Protesters destroyed the statue of a notorious British slave trader on Sunday and left it in a port on the second day of protests against the death of George Floyd.
The images show that a few dozen people tie a rope around the neck of the statue of Edward Colston and bring it down to the ground in the city of Bristol, in the south-west.
They stamped it for a few minutes before carrying it and lifting it into the harbor with great joy.
Red paint was splashed on Colston’s face and a protester put his knee to the neck of the statue to remember how George Floyd – an unarmed African American – was asphyxiated by a white policeman in the American city of Minneapolis last month.
“The man was a slave trader. He was good for Bristol, but he was on the back of slavery and it is absolutely not. It is an insult to the Bristol people,” said John McAllister, 71-year-old protester, at the Britain’s Press Association. .
“Today, I witness history,” tweeted another witness named William Want.
“The statue of Edward Colston, a Bristol slave trader, was demolished, degraded and thrown into the river. #BlackLivesMatter.”
But Interior Minister Priti Patel called the overthrow “completely shameful.” City police have promised to investigate.
“This is a testament to the public disorder that has now become a distraction from the cause people are protesting against,” Patel told Sky News.
“It is a totally unacceptable act and speaks again about vandalism, as we saw yesterday in London”.
London police said they made 29 arrests on Saturday during a day of largely peaceful protests, including some scuffles with officers protecting the government district around Downing Street.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the sporadic violence but did not directly address the overthrow of the statue.
“These protests have been overthrown by assault – and they betray the cause they claim to be serving,” said Johnson in a tweet.
“Those responsible will be held accountable.”
“Good”
The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, adopted a more conciliatory tone than that adopted by the British Minister for the Interior.
“I know that the removal of the Colston statue will divide opinions, as the statue itself has done for many years,” the mayor said in a statement.
“However, it is important to listen to those who found the statue to be an affront to humanity.”
Colston grew up in a wealthy family of merchants and joined a company in 1680 that had a monopoly on the West African slave trade.
The Royal African Company (RAC) was officially headed by the brother of King Charles II who later took the throne under the name of James II.
The company marked slaves – including women and children – with its RAC initials on the chest.
He is said to have sold around 100,000 West Africans in the Caribbean and the Americas between 1672 and 1689.
Colston then developed a reputation as a philanthropist who donated to charitable causes such as schools and hospitals in Bristol and London.
His 5.5-meter bronze statue has stood on Colston Avenue in Bristol since 1895. The city also has a school named in his honor.
The Guardian newspaper said that a local petition to remove the statue had gathered 11,000 signatures this weekend.
British Opposition Labor Party MP Clive Lewis welcomed the crowd’s overthrow.
“Good,” Lewis tweeted.
“Someone responsible for immeasurable blood and suffering. We will never solve structural racism until we master our story in all its complexity. #BLM”
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
