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| Protestors attempt to pull down the statue of US President Andrew Jackson in the middle of Lafayette Park in front of the White House |
President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his warning that those who destroy U.S. monuments on federal property would be arrested and face jail time, hours after protesters tried to topple a statue of former president Andrew Jackson near the White House.
Trumpโs warning on Twitter comes as a growing swath of such statues, many paying homage to the rebel Confederacy from the nationโs Civil War-era, have been targeted amid weeks of protests over racism and policing.
Protesters tried to tear down a statue of former U.S. President Andrew Jackson on Monday near the White House, scrawling โkiller scumโ on the base and pulling at ropes around the figure of Jackson on a horse before police intervened.
Video footage posted to social media also showed demonstrators climbing on the bronze monument in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, in the latest bid to destroy images of historical figures considered racist or divisive.
Police in riot gear are then seen moving in to drive the crowd back and form a protective ring around the statue, which was erected in 1852 on a white marble base and depicts Jackson astride a rearing horse.
Earlier, protesters clashed with police in the nearby streets, the latest in a string of demonstrations against police brutality and racism following the death of a 46-year-old Black man, George Floyd, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
Jackson, the seventh U.S. president, was a former general in the U.S. Army and a populist politician nicknamed โOld Hickory,โ whose political style has sometimes been compared with that of President Donald Trump.
Native American activists have long criticized Jackson, a Democrat, for signing during his 1829-37 presidency the Indian Removal Act, in which thousands of people were driven from their land by the U.S. government.
Forced to march West in what was described as the โTrail of Tears,โ thousands of Native Americans died before reaching their intended destination.
REUTERS
