![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5k7eCN93TOaNLLxEgeJ6knhIyfN3xVXGdQUVfCJCes0Od5kV2zV-vrcF0yvLWIPqf2F_24_fpOlg5w1JULr7vjjC3_rUXB28ApxX9aZRIMVDFl4njlxvYisJ0Vd04mz4OY4vQAUvPmYI/s530/IMG_8695.jpg)
[Photo by Steven]
The NYPD put up barricades last evening around the Samuel S. Cox statue at the Seventh Street and Avenue A entrance to Tompkins Square Park. Police told residents who asked that they were there to protect the statue. (They've also restricted access to the chess tables.)
There was a large police presence here last night. Three officers are on duty this morning.
The statue, created in 1891, has been in this location since 1924. It was tagged overnight with ACAB and "black power" on July 16-17.
Cox (1824–1889) was a longtime member of Congress who "spearheaded legislation that led to paid benefits and a 40-hour workweek for postal employees."
However, according to the History News Network: "Cox fancied himself a champion of the United States Constitution but somehow his interpretation of the Constitution always seemed to deny rights to Blacks. On June 2, 1862, a year after the Civil War had begun but six months before the Emancipation Proclamation, Cox argued in Congress that the United States was made for white men only."
Earlier this summer, the city announced it was removing the statue of Theodore Roosevelt — long considered a racist symbol — from the American Museum of Natural History's entrance.
The death of George Floyd has led to the removal — by protesters in some cases and city leaders in others — of statues across the country because of the racist ideals they represent.
It wasn't immediately known if any direct action against the Cox statue was in the works.
Updated 7/26
A reader says they police removed the barriers from around the chess tables on Monday afternoon...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTm3AUesdQilEnGFVqsFuGDARrwx-obno6sTht6_bH-MNQNuOeflX1cpUp9jNUQK3QKKXdQwn01WjgEkYRiDVx8d0unrMxY3Qnh7_yfO-n__rpcZq9OWrdTlpzF6tuC_PxLWI8tnr8VOA/s400/IMG_7783.jpg)