About 100 police officers and state troopers responded Tuesday night to the Christopher Columbus statue at Elmwood and Reservoir avenues after a flyer circulated online threatening to tear it down, according to authorities. Cmdr. Thomas Verdi said some people who’d come out to Columbus Square eventually left without causing damage, and others were dissuaded from coming in the first place because of the large police presence.

There were no arrests, Verdi said. A flyer also circulated online in the lead-up to looting and rioiting in Providence earlier this month. The Columbus statue in Providence has been the target of vandalism over the years. Critics say the Italian explorer was little more than a colonizer and an oppressor of native people and shouldn’t be venerated with a statue. In October, the words "Stop celebrating genocide" were painted on the statue.