Free Republic

It began with a prayer and ended with a loud clunk. On Saturday afternoon, a group of about five dozen indigenous activists of all ages — children and elders included — gathered at Father Serra Park in downtown Los Angeles, just south of Olvera Street. As Tataviam/Chumash elder Alan Salazar burned sage and invoked the spirit of his ancestors, a group of young activists bound the nearby statue of Father Junipero Serra with ropes and tore him off his pedestal to chants of "Take it down! Take it down!"

The fifth statue in Richmond has been pulled down by protesters. The First Virginia Regiment Monument located on the corner of Park Avenue and Stuart Avenue has been pulled down.

In the wave of cancellations sweeping America, Confederate statues have been particularly hard hit. They have been graffitied, assaulted, and torn down, while authorities rush to remove them. For his part, President Donald Trump has been a steadfast defender of the statues and other forms of recognition of the Confederacy. He has come out in favor of preserving the names of military bases named after Confederate generals and pointedly said that we should build on our heritage rather than tear it down. Conservatives tend to think the same way. They reflexively oppose politically correct campaigns to destroy anything giving offense....