Historical figures reassessed after George Floyd’s death
fortune from gold and diamonds on the backs of miners who labored in brutal conditions.
Oxford’s vice chancellor Louise Richardson, in an interview with the BBC, balked at the idea.
“We need to confront our past,” she said. “My own view on this is that hiding our history is not the route to enlightenment.”
Near Santa Fe, New Mexico, activists are calling for the removal of a statue of Don Juan de Oñate, a 16thcentury Spanish conquistador revered as a Hispanic founding father and reviled for brutality against Native Americans, including an order to cut off the feet of two dozen people. Vandals sawed off the statue’s right foot in the 1990s.
In Bristol, England, demonstrators over the weekend toppled a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the harbor. City authorities said it will be put in a museum.
Across Belgium, statues of Leopold II have been defaced in half a dozen cities because of the king’s brutal rule over the Congo, where more than a century ago he forced multitudes into slavery to extract rubber, ivory and other resources for his own profit. Experts say he left as many as 10 million dead.
“The Germans would not get it into their head to erect statues of Hitler and cheer them,” said Mireille-tsheusi Robert, an activist in Congo who wants Leopold statues removed from Belgian cities. “For us, Leopold has committed a genocide.”
In the U.S., Floyd’s death May 25 under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer has led to an all-out effort to remove symbols of the Confederacy and slavery.
The Navy, the Marines and NASCAR have embraced bans on the display of the Confederate flag, and statues of rebel heroes across the South have been vandalized or taken down, either by protesters or local authorities.
The man suspected of ambushing and shooting a California sheriff’s deputy is dead after a shootout with police, authorities said Thursday.
Mason James Lira, 26, was accused of ambushing and seriously injuring a San Luis Obispo sheriff’s deputy and killing a transient man Wednesday in Paso Robles. The attacks sent off a massive manhunt in the central California Coast that ended Thursday in the shootout.
While Tony Cipolla, a San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s spokesman, confirmed Lira’s death, the surrounding details were not immediately available. Lira’s father says his son had several mental illnesses and did not take his medication.
Three officers were injured as police attempted to take Lira into custody Thursday at a chaotic scene in a riverbed.
An Arroyo Grande officer was struck by gunfire, while officers with the California Highway Patrol and Kings County Sheriff’s Office suffered unspecified wounds. All three are expected to survive their injuries.
LOS ANGELES —
A Georgia man is accused of falsely claiming that an air purifier he was selling would kill the coronavirus, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Stephen Matthew “Matt” Shumaker, of Marietta, had postcards sent to thousands of Georgia residents claiming that the Beyond Guardian Air air purifier kills “every known major viral and bacterial infection,” including the coronavirus and COVID-19, according
ATLANTA —
The manhunt for Lira began at dawn Wednesday, when authorities said he opened fire on the Paso Robles police station. Two sheriff’s deputies heard gunshots and responded but didn’t see the attacker until they were outside their patrol car and under fire.
Deputy Nicholas Dreyfus, 28, was hit in the face. His partner fired back and dragged Dreyfus behind a police car. Dreyfus, who was able to radio that he’d been shot, underwent surgery Thursday and was in guarded condition.
While scores of officers searched for Lira, they received a report of a body near a train station and found a 58-yearold man shot to death on the tracks. Police believe Lira was responsible for the killing.
Lira’s father told The Associated Press he thinks the shooting at the police station might have been a suicide attempt.
Jose Lira said his son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He said his son has been in and out of jail and treatment centers, and often thinks he is a special agent or a soldier.