WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A statue of Christopher Columbus on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre has been damaged by vandal for the second time in less than a week.
The first incident happened last Friday night after a Black Lives Matter protest on Public Square. The statue was covered with red paint, silly string, and a toilet plunger sat on its head.
Donnie Evans, a local DJ, cleaned it up because he has experience with graffiti removal.
Now it's covered with red paint again which he's having some trouble getting off.
"All that work I did, now I got to redo it over," Evans said.
This time, the paint was harder to remove.
The Wilkes-Barre Fire Department lent a hand at one point.
Evans told us the reason he spent his personal time and used his personal equipment to clean up the statue.
"I like the community. I like to help out. I like Wilkes-Barre city. Mayor Brown is doing such an amazing job. The chief is trying to do his best. We all need to come together as a family, as one big community, and do things together," he said.
Donnie says if the statue continues to get vandalized, he'll continue to clean it up.
He has no shortage of supporters in the city.
"I understand the point that some of our history does have very evil portions of it, but unfortunately, what we have to understand is that it is part of our history. No matter whether we like it or not, it's what we're made from, and it's what we have to understand and learn from. If we don't remember our history, we can't learn from our mistakes," Corey Camasso said.
"I don't think that's going to solve anything, you know, destroying public property, destroying a part of history," Karen Hoffman said.
Aldrin Grattz of Wilkes-Barre says he doesn't support the vandalism, but he can understand why it's happening.
"You can kind of understand where the history would come from. Based off the history, a lot of people share a really different history in the same location. To some, it's important, but to others, it's destructive. It's a reminder of a really toxic past."
Wilkes-Barre police were on scene earlier to pick up evidence. Police say they have a few suspects for Friday's vandalism but are still working on it. They're not sure if this incident was done by the same person or not.
Meanwhile, a Scranton woman has started a petition she plans to send to the Wilkes-Barre mayor, calling on the city to replace the statue of Columbus with a statue of William Thomas. Back in the 1840s, Thomas escaped slavery in Virginia and found refuge in Wilkes-Barre. When he was recognized as a fugitive slave and chased by federal agents, he jumped in the Susquehanna River. A crowd of residents immediately gathered to protect him from capture.
"And it was because of their actions and their help that day that he was able to escape to freedom and actually made it to Canada to live a free life," said Eileen Dorsey, who started the online petition.
Dorsey thinks Wilkes-Barre should focus more on that part of its history, and highlight it here in Public Square, rather than Christopher Columbus, who she says is a symbol of genocide, rape, and colonization.
"You can't erase history. We need to pay attention to history; we need to learn from it. But we also need to be careful about what we're putting on a platform," said Dorsey.
Dorsey says creating the petition is an example of the kind of peaceful, productive, and democratic ways to make your voice heard.
"I do not condone vandalism of public spaces at all. The whole motive behind creating a petition is to promote the beautification and the betterment of public spaces."