Protesters try to topple uS president statue
A crowd of protesters tried to topple the statue of a former US president near the White House as police responded with pepper spray to break up new demonstrations that erupted in Washington.
A wave of nationwide rallies calling for racial justice has swept the United States since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On Monday, hundreds of protesters were pushed back by at least 100 security force personnel after they had thrown ropes around the statue of Andrew Jackson, the divisive seventh US president, in Lafayette Square park.
The word “killer” had been spray-painted on the stone plinth, said a reporter at the scene.
Jackson, in office from 1829 to 1837, owned more than 500 slaves over his life and was a key figure in the forced relocation of nearly 100,000 Native Americans, otherwise known as the Trail of Tears.
“We had ropes, chains, a pulley to pull, and we were going to attach that and tear down the statue,” a 20-year-old protester said.
“The police attacked us. They’ve taken the law into their own hands,” Raymond Spaine, a 52-year-old black man cleaning his eyes with saline said.
A helicopter circled over the gathering of hundreds of people on the newly-renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza, as officers continued to use pepper spray to disperse protesters. President Donald Trump criticised the protesters, tweeting: “Numerous people arrested in DC for the disgraceful vandalism in Lafayette Park, of the magnificent Statue of Andrew Jackson, in addition to the exterior defacing of St John’s Church across the street.”
He also warned that vandalising the statue could be punishable with jail time.
The clash over Jackson’s statue is part of the latest movement in the protests: tearing down statues and monuments to individuals linked to the US’ racist past.
Protesters initially focused on Confederate generals, such as the Robert E Lee statue in Richmond.
But the spotlight has begun to shift to figures of US history previously considered untouchable, including Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both slave owners.
Another statue of Jackson was vandalised with red paint earlier Monday in Jacksonville, Florida.