The protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement in Bristol have pulled down a statue of a 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston, and thrown it in the city's harbor.
Vandalism in the city
The video of the incident was posted on Twitter and it immediately went viral, it showed hundreds of demonstrators surrounding the area with dozens of people tearing the figure of Edward Colston during the protest in Bristol.
When they successfully got the statue down, the protesters knelt on its neck, which is the same way that George Floyd died, and rolled it into the Avon at Bristol Harbor.
The outrage sparked after the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis on May 25. Priti Patel, home secretary of the United Kingdom, said that the vandalism and the throwing of the statue in the river were completely unacceptable, utterly disgraceful, and sheer vandalism.
Somerset Police and Avon Police have launched an investigation to trace and identify those who were involved in the incident.
Superintendent Andy Bennett said that the majority of those who came to the protest to fight injustice and racial inequality did so respectfully and peacefully. However, there was a group of protesters who committed an act of criminal damage by pulling down a statue near Bristol Harbourside.
The footage of the incident will be used to investigate the crime and identify everyone who was involved. The controversial statue of Edward Colston was made by John Cassidy, and the bronze statue stood in the center of Bristol since 1895.
There were more than 10,000 people who have signed a petition to have the statue removed but the Bristol City Council has not responded. Before the statue was pulled down, a 71-year-old protestor named John McAllister, removed the black bin bags that were hiding the statues in the city.
McAllister stated that the man as a slave trader, and even though the streets of Bristol was named after him for his contribution to the city, people should not forget that his generosity was off the back of slavery and it is despicable.
McAllister added that having the statue in the center of the city after so many lives of black people were lost because of years of oppression, is an insult to the people of Bristol.
Who was Edward Colston?
Edward Colston worked for the Royal African Company and he later served as the Tory Member of Parliament for Bristol. He was a slave trader who shipped 84,000 Africans to the Americas. A lot of schools, buildings, and charities are named after him in Bristol, as it is the city where he was born.
The Labour Members of Parliament tweeted about the removal of Edward Colston's statue, with Clive Lewis writing that if statues of confederates who fought a war for white supremacy and slavery should come down, then this should not be an exemption.
Edward Colston was responsible for the blood and suffering of thousands of Africans. Lewis added that people won't be able to solve structural racism until people get to know about the history and all of its complexity.
The Member of Parliament for Brent Central, Dawn Butler, used a clenched fist emoji and tweeted "this caused me to exhale".
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