Fair point And there are aspects of the protests that don't sit well with me either. Although I would say that things like looting and attacking Police isn't legitimate protest, but a symptom of the chaos that ensues. I would just challenge the notion of wanton vandalism though, the pulling down of the Colston statue was a very direct political action and came off the back of decades of campaigning to have it removed.
Not disagreeing with you, but as I posted previously, only 11,000 signed the petition to have it removed. Out of interest, what would your view have been if it had been put to the people of Bristol by some form of poll and the majority had voted for it to remain?
Well if you put it to committee, then you have to abide by the decision. Personally I think you have to make an executive decision on these things. I would have either removed it and put it in a museum (as what's happening now) Or I would have erected another statue next to it commemorating all of the lives that were lost as a direct result of Colston's slave trading.
I like the idea of having a statue right next to the original with a plaque "The fella next to me was a ****"
I haven’t got a problem with folk taking to the street? The problem for me is that some of these taking to the street are hell bent on causing as much chaos as possible. Over 50 police officers injured and the criminal damage bill is clocking up at every event. This ain’t no peaceful protest bro.
They tried every means possible to get it removed, it went on for years. However, even a second plaque explaining Colston’s slave trader history was blocked. Primarily by Tory councillors, notably one called Richard Eddy, who said “he objected so strongly to the proposed wording of the proposed plaque that if it were put onto the statue of Edward Colston, then vandalising it or stealing it 'may be justified'. The very same Mr Eddy was then ‘appalled and outraged’ by the dumping of the statue into the drink last weekend. In completely unrelated other news, here’s a picture of Mr Richard Eddy
I know the violence grabs the headlines, but in the main it is peaceful protest. There's also the issue of those who are always hell bent on causing chaos at protests, whatever the cause. And I think that attracts both anarchists and right wing agitators. I've seen it myself on demos. There are always groups of people who are just looking for trouble, you can spot them a mile off, they target the Police who respond and then all hell breaks loose.
I’d read it online somewhere, I did put the caveat on it that I had no idea whether it was accurate of not.
