California Gov. Gavin Newsom rewarded the mob who destroyed a statue of St. Junipero Serra at the state Capitol last year by signing a bill Friday to replace the vandalized monument with one that honored California’s indigenous tribes instead.
THIS IS SO WRONG! 😡Junípero Serra y Ferrer, O.F.M., was a Roman Catholic Spanish priest and friar of the Franciscan Order who founded a mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California … In Sacramento California! #protesters #antifascist pic.twitter.com/cURv0O17VL
— Marinela Pavletich (@MarinelaPavleti) July 8, 2020
The bill, AB 338, sponsored by Assemblymember James Ramos (D-Highland), says nothing to condemn the destruction of the monument to Serra, an event described in detail by the Catholic News Agency last year:
On the evening of Independence Day, a crowd in Sacramento tore down a statue of St. Junipero Serra, set fire to it, and beat it with sledgehammers.
…
One man burned the face of the Serra statue with an ignited spray from an aerosol can, before it was pulled from its base using tow straps. After the statue fell, members of the crowd struck the statue with a sledgehammer and other objects, dancing and jumping upon it.
Ramos said in a statement that “we did not condone the vandalism,” but said that it led to “a more complete and accurate telling of Native history.” Ironically, the text of his bill includes a provision to protect the new indigenous monument from vandalism.
Several other statues of Serra have been attacked in recent years across the state, and two others were also destroyed by rioters in California during the Black Lives Matter unrest last summer.
AB 388 repeats false accusations against Serra, blaming him for everything that happened to indigenous people in the area during the 18th century: “Enslavement of both adults and children, mutilation, genocide, and assault on women were all part of the mission period initiated and overseen by Father Serra.”
Historians and Catholic authorities have pointed out that while Serra wanted to convert indigenous people, he also treated them with compassion and learned to speak their language.
Newsom’s statement on the bill also failed to condemn or even mention the statue’s destruction.
Today’s action sends a powerful message across CA of the state’s commitment to reckoning with our past & working to advance a #CaliforniaForAll.
These bills honor CA's Native peoples, restore ancestral lands, & support tribal governments & communities.https://t.co/jlb0IjiU0g
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) September 24, 2021
The governor also signed a slew of other bills on indigenous issues, including one that would replace Columbus Day — observed in California as a judicial holiday — with a holiday that honored Native Americans history.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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