Free Republic

oe Laino, 71, stood near the Christopher Columbus statue in South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza on Saturday while leaning on a baseball bat. A woman nearby held up a sign saying “Stand Up, South Philly Won’t Stand Down." And another man, who declined to give his name, stood close to the statue while holding a rifle — one of at least two men in the plaza carrying guns. Thomas Easterday, 50, was among the crowd of about 100 people milling around the marble Columbus figure. He said the goal of the gathering was simple. “Protecting the statue from these rioters who...

The National Park Service says it is working to remove graffiti on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution. They’ve had to enlist the help of professional conservators to clean the monument in Washington Square because it is porous limestone.

Protesters have defaced a statue of Philadelphia abolitionist Matthias Baldwin, dousing it with paint and spray-painting the word “colonizer” on the pedestal. It was not immediately clear if the protesters were part of an organized group such as Antifa. The graffiti has since been cleaned off the statue, as Joe Walsh, a member of the Friends of Matthias Baldwin Park, told National Review in an email. The statue itself stands outside Philadelphia City Hall. The statue was vandalized at some point during the days of demonstrations that occurred in Philadelphia, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in an email....