To feel emotional at the slave trader statue

[Millicent10]

being pulled down earlier.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52954305

This says so much and the symbolism of throwing it in the river is such a suitable ending. Reminds everyone what happened to so many slaves.

@Gazebo, it's very clearly a strange assumption.

At least the removal had been pre- planned and was carried out carefully and safely.

I dont think it's strange at all. We use all.the information at hand in order to form our view of people.

I dont think it's strange at all. We use all.the information at hand in order to form our view of people.

It just doesn't make logical sense though.

“If we were to tear down monuments to people who had abhorrent views by today's standards, thousands of monuments would have to come down.”

Very true. Because a person who never owned a slave, but invested £500 in a shipping company that shipped slaves and other stuff is a “racist mass murderer” then I suppose every statue to Bhudda must also be destroyed because he, even after enlightenment, owned slaves.

Mass murder of black people is not a “belief.”

I keep seeing posts calling “censorship” or promoting the idea that racism is simply an opinion/belief and that all opinions and beliefs should be treated equally.

No. Not all opinions are equal. The most damaging thing to come from contemporary culture and libertarianism is the idea that all opinions are equally valid. They simply are not. The option of a person who believes the moon is made of cheese is not equally valid with the opinion of the head of NASA. Antivaxxers and Holocaust deniers should not be platformed out of some misguided idea that neutrality means giving both sides equal airspace.

And talking about “censorship” when what you mean is “someone disagreed with me on the Internet” considering journalists are being shot in the face and arrested for attempting to report on BLM is horrendous.

Yanbu
I hope they recover the statue and put it in a museum or something though, without restoration, so it's damaged and paint stained. Both the slave trader and the tearing down of his statue hundreds of years after his death are important parts of our history. The slavery museum in Liverpool might be a good place for it although I suppose it should stay in Bristol.

I follow Leave EU on Facebook. Outraged over there with demands that the statue is replaced as he's a 'British hero' and the 'thugs' who tore it down should be arrested. Interesting take that the right wing/left wing press are having as well.

I've seen a Facebook page saying that the protesters are not any worse than those on the beach last week during the hot spell of weather.
It's all ' tit for tat' isn't it?
Divide and rule!

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/international-slavery-museum

That’s acknowledging history. A Victorian statue of a man who made his money directly from the slave trade with a plaque calling him ’one of the most virtuous and wise sons of (Bristol)’? That’s not.

Also, wonder how much of the Monarchy’s money came from it? Yet another good reason for us to be a Republic.

www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/britains-involvement-with-new-world-slavery-and-the-transatlantic-slave-trade

Because a person who never owned a slave, but invested £500 in a shipping company that shipped slaves and other stuff is a “racist mass murderer”

Please don’t use hyperbole and wild exaggeration. This man was head of a major international slaving company, an estimated 84,000 slaves were trafficked by that company during the time period he was running it, 19,000 of whom died during the journey. His company was one of many known to throw live slaves into the ocean to drown to collect the insurance money.

This is not someone who “just invested a few hundred quid.”

Is it legal to pull statues down now? Good to know.

If this was a Corbyn run government allowing protesters to roam around during a pandemic there would be compete uproar.
I'm not sad the statue has gone but it shows a government that isn't in control of things just now and labour would be torn apart over it if it were them trying to deal with this health emergency.

This is a bit of a kick in the teeth -Bristol Mayor saying the toppling of the statue is a personal affront to him and he hadn't been equipped prior to this to have a meaninful debate about the statue. The petition of 10,000 signatures a while ago passed you by? On Friday the statue was target for demontrators and rightly so. A previous poster says that a poll shows 55% of Bristolians wanted to keep it. That's not true. 55% of a poll carried out by a Bristol newspaper said they wanted to keep it. This was not across Bristol. I didn't believe it then. 55% of Daily Mail readers poll would have a different amount like 2% of say The Guardian. Not comparable to a referendum on it. Ridiculous. I can also remember a friend working in polling saying how she could twist most polls with the questions and the order of the questions as well. You can ask the question 'Should we recognise in some way that Bristol has a past link with slavery' Yes 'Do you think it is right that people who give money to start schools and hospital should be remembered?' Yes 'Is a statue a suitable way to remember a member of the community who gave to charity?' Yes and so on -SOME people as shown on this thread had no idea what he did or who he was. The statue said "Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city" -virtuous and wise???!!!! The Major saying it is an affront to him personally. Saying now he didn't have time and wasn't equipped to discuss the statue. He's been there 4 years!! But this should have been done a long time ago...........
www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/rees-i-know-the-removal-of-the-colston-statue-will-divide-opinion/

The government were not influencing the police yesterday in Bristol who did nothing. The police decided to avoid heavy tactics and allegations against them, which there would have been. They decided to avoid conflict and stood by and watched. I suspect Priti Patel might have something to say about this.

You've got to wonder why some people are so invested in minimising and what about-ery.

@ChocolatelyAsFuck - so you’re ok smashing up things that don’t belong to one individual? Like schools, museums?

As for pps claims that the removal was planned and safe - yeah right. That’s how you remove a statute- drag it down in the middle of a crowd and fly tip it in a river. That wasn’t dangerous to people or damaging to the environment at all.

These threads remind me of all the Covid threads at the beginning. We seem to be moving to an ever more extreme, intolerant and polarized society. It’s scary that so many pps think an act of potentially dangerous public vandalism is acceptable. It’s not and it’s not justified because what you are protesting against is more serious.

Kudos to the police for the way they handled this. They made sure people were safe without escalating things.

The people of Bristol clearly didn’t stand for office in order to get rid of the statue. Perhaps they should have done. You get the quality of leadership you vote for. Obviously the Mayor of Bristol is useless and weak. Bristolians voted for him. So get rid of him next time and ensure better people stand for office.

The statue was apparently erected by the citizen of Bristol and taken down by the citizens of Bristol.

The police still did nothing. That’s the way anarchy lies. People have to believe the police will uphold the law. However they decided they preferred to avoid conflict. That’s a green flag for more of this behaviour. Where’s the next statute ready to go? Or perhaps theatres and schools will be next?

@kendodd I like your idea of putting it paint stained and damaged into a museum so we can learn from it.

@Rowantree2020

This isn’t the way to resolve things in a democracy. Where does this kind of direct action end?

Kneeling on a man’s neck isn’t democratic, people being stopped by the police just because they are black isn’t democratic. The statue of a racist slave trader being toppled - couldn’t give a damn.

Did you care about the toppling of saddam Hussain’s statue?

I don't like the Mayor of Bristol -he's in with the Elite and didn't want to tackle anything that might cause a problem. He ignored what people have been saying for years. Ironically he did want to rock the boat -and now is in a storm. He wants another term in office. Keep 'both sides' happy. How the F is pulling down a statue that people begging and pleaded to be removed a personal 'affront' to him. Deluded springs to mind.

’That’s the way anarchy lies‘

Fairly sure it’s not. Prioritising the safety of people over things and avoiding the unnecessary escalation of a tense situation is something that all US police could learn from.