No, nothing is sacred anymore. While the protesters at least have a point when it comes to wanting to remove Confederate statues, they are now targeting statues of our nation’s founding fathers. Black Lives Matter protesters tied ropes around the statue of Thomas Jefferson that sits out front of Jefferson High School, in Portland, and pulled the statue to the ground, after spray painting “Slave Owner” and “George Floyd 846” on the pedestal. They then smashed the statue with what appears to be a sledgehammer or an axe.
The incident, which featured both black and white people, was captured on video.
Viewer video shows the moment the Thomas Jefferson statue was toppled over in Portland. #Portland #pdx #breakingnews @fox12oregon pic.twitter.com/Upnt7i1AQx
— Bonnie Silkman KPTV (@BonnieSilkman) June 15, 2020
The statue of Thomas Jefferson in front of Jefferson High in Portland OR was literally deplatformed at the hands of a protest crowd Sun night. Jefferson owned an estimated 600 human beings and using violence – forced children and adults to work without pay or their freedom. https://t.co/vKzfknQ955
— Essray (@steverahe) June 15, 2020
Thomas Jefferson statue now toppled over at Jefferson High School. This was the meeting spot for tonight’s march in Portland. Wasn’t like this before we left at 7:15.
A speaker here says, “We’re taking the city back, one racist statue at a time.” #Portland #breakingnews pic.twitter.com/PiRh00yPzv
— Bonnie Silkman KPTV (@BonnieSilkman) June 15, 2020
The Thomas Jefferson statue at Jefferson High School in North Portland has been toppled. https://t.co/S5VWcLH1rf pic.twitter.com/bNVRhoGbIu
— KOIN News (@KOINNews) June 15, 2020
At about 7:15 p.m., a crowd of more than 1,000 left the high school grounds to march to the park. By the time they returned, a statue of Thomas Jefferson had been pulled from its pedestal, apparently by a smaller group. The statue fell on its side and a dent was visible in the concrete where it fell.
Earlier in the day, the statue’s pedestal had been defaced with graffiti that, among other things, identified Jefferson as a slave owner.
Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence that declared “that all men are created equal,” publicly decried slavery even as he owned more than a hundred slaves at a time and profited from their forced labor.
It was unclear when the statue was taken down, but by 10 p.m. when dozens of protesters streamed back onto the football field at Jefferson High School, the statue was no longer standing.
