Fighting racism does not justify betrayal of those working flat-out to rid us of the coronavirus
sir – The comment by the footballer Raheem Sterling (Sport, June 8) that “the only disease right now is the racism we are fighting” is an insult to those of any colour who have suffered or died from Covid-19 and also to those working flat-out to ensure this country can return to some form of normality. Chris Davis
Stevenage, Hertfordshire
sir – The protesters are telling us that Black Lives Matter. Yet by defying the social-distancing instruction they put their own lives at risk (and the majority were in the category of black and minority ethnic), and, should they become infected, will expect to receive treatment, imposing further risk on the gallant NHS.
The police are also at risk, not only because of the protesters ignoring social distancing, but by having missiles hurled at them. Sadly, of course, any firmer action would be conveniently regarded as repressive police brutality. What is the answer? John E Thornton
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
sir – The statue of Winston Churchill had “was a racist” spray-painted on it. Why was the nearby statue of Gandhi not also defaced? Gandhi wrote racist comments about black Africans when he was in South Africa. The university of Ghana removed his statue in 2018 because of this. Should we not take his statue down immediately?
R G Thomson
Taunton, Somerset
sir – Tearing down Edward Colston’s statue reminded one of the fall of Ceaucescu or Saddam Hussein, and of course Stalin and Lenin’s statues at the end of the Soviet Union.
Those acts were spontaneously done once the despicable policies of those people could be denounced.
Edward Colston was born in 1636, nearly 400 years ago, and was a slave trader and also a philanthropist. Throwing history in the dock is no way to learn from it.
Fenella Ignatiev
London SW7
sir – I deplore the thuggery at the weekend demonstrations but cannot entirely condemn the removal of Edward Colston’s statue – a symbol of inhumanity. Colston’s philanthropy was based on exploitation of a most abhorrent sort. Better to destroy this symbol than to loot or do violence against the police.
David Leech
Balcombe, West Sussex sir – I was disgusted to see the police in Bristol allow a mob to commit serious acts of vandalism. What will police in London do when a mob in Trafalgar Square uproots the statue of the slave-owner George Washington, and throws it in the fountain?
Washington was every bit as bad as Colston (a man who never lived in Bristol as an adult and was, for all his sins, a philanthropist who endowed schools, almshouses, hospitals and churches in London as well as Bristol).
A contemporary said of America’s first president that “he treated his slaves with more severity than any other man”. He certainly sold some to buyers in the West Indies with the intent of splitting up the families of those slaves who had displeased him.
In 1781, 17 of Washington’s slaves escaped to seek the protection of the King aboard HMS Savage, anchored in the Potomac near Washington’s plantation at Mount Vernon. They clearly understood the difference between American oppression of their race, and the life they would enjoy as free men and women if they made it to England.
It’s a pity today’s protesters do not share their perception.
Nicholas Young
London W13 sir – I have heard so often that it was “only a minority” of troublemakers. Why, if it was only a minority, were the police unable to prevent the toppling and defacing of statues?
Alan Sabatini
Bournemouth, Dorset sir – I read (report, June 8) that the police said it would have caused more disorder to stop the removal of Colston’s statue. So it’s mob rule, then, is it?
Jack Marriott
Churt, Surrey
sir – Violent demonstrations of anarchy in Bristol. I would lay a modest wager against there being any prosecutions. They would be too dangerous to contemplate.
David Abell
Christchurch, New Zealand
sir – The cowardly statement by the Bristol officer in charge on Sunday and the pathetic policemen who knelt at the protest in London are sure signs that the police are being badly led. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has a serious illness on her hands which requires urgent surgery.
Anthony Brookes
Charlwood, Surrey