* Warning: This is an unofficial, introductory copy of the bill.
The official copy considered by the City Council is the first reader copy.
Introductory*
City of Baltimore
Council Bill
Introduced by: Councilmember Dorsey
A Bill Entitled
An Ordinance concerning
title
City Property - Renaming the Columbus Obelisk Monument to the Police Violence Victims Monument
For the purpose of changing the name of the Columbus Obelisk Monument, located in Heinz Park (Block 4197 Lot 002), to the Police Violence Victims Monument.
body
By authority of
Article 5 - Finance, Property, and Procurement
Section 20-2
Baltimore City Code
(Edition 2000)
Recitals
Undoing white supremacy requires us to reject historical narratives that serve as its underpinnings, which we know to be false. This includes the heroizing, mythologizing, and white washing of some of history’s worst actors, from Columbus to the Confederacy, the continuation of which constitutes an act of propaganda.
Today, monuments still stand as manifestations of these lies, even while the same system of white supremacy continues its reign of physical and systemic violence against Black and Brown people. This violence takes many forms including pervasive and appalling police violence.
In 2020 we face yet another moment of reckoning with racism and white supremacy, which again has been sparked by an incident of police violence; five years after the killing of Freddie Gray; remembering the deaths of Korryn Gaines, Anton Black, Tyrone West, Dale Graham, and other Marylanders who were killed by police; acknowledging the difficult struggle faced by survivors of police violence like Keith Davis, Abdul Salaam, Jamar Kennedy; and in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and so many others nationwide.
This moment has brought many new people to join the police abolition movement, and it has moved governments and citizens all across the country to take down their monuments. Rather than continue to allow monuments to stand to murderers, brutalizers, and oppressors, we should honor the memories of
victims who have lost their lives, and create space for those survivors who continue to persevere.
And so a beacon will stand in tribute to those who are victims of police violence and brutality, and their families and friends who bear the weight of trauma, signifying for all to see that their lives and stories matter, and that our work will be to change the system that wronged them.
Section 1. Be it ordained by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, That the name of the Columbus Obelisk Monument, located in Heinz Park (Block 4197 Lot 002), is changed to the Police Violence Victims Monument.
Section 2. And be it further ordained, That this Ordinance takes effect on the 30th day after the date it is enacted.