San Francisco protesters go on anti-statue rampage, tear down U.S. Grant, Cervantes, Catholic saint

Rioters and activists in San Francisco went on a multi-statue rampage last night, defacing and ripping down numerous monuments around the city as part of an anti-statue fever currently sweeping the country. 

Depictions of Union general and former President Ulysses S. Grant, the Catholic saint Junipero Serra, the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, and "Star Spangled Banner" author Francis Scott Key were all vandalized or torn down yesterday. 

The statue of Serra — known as the Apostle of California for his 18th-century missionary work in what was then the Viceroyalty of New Spain — depicted the priest holding a cross and with an outstretched arm. Protesters were seen stomping on it and kicking it after it toppled; they later vandalized it further with paint. 

A statue of Ulysses S. Grant, the famed Union general known for leading American troops to bring a decisive end to the American Civil War, was also ripped down. 

A statue of Christopher Columbus had earlier been removed from the city's Pioneer Park by municipal authorities out of concerns that it, too, would be torn down in the eventual demonstrations.