In the places that Columbus landed, indigenous people were forced into slavery and punished with flogging, loss of limb or death if they did not perform to such expectations as collecting enough gold each day from the mines. Columbus and his fellow travelers also brought with them diseases that ravaged the welcoming peoples of the new land, estimated to have eventually killed 90% of them. 

Columbus proved to be a greedy, cruel invader, a reckless adventurer and a fraud in that he never planted the flag of Spain in North America. Eventually, others brought word back to Europe of Columbus’ horrific treatment of the population amounting to genocide and in 1499 he was arrested, chained up and brought back to Spain and stripped of his royal titles.

He does not deserve a statue in our beautiful city.