KABC, June 20, 2020 11:37 PM; KPIX CBS; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Activists on Saturday toppled a DTLA statue of Junipero Serra, widely regarded as the founder of the California Missions, from its perch on Olvera Street.
Demonstrators topple statue of Junipero Serra, founder of many California prison camps ("missions"), in LA and SF
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) - Activists on Saturday toppled a statue of Junipero Serra, widely regarded as the founder of the California Missions, from its perch on old Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.
- [The mission system was a model for European concentration camps that were used to rape and imprison Native Americans, separate families, and strip individuals of their cultural identities and indigenous languages.]
Video footage tweeted by local news outlet "L.A. Taco" captured a group of peaceful demonstrators hauling down the controversial statue with a rope around its neck [after painting the head blood red]. The hands and head of the statue were seen covered with what appeared to be red paint.
"Natives just tore down the statue of Junipero Serra at Placita Olvera in solidarity with #BLMprotest #antiracism #antislavery," the tweet read.
Serra was an 18th Century Franciscan priest [rapist, mass murderer, arrogant racist patriarch practicing hegemony] responsible for founding nine of the 21 Catholic missions [or concentration camps aimed at subjugating natives and performing ethnic cleansing and other atrocities] in California with the aim of bringing native peoples into the fold.
The [forced] assimilation and exposure to [deadly] foreign diseases ultimately led to the destruction [annihilation] of indigenous tribes across the region.
Community activist Joel Garcia said the statue of Serra was targeted because it represents mass incarceration [abusive policing, ethnic cleansing, rape, and genocide].
"Mass incarceration, as it exists now, began with the Mission system, and California has its own legacy of slavery," Garcia said. "The legacy of policing that we see now began through the mission system so it's important to reconcile with that, to understand that, the Serra statue represented all of that."
Pope Francis is expected to canonize an 18th-century Franciscan friar who founded the first nine Spanish missions in California, despite backlash from the Native American community.
Pope Francis canonized "Saint" Serra back in 2015, which was met with backlash from [demonstrators, historians, and] the Native American community.
Toppled in San Francisco, too
(KPIX 5, CBS, SF Bay Area) Juneteenth Demonstration: Protesters topple Junipero Serra statues in Golden Gate Park
In San Francisco, demonstrators also tore down statues or busts of the missionary Serra, Ulysses Grant, and Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" and was a known slave holder.
City News Service contributed to this report.
White racist vandals were arrested for defacing a Black Lives Matter sign,
and it's found that two of the three accused are Ventura County employees.
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