After a rally Wednesday evening in downtown New Britain, a few dozen people took turns phoning into a common council meeting to demand the city remove its Christopher Columbus statue. “I’m a second-generation Italian and I still think it should be removed,” resident Joan Leone told the council. “Italians have enough to be proud of. There are a lot of people in this community who see Columbus as a racist and murderer.”

New Britain’s statue is latest to be targeted by activists who say memorials to Columbus glorify racism and genocide. City leaders said it will take at least into September before New Britain can decide what to do about the metal statue, which stands as the centerpiece at tiny McCabe Park on the edge of the city’s Little Poland section.