{"id":15720,"date":"2020-08-26T13:45:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T20:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=15720"},"modified":"2020-08-26T13:47:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T20:47:48","slug":"who-tore-down-this-frederick-douglass-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/08\/26\/who-tore-down-this-frederick-douglass-statue\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Tore Down This Frederick Douglass Statue?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump and others have speculated about why vandals destroyed a Rochester, N.Y., statue of the prominent Black abolitionist even as protests against systemic racism continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The base of a statue of Frederick Douglass is all that remains in a Rochester, N.Y., park after it was found vandalized on July 5.Credit…Tina Macintyre-Yee\/Democrat & Chronicle, via Associated Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Michael<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Michael Gold<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • July 7, 2020 (NYTimes.com)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The authorities know that a statue of the renowned Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass<\/a> was torn from its base in a park in Rochester, N.Y., and then dumped some 50 feet away, where it was discovered near a river gorge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The statue was found on Sunday, July 5, the 168th anniversary of one of Douglass\u2019s most famous<\/a><\/strong>speeches denouncing slavery<\/a>, and the damage was done amid a heated national debate over tributes to historical figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But in the two days since the Rochester police began their investigation, and as prominent leaders have linked the destruction to a variety of ideological motivations, it was still unclear who vandalized the statue or why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nor do the authorities know whether the historically noteworthy timing was intentional or merely coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWe\u2019re still looking into it,\u201d Jacqueline Shuman, a police spokeswoman, said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything that suggests that it\u2019s related to any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Still, without any clear answers, the news of the statue\u2019s destruction set off wide speculation about whether it was connected in some way to the continuing debate over the defacement, toppling and removal of monuments honoring Confederate generals and other controversial white historical figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On Monday, President Trump weighed in. In speeches over the July Fourth weekend, he had portrayed the destruction of national monuments as an assault on American values<\/a>. He said on Twitter<\/a> that the vandalism in Rochester was the work of \u201canarchists,\u201d a term he has used repeatedly to describe protesters marching against police brutality. Some protesters have also urged, and some have carried out, the removal of statues of pro-slavery figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n