About twenty-five demonstrators, protesting a Christopher Columbus statue in Belmont, were met by fifty angry counter-demonstrators, one openly carrying a baseball bat and another an axe handle, as fifty police officers barely kept the groups separated during several, violent confrontations in the Bronx last month.

 

It was literally “high noon” on Saturday, Sept. 19, outside the D’Auria-Murphy Triangle park, located at the intersection of Crescent Avenue and Arthur Avenue in Belmont, when a planned rally and “teach in” were scheduled to be held in the park next to the statue of Christopher Columbus.

 

Upon arrival at the venue, demonstrators opposing the Columbus statue were met at the locked entrance of the park by a crowd of fifty counter-protestors.

Two different organizers were behind the event opposing the Columbus statue. Castle Hill resident, and the organizer of the rally, Felix Cepeda, had started an online campaign to remove the Christopher Columbus statue. Meanwhile, a teach-in was organized by another unnamed young man to educate participants about the history of Columbus and indigenous people. In the lead up to the day, he had circulated a notice about the event called, “TakeDownColumbusNYC” on social media.

 

According to history.com, many indigenous people (and their allies) reject celebrating Columbus, and say he represents “the violent history of the colonization in the Western Hemisphere,” and that Columbus Day is a sanitation or covering-up of Columbus’ actions such as enslaving Native Americans.

 

It was not clear if there was some significance to holding the rally / teach-in on Saturday, Sept. 19. Though not a holiday in New York State, Native American Day is a holiday observed in several others U.S. states in celebration of Native American culture. In California and Nevada, the Native American Day is celebrated on the fourth Friday of September.

 

Following the now-infamous, Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017, in which several people were injured, and one young woman was killed when she was deliberately run over, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed a commission to examine the issue of hate symbols in New York City.

 

The commission determined that statues of Columbus could stay, and suggested that other statues be erected in honor of indigenous people, where Columbus’ actions could be placed in context. Both de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have each publicly supported the commission’s findings.

 

Frank Franz, treasurer of the Belmont Business Improvement District (BID), who was one of the men standing in front of the park before noon, said that the Columbus statue belonged to the local development corporation. He added, “If the City doesn’t want it here, we’ll take it and put it on display somewhere else.”

 

As it drew closer to noon, referring to the counter-protestors, he said, “This is no organized protest,” adding, “I just came down here to see what’s going on. These are merchants and people from the neighborhood that are here in case there’s going to be… I assume, they’re anticipating a violent threat.”

 

Frans took credit for having arranged a fixed NYPD patrol unit that has been stationed outside the park since June, guarding the Columbus statue. The park had also been closed to the public since June. When Norwood News previously reported on the 24-hour, 7-day-a-week patrol unit, we asked the NYPD and the Parks’ department who ordered it, and did not get an answer.

Frans said that the park’s recent closure had been because of crime and drugs in the area. This was confirmed by some local residents. However, Frans’ assertion that the local community had been informed of the closure came as news to several other residents.

 

A Parks’ department official, present during the Columbus statue confrontation, had “no comment” when asked about the recent park closure.

 

Frans concluded, “It’s already been determined the statue in Columbus Circle is staying up. The governor already determined it ain’t coming down. It’s protected by law. The statue in Columbus Park in Brooklyn is not coming down. That decision’s been made. So, who are we in the Bronx? Are you trying to tell me that a different set of rules apply to the Bronx than Manhattan and Brooklyn?”

Draped over the locked, iron gate to the park were two Italian flags and one large American flag. At one point, a counter-protestor who had been seen openly swinging an axe handle seemed to joke with an arriving ranking police official, saying to him, “We can play baseball. Over the fence is a home run.” The officer let out a laugh at the comment.

 

Meanwhile, Cepeda said he had arrived early at the location and had found the park open. “I was in there and got the hell out because they had me surrounded,” he said, referring to the counter-protestors. “I was inside the park when one guy came up to me and started threatening me, so I got the hell out of there.”

 

Minutes later, nearby, a big, burly counter-protester attempted to push a smaller anti-statue protester, who reacted with indignation at the gesture. The burly man then said to him, “If I had my hands on you, you’d know.”

 

As officers began to step in, the same burly man then walked towards Cepeda and asked, “Aren’t you the (expletive) who started this?” Outweighed by a hundred pounds or more, Cepeda replied, “Yeah, me.”

The counter-protester then said to Cepeda, “Go back to Castle Hill before I send you there in a body bag.” At that point, police officers arrived just as Cepeda was firmly in the grasp of the much bigger man. They intervened and escorted the larger man to the other side of the police barricade.

 

Meanwhile, in reference to the words on the “TakeDownColumbusNYC” flyer that had been circulated on social media prior to the event, and which read, “Mayor de Blasio: Take down or decapitate all five statues by October 12,” the young protestor who had circulated the flyer said it was not meant as a threat. He added, “A lot of people read it like that.”

 

Having organized three other similar teach-ins at other Columbus statue locations across the city, Norwood News asked the young man if he had expected the kind of reaction that transpired in Belmont. He replied, “We kind of anticipated it, being Little Italy.” He then asked a young female bystander what a man who had just walked by said as he didn’t hear him. She said he said, “Go home while you can still walk.”

 

Referring to the counter-protestors, Erika, a Belmont resident who attended the event for the teach in, and who had been shouting back at the crowd of mostly angry, older, White counter protestors, said, “That’s why I’m kind of upset because I see these people every day.”

 

Asked by Norwood News if she was worried she might run into the same people around her neighborhood the following day or in the future, she replied, “I’m always with my dogs and they [the dogs] will never let anything happen to me.”

 

On Friday, Sept. 11, New York City Councilman, Mark Gjonaj, confirmed that the annual Columbus Day parade, scheduled for Oct. 12, in the Morris Park section of the Bronx, was cancelled due to the pandemic, postponing another possible community flashpoint until October 2021.

 

However, with the park open again, and the fixed NYPD patrol unit stationed, once again, outside it, the Belmont community had been bracing for another possible confrontation between the two groups, as counter-protestors and local residents had nonetheless planned a day-long, Columbus Day celebration at D’Auria-Murphy Triangle. However, in the end, anticipated rain finally postponed both pro and anti Columbus gatherings.

 

Instead, on the previous day, Sunday, Oct. 11, a group of about a dozen indigenous people and their allies held a rally at Bryan Park at East Fordham Road and East Kingsbridge Road in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx to highlight awareness of “Indigenous People’s Day of Rage Against Colonialism.” The event had been planned to take place on Monday, Oct. 12, but was re-scheduled to Sunday.

 

Since we first reported on this story, the park has since been closed again and a dozen police vehicles were seen surrounding it on park at one point.