After more than 150 years in the Santa Fe Plaza, Monday night a controversial monument no longer stands; It comes after three days of protests. Two men were arrested in connection to the toppling of the obelisk, KOB 4 reported.

The two men arrested were Sean Sunderland, 24, who is charged with resisting and criminal trespass, and Dylan Wrobel, 27, who is charged with battery on a peace officer and resisting an officer. Monday night, Mayor Alan Webber condemned the incident in the Plaza saying “there is no place for people taking the law into their own hands and there is no place for people destroying historic monuments on their own.”

City workers were constructing a barrier around it Monday to protect it but protestors managed to wrap ropes around it and rip it down. Video from the Santa Fe New Mexican shows no police on-site as protestors took over.

Witnesses told the New Mexican that police were there earlier in the day to forcibly remove demonstrators who were laying on the monument but they left. This comes after a three-day occupation at the Plaza with protestors angry that this obelisk was still standing.

It was erected in 1866 to honor Civil War-era soldiers who died in battle and has been criticized for being oppressive to Native Americans. Earlier this year, Mayor Webber ordered the obelisk removed, it was too heavy, so only the plaque was removed.

The mayor promised further discussion on its future. Monday on Indigenous People’s Day, these protestors supporting Native Americans took drastic measures. Some people applaud the move, others are angry.

Monday, it took about 40 people almost 20 minutes to pull down the obelisk with chains and ropes but there were tense moments on the Plaza with both sides of the debate arguing. City crews removed what was left of the obelisk.

On the 96th consecutive night of demonstrations in Oregon’s largest city since the killing by police in Minneapolis of an unarmed black man sparked protests across the nation, around 200 people marched to the apartment where mayor Ted Wheeler lives, the Independent reported.

Wearing black hats to “celebrate” the mayor’s 58th birthday, people stood in the street and demanded that he resign, complaining that he had failed to reform the city’s police force.

At least one window was broken and a firework was reportedly set off in the building. Someone also dragged a picnic bench to the intersection and set it on fire.

Shortly afterwards, officers from the Portland Police Department (PPD) moved in, using loudspeakers to declare a riot and warning people to disperse or else face arrest.

“This was the arson fire that prompted a riot declaration tonight,” the PPD wrote on Twitter, of an image of the blaze. “It was critical to secure the area to allow firefighters to respond to this dangerous situation.”

One protesters, who asked to use the initials FO, was using a loud hailer to call on Mr Wheeler to resign and the police officers to quit as well.

“They need to quit, and they need to defund the police,” she said.

Events on Monday night were just the latest flare-up in Portland, a Democratic-controlled city which has been attacked by Donald Trump and his supporters as an alleged hot bed of anarchy.

“Portland has been burning for many years, for decades it’s been burning,” he told Fox News.

About 300 demonstrators defied the city’s 8pm curfew again after Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency earlier following a night of violence and destruction that saw rioters set fire to businesses and vehicles across the city.

Kenosha has become the US’ latest flashpoint in a summer of racial unrest after police officers shot 29-year-old Blake, an unarmed black man, multiple times in the back during a confrontation on Sunday, leaving him paralyzed.

The shooting comes three months after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis which sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.

As tensions flared for a third night, police in riot gear fired rubber bullets, tear gas and flash-bang rounds as they skirmished after dark with defiant demonstrators outside a courthouse and adjacent park in downtown Kenosha, the Daily Mail reported.

But there was no immediate sign of buildings or cars being set ablaze, as happened on Monday night.

Demonstrators, some of whom were wearing helmets and equipped with makeshift protective gear, were seen trying to storm a black iron fence that had been installed earlier to protect the court from rioters.

Meanwhile, officers dressed in riot gear stood guard behind the barrier, holding up shields as protesters shouted expletives and hurled bottles at them.

Footage from the scene also showed people throwing fireworks in the direction of cops as they ignored their orders to disperse.

In one video shared by a journalist on Twitter, one man was seen trying to set fire to an American flag before being deterred by pepperballs fired by police.

Kenosha County sheriffs deputies warned crowds over loud speaker that they were participating in an unlawful gathering while urging them to leave the area.

The crowd responded by chanting “black lives matter”, prompting police to fire rubber bullets.

Several military-style armored patrol vehicles were also called in and were seen maneuvering around the county courthouse, firing tear gas at the crowd.

About three hours after declaring the protest an unlawful assembly, authorities had managed to push Tuesday night’s crowd out of the downtown park, with demonstrators scattering down streets.

disturbances came hours after Governor Evers vowed to deploy additional National Guard troops in a bid to restore order in the town, while Blake’s mother publicly appealed for calm during a press conference held outside the court.

Blake, 29, a father of six, was struck from behind at point-blank range in a hail of bullets fired on Sunday by police who were following him with guns drawn as he walked away from officers to his car and opened a door to the vehicle.

Three of his young sons inside the automobile – aged three, five and eight – witnessed their father being gunned down, according to civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Blake family.

A bystander captured the encounter in video footage that immediately went viral, unleashing outrage over the latest in a long series of instances in which police have been accused of using indiscriminate lethal force against African Americans.

Blake, who had been attempting to break up a quarrel between two women, was struck by multiple gunshots fired at him, all by one officer.

Crump also revealed Blake was undergoing surgery for his injuries, adding that the bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered his vertebrae. Another attorney said there was also severe damage to organs.

“It’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again,” Crump said.

Local organizers spoke before the crowd gathered in their pursuit of justice. The group began marching a short time later, taking their message down Fifth Avenue and into Washington Square Park. Multiple marches and protests broke out across the city throughout the evening, their message echoing down city blocks, NYC reported.

“We want to be out here because the police, they’re not saving us, they’re hurting us. We need to shut it down,” one protester said. “If they don’t do something with the policing, the world’s not gonna be alright.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating the shooting, did not released any details about the involved officers except to say they have been placed on administrative leave. Wisconsin’s governor summoned the National Guard to head off another round of violent protests in the state Monday.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said 125 members of the National Guard would be in Kenosha by night with responsibility for “guarding infrastructure and making sure our firefighters and others involved are protected.” County authorities also announced an 8 p.m. curfew.

The move came after protesters set cars on fire, smashed windows and clashed with officers in riot gear Sunday night over the wounding of the 29-year-old man, who was hospitalized in serious condition

The Kenosha Police Department has said its officers were responding to a call about a domestic dispute in the moments before the shooting.

Laquisha Booker, who is Blake’s partner, told NBC’s Milwaukee affiliate, WTMJ-TV, that the couple’s three children were in the back seat of the SUV when police shot him.

“That man just literally grabbed him by his shirt and looked the other way and was just shooting him. With the kids in the back screaming. Screaming,” Booker said.

The Portland protesters so far were peaceful, with demonstrators chanting “take it to the streets!”

But on Saturday afternoon a rally by a small group of alt-right demonstrators quickly devolved as they traded paintballs and pepper spray with counter-protesters.

About 30 people were participating in the Patriot Prayer rally in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center in Oregon’s biggest city. Several were armed with automatic weapons, KOIN-TV reported.

The group clashed with counter-protesters through downtown streets, and some counter-protesters blocked the exit of a garage where several Patriot Prayer members had parked.

A KOIN photojournalist reported hearing at least two gunshots at the garage.

In an emailed statement Saturday, Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said the bureau was not aware of evidence that there was gunfire, AP reported.

Earlier in the day, police said they made four arrests overnight as they dispersed a protest that was headed toward the offices of the police union.

The bureau declared the demonstration of a couple of hundred people an unlawful assembly Friday night, saying people were throwing fireworks, golf balls, and chunks of concrete at officers. Officers said they used crowd-control munitions but no CS tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Demonstrations, often violent, have happened nightly in Portland for more than two months following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Participants have repeatedly broken into the offices of the Portland Police Association, vandalized them, and set fires.

On Thursday night, a Black Lives Matter demonstration took place in the Washington, DC, neighborhood of Adams-Morgan, outside of the Third District police station.

Protesters told WJLA-TV, an ABC-affiliated TV station in the US capital that they were “marching to let people know they are still here”, Sputnik reported.

The police stressed that “there is a difference between peaceful protestors & individuals destroying property or setting fires,” insisting they have made arrests “only of those that were engaged” in the rioting activity.

ABC’ affiliate in Washington, WJLA-TV, reported that protesters, affiliated to the Black Lives Matter movement, were “marching to let people know they are still here”, before police surrounded them in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood and made the arrest. Witnesses told the station protesters were pepper-sprayed by the law enforcement agents.

The DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department said in a statement on Twitter Friday that its crews handled “several outside fires that were set” by demonstrators on Thursday night. The department said, “There were no structural fires”.

“#DCsBravest worked closely with our partners at @DCPoliceDept to extinguish several outside fires that were set. 2 engine companies and a battalion chief handled these incidents. There were no structural fires,” the DC Fire and EMS tweeted.

WTOP reported that protesters surrounded at least one police officer during the demonstration.

In late-May, the death of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis officers triggered nationwide anti-police brutality and anti-racism protests all across the United States that sometimes turned into violent clashes between law enforcement officers and protesters, seeing acts of vandalism and looting.

Although such monuments had been removed before 2020, it was typically at a much slower rate, according to the SPLC. Only 16, for example, were removed in 2019, while the number for 2020 is 59 so far.

That figure includes 38 monuments removed or toppled, five relocated and 16 schools, parks, or other sites renamed. It does not include Mississippi voting to remove the Confederate battle flag from its state flag, The Hill reported.

The number also does not include various other monuments that do not honor Confederates but have been torn down or removed due to other associations with racism.

Several statues of Christopher Columbus have been toppled, defaced, or removed by local governments. Philadelphia, meanwhile, has removed its statue of former Mayor Frank Rizzo (D), who ran for re-election under the slogan “Vote White.” Washington, DC’s NFL team has announced it will change its name after years of vowing it would remain in place.

Similar changes have occurred overseas; Belgium has removed a bust of King Leopold II, believed to have killed up to 15 million people during his private ownership of the Congo for rubber production. In Bristol, England, protesters pushed a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into the harbor.

Proponents of removing Confederate monuments in particular often cite that, in most cases, they were erected either during the Civil Rights era or after the end of Reconstruction, NPR notes. More than 700 such monuments remain on public land.

Several states whose statues in the US Capitol honor Confederate figures have also begun removing them. Georgia leaders, for example, have endorsed replacing Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens with the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), while a Virginia state commission has voted to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee.

Hundreds of protesters took to Logan Square in Chicago on Thursday to call for defunding the Chicago Police among other things as federal law enforcement officers are set to be deployed by US President Donald Trump to deal with a spike in violence in the city.

On Wednesday, July 22, Trump announced a surge of federal law enforcement into cities ran by Democrats, including Chicago, as part of his “law and order” campaign.

Chicago is experiencing a growing number of gun-related incidents, with the city’s official statistics reporting over 400 murders so far this year, compared to 275 during the same period last year.

The US president did not blame the anti-racism demonstrations directly but suggested that they “presumably” led Americans to lower their guard against the pandemic.

“There are likely a number of causes for the spike in infections cases,” Trump told reporters at his second briefing on the virus in two days following a three-month impasse. “Cases started to rise among young Americans shortly after demonstrations, which you know very well about, which presumably triggered a broader relaxation of mitigation efforts nationwide”, The Guardian reported.

Public health experts say there is little evidence that the protests spread COVID-19 in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Washington or other cities. They took place outdoors, where the virus spreads less easily, and most participants wore face masks, which Trump has conceded is an effective preventive measure.

Dhaval Dave, the lead author of a study at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, told the Associated Press that in many cities, the protests actually seemed to lead to a net increase in physical distancing, as more people who did not protest decided to stay off the streets.

Trump, who has sought to conflate the protests with looting and violence, did not say they were the sole reason for the virus resurgence. Speaking at the White House, he went on: “A substantial increase in travel also was a cause, increased gathering on holidays such as Memorial Day as well as young people closely congregating at bars, and probably other places. Maybe beaches.

“Four or five different listed places – we have 12 that are listed on the guide – likely also contributed.”

But he then made a surprise segue to a favorite talking point, claiming that his wall on the US-Mexico border had helped prevent further infection.

“We’re also sharing a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, as we know very well, and cases are surging in Mexico, unfortunately,” Trump said. “I was with the (Mexican) president and it’s a big problem for Mexico, but cases are surging very sharply and all across the rest of the western hemisphere.”

He added: “Two hundred and fifty miles of newly constructed wall along the southern border has had a great positive impact on people coming in, and we have record low numbers of people coming in illegally that’s helped greatly. It was really meant for a different purpose but it worked out very well for what we’re doing right now and for the pandemic.”

Critics have pointed out that the uptick in coronavirus cases, now killing more than 1,000 people a day, coincided with states reopening bars, restaurants and other businesses at Trump’s urging and against guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump appeared solo again at Wednesday’s briefing, without public health experts, and claimed the pandemic response “is all going to work out – it is working out”.

Afterwards Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said: “Instead of confronting this crisis head-on, Donald Trump has waved the white flag of defeat, with top advisers saying that Trump’s ‘not really working this anymore’ and that he ‘doesn’t want to be distracted by it’.

“Trump’s failure to lead is so complete that even top Republicans are speaking up, with a key aide to Texas governor Greg Abbott describing Trump as ‘bored’ of dealing with COVID-19.”