There is a renewed push to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus on Porter Avenue in Buffalo in the wake of unrest locally and nationally. A petition was created on Thursday night calling for the statue to be removed in Buffalo. Our requests for comment from the petition organizer have not been returned.

“By keeping this statue in place, we are signaling that Buffalo stands by Columbus’ actions, which also include sex trading young indigenous girls, took people from their homelands, and forced them into slavery, and was an overall terribly cruel man,” the petition reads.