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New Britain Rally Demands City Remove Columbus Statue

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.”

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.