers.

“In the last few weeks, New Yorkers have called on all of us in elected office to make bold change so that communities of color feel heard, protected and represented,” said Democrats Speaker Corey Johnson, Councilwoman Rose, Councilwoman Inez Barron of Brooklyn, Councilwoman Adrienne Adams of Queens, and Councilman Daneek Miller of Queens.

“The City Council is committed to creating true reforms to policies and policing that hurt Black New Yorkers. But that is not enough. There are disturbing images of divisiveness and racism in our city that need to be revisited immediately. That starts with City Hall,” they said.

They called Jefferson’s statue one that serves as a “constant reminder of the injustices that have plagued communities of color since the inception of our country. It must be removed.”

On Friday, the mayor announced the creation of a Racial Justice and Reconciliation Committee, which will put together a record about the history of racial discrimination in New York City.

Though de Blasio did not say whether he would support taking down Jefferson’s statue, he said the committee would look at the entirety of the city’s history.

“This is exactly the kind of thing that this new commission will examine. We’ve gotta look at all our history,” he said during a press conference with reporters Friday when asked about the letter from the City Council members.

“To say the least, that’s a huge undertaking and it will happen in stages, but I think it is a time to evaluate the entire look and feel of this city and a commission that’s focused on justice and reconciliation can really think about a bigger approach to address our history in a constructive way and I’m going to charge them with that task,” de Blasio continued.

But Staten Island Republican Councilmen Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) and Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid Island) said they were both opposed to taking down the Jefferson statue.

“Taking down the statue of Thomas Jefferson will not remove him from history -- neither the fact that he owned slaves, nor the vital contributions he made to the creation of our nation,” Matteo said. “Maybe we should use his statue, and all of our monuments, as an opportunity to confront these truths about our history rather than try to erase them.”

Borelli said: “Someone should explain to me which civilization that banned or destroyed art has ever been considered liberal and progressive. Isis? The Communists? The Jacobins? Henry VIII? Who, tell me?”

The group of City Council members called Jefferson “America’s most noted slave holder” who owned more than 600 black women and men.

“The City Council Chambers is a place where we vote on bills to improve the lives of all New Yorkers and build a more fair and just city,” the lawmakers said. “It is not a suitable place for a statue of Thomas Jefferson. Keeping it in City Hall sends a terrible message to the people who are counting on us to work towards a more equitable New York City. We urge you to support our efforts as we go to the design commission to expeditiously remove this statue.”

Statues of controversial figures tied to slavery are being toppled across the Bay Area and beyond.

People were seen taking down the Francis Scott Key statue in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. That was one of three statues that were toppled in the city Friday night.

Demonstrators also took down the Junípero Serra statue along with the statue of union general Ulysses S. Grant.

Video shows a group of people at Golden Gate Park throwing ropes towards the Francis Scott Key statue and eventually bringing it down. Celebratory cheers could be heard as the statue lay on the ground.

Another video shows people knock down the statue of Junípero Serra, a Catholic priest responsible for missions across California. His controversy stems from using a lot of Native American Indian labor to build his missions.

Aside from being torn down, the statues were also vandalized with graffiti messages like “Slave Owner.”

Cleanup efforts are now underway Saturday morning.

I spoke to local residents who weighed in “I woke up the first thing I did is get my pants on, walk myself down here and try and help clean up,” a resident said. “Currently it’s a crime scene investigation so I just gotta go home. I am personally against just removing statutes unless the people in that town want to remove that statue by a vote, by all means. But this happening in our home and happening across the country it has to stop.”

On Thursday, the Christopher Columbus statue at San Francisco’s Coit Tower was removed by the city after protesters threatened to take it down and throw it into the Bay.

Friday night, President Donald Trump encouraged police in Washington, D.C. to “immediately” make arrests after the state of Albert Pike, a Confederate officer, was taken down by a crowd of people in Judiciary Square.

General Grant held the bigoted views of his era. General Grant did more to end slavery in one minute then all these SJW bastards combined. Playing a key role in ending the confederacy is not good enough for these purists. Yes the USA is looking more like Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany in regard to statues every day. Some of us warned that it would come to this were called paranoid. I only wish all of this was just me being paranoid.

I wish we would adopt the Canadian model in this instance.

People who want Auschwitz erased say the same thing.
So when there nothing left but what’s in books and people say slavery is fiction it didn’t happen just as civil war didn’t happen. Then what?

Rhetorically, nobody can breathe in here & I think that's precisely why bigots getting offended about their history is so funny.

If you're out to get a laugh from winning arguments about all the greatest suffering of all time, I get a good laugh when you're exposed. It isn't personal, because you're depersonalizing actual human life

Have a nice day.

you're slitting your own throat and arguing against yourself.

The status quo - confederate statues is a lie. A lie because it honors men who do not deserve to be honored. THAT is history being erased.

Tearing down the statues removes the lies, and preserves history.

The confederate statues are the equivalent of the US putting up statues to Hitler and Himmler et al. Not saying Lee was as bad as Hitler, but that would be the equivalent if you're putting up statues.

Aushwitz is the equivalent of preserving slave cabins on old plantations to show how miserable the slaves lived. It preserves the truth.

You might feel different if it was your ancestors these men had put in chains.

So...Why not take this back to the source:

What is being done about the countries who placed the initial "ancestors" in chains? Had THOSE people/countries not done so, none of these problems would exists, so they would hold a much higher degree of "guilt"...Why are there no protests about that, or targetting those countries\people?

So...Why not take this back to the source:

What is being done about the countries who placed the initial "ancestors" in chains? Had THOSE people/countries not done so, none of these problems would exists, so they would hold a much higher degree of "guilt"...Why are there no protests about that, or targetting those countries\people?

If you buy someone from a human trafficker you won't be able to insist the human trafficker was responsible for your purchase. That act is your fault.