Has Colston verdict given licence to topple statues?

HOW can you be let off scot free for vandalising public property? Vandals may now claim a precedent and expect to be cleared of any charge or responsibility. It would be better to try to improve the present ills of the world, not protest about the past that can’t be changed.

EILEEN WASS, Mansfield, Notts.

IDIOTS who think they have a legal right to tear down any statues that offend their immature beliefs have been given the green light to cause havoc.

IAN FULLER, Harrogate, N. Yorks.

IRRESPECTIVE of the jury’s verdict, it is surely the responsibility of Bristol City Council to seek to recover the costs incurred in the recovery of the statue.

B. CHANNING, Pembroke.

WE OBVIOUSLY need a new definition of criminal damage.

MICHAEL HARRIS, Bletchingley, Surrey.

I DO not often agree with MPs, but I am afraid that the decision to acquit the four individuals charged with criminal damage in Bristol is a huge mistake and, effectively, is giving permission to every thug and lunatic to cause whatever damage they want – and claim it is in the name of whatever type of justice is currently the theme of the day.

JOHN DOUGHERTY, Blairgowrie, Perthshire.

IF THE real crime was leaving the statue where it was, then it looks as though one crime justifies another.

R. BRADSHAW, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan.

A STATUE was erected in Edward Colston’s honour because he was a philanthropist. The Colston Four and the jury might like to reflect on how someone who could do so much good thought the bad he did was somehow justified. History is there to be learned from, not erased. Those ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it.

RUSS BALL, Leicester.

INSTEAD of the childish act of knocking down the statue, the protesters should have erected a plaque describing Colston’s horrifying behaviour.

MURIEL THOMPSON, Greenock.

I WAS so pleased to hear the PM say vandals should not be allowed to change our history. If woke vigilantes are above the law, God help us.

JANET PRINCE, Bournemouth, Dorset.

KNOCKING down statues should be made a statutory offence.

LESLEY STODDART, Glasgow.

AS POET and activist Maya Angelou said: ‘History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived but, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.’

JIM FISHER, Kenley, Surrey.