The State could have protected the Columbus statue - they chose not to - American Experiment

The State could have protected the Columbus statue - they chose not to - American Experiment
"In 1931, 24,000 Minnesotans gathered at the State Capitol to dedicate a statue of Christopher Columbus.
The statue was paid for by Italian immigrants – Columbus was the first of them – as a gift to their new home here.
On Wednesday, it was torn down.
IS VIOLENCE NOW THE FIRST RESORT?

I make no defense here of Columbus or his statue. But in a functioning liberal democracy, shouldn’t there be a better way for dealing with these matters than allowing mobs to trash anything they find disagreeable?

...State authorities claim they would have if only they could have but they couldn’t. Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington explained that State Patrol troopers “were not able to get out there” in time to guard the statue.

But a timeline of events, put together by KSTP, makes this untenable:

The threat to the Christopher Columbus statue on the south lawn of the Minnesota State Capitol was no secret. It was posted on Facebook at about 11 a.m. Wednesday that protesters would tear the statue down at 5 p.m. It was so well known KSTP Reporter Tom Hauser asked Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington about it at 3:35 p.m.

3:35 p.m.

“I’ve heard that through social media,” Harrington responded....

...5:03 p.m.

Just after 5 p.m., while Hauser was about to go on the air reporting on the plans for a special session of the Minnesota Legislature later this week, the KSTP newsroom witnessed a live feed of the statue being torn down by protesters. After the protesters refused to accept a piece of paper with the steps necessary to legally have a statue removed, the trooper walked away and left the statue unprotected. Two protesters then climbed the statue with no State Patrol in sight and tore the statue down. Just a few minutes later, more than a dozen State Troopers emerged from the State Capitol and circled the pedestal that had held the statue of Christopher Columbus since 1931.

It is clear that the state authorities could have protected the statue if they had chosen to. They chose not to. 

Afterwards, Commissioner Harrington flatly lied to the press...

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