No To Columbus

Let our voices be heard

PETITION

Keep the Columbus statues down; replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day; hold a hearing on the July, 2020 police violence in Grant Park

  1. We, the citizens of the City of Chicago, demand that the statues of Christopher Columbus removed in July 2020 remain down permanently.
  2. We demand a hearing of the Chicago City Council Health and Human Relations Committee on an ordinance abolishing Columbus Day and replacing it with Indigenous Peoples Day.
  3. We call on the city to convene hearings on the conclusions and recommendations of the Office of Inspector General’s Public Safety section (OIG) regarding the actions of police officers in Grant Park on July 17, 2020.

Say #NoToColumbus

106 signatures

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We deserve better from the city

Chicago was beginning to move in the right direction by taking down the three statues of Christopher Columbus in the city and beginning an evaluation of all of the city’s monuments, but the mayor is reversing course now, with the report on the monuments long overdue and an announcement that the city will return the Columbus statue to Grant Park. We must join voices to demand justice! We must also demand justice for the victims of police violence during the demonstrations in Grant Park on July 17, 2020.

By defending the police who assaulted young people demonstrating against Columbus and announcing the Grant Park statue will be returned, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is out of touch with ordinary Chicagoans, who believe the truth about our history should be faced and who have no tolerance for out-of-control police. Suppressing the evaluation of the city monuments that she asked for suggests Mayor Lightfoot is not ready to face the truth.

Protecting the most violent police, slandering our young people, suppressing the views of experts: This is all the kind of authoritarianism Christopher Columbus was known for in his day. This, and much, much worse. We have to reject this culture of power politics and choose our living, breathing communities instead. No to Columbus!