Christopher Columbus Statue Tagged With ‘Black Lives Matter\

Red paint was poured atop a Christopher Columbus statue in Boston overnight Monday, and "Black Lives Matter!" was spray-painted on the statue’s base.

Christoper Columbus statue in Boston vandalized. https://t.co/5SloEqEkyK pic.twitter.com/ZjbiNLovUJ

— necn (@NECN) July 1, 2015

"Why here?" Jeanne Brady of the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park asked WCVB-TV. "It just seems so out of place."

"It's pretty sad," another woman told the station.

While the Columbus statue was cleaned up shortly after the vandalism was discovered Tuesday morning, officials are upset by the act.

[sharequote align="center"]"It's pretty sad."[/sharequote]

"They created a lot of work for our maintenance crew who works really hard every day, and the friends group here who helps maintain the park," Boston Parks Commissioner Chris Cook told WCVB. "That's the thing that's most upsetting to us."

Brady said she doesn't believe the act was carried out by those connected with the Black Lives Matter movement.

"The people who really believe in that cause," she told WCVB, "and I think most of us do — I do — this is not what they would do."

It isn't clear why the Columbus statue was targeted, but numerous confederate monuments have been hit with similar vandalism in the South since controversy erupted over the Confederate flag flying at the South Carolina statehouse following the massacre at a black church in Charleston.

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