According to the Chicago Police Department, the Abraham Lincoln statue in Chicago’s Lincoln Park was vandalized with red spray paint in the early morning hours of Monday or late Sunday night.
The statue of Lincoln was covered in red spray paint in the 1700 block of North Stockton Drive, near the Chicago History Museum, in an apparent act of protest on Indigenous Peoples Day according to a CBS News report.
In addition to the iconic Lincoln statue, the vandals also sprayed several messages on the statue’s pedestal and the wall behind it, including “Lincoln Was An Executioner” and “May All Empires Fall From Turtle Island To Palestine.”
The Abraham Lincoln statue was spray painted on Monday morning. https://t.co/UrP9Fjr1eC
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) October 15, 2024
Turtle Island is a name for North America used by some indigenous people. The reference to Lincoln as an executioner is an apparent reference to his ordering the executions of 38 Dakota men after they were involved in a violent conflict with white settlers in Minnesota.
Police are continuing to investigate and no arrests have been made.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time the statue has been vandalized. In 2022, the statue was spray painted with graffiti on the base with red paint splashed on the head and back.