Statue of 17th-century slave trader is thrown into harbour by crowds
PROTESTORS in Bristol pulled down the controversial statue of a 17th-century slave trader yesterday. The bronze memorial to Edward Colston, situated in Bristol city centre since 1895, was torn down after crowds left College Green as part of a Black Lives Matter demonstration.
It had been the subject of an 11,000-strong petition to have it removed.
Images showed crowds rushing to stamp on the statue, which stood in Colston Avenue, before it was rolled along the road and pushed into the harbour.
According to Historic England, the statue was sculpted by John Cassidy, of Manchester, with an inscription that read “erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city AD 1895”.
Colston’s involvement in the slave trade through the Britishbased Royal African Company was the source of much of the money which he bestowed in Bristol, the website added.
The statue was one of a number of landmarks in Bristol to take Colston’s name, although the nearby music venue Colston Hall will be renamed this year as part of a major refurbishment.
Thousands had marched through the city centre after a crowd of at least 5,000 packed into the College Green area to hear from speakers and hold an eight-minute silence.
Many protesters wore masks and gloves, but the majority were unable to adhere to the two-metre social distancing guidance and were pressed against one another in the city’s narrow streets.
Thousands of protestors also joined an anti-racism rally outside the US embassy in London yesterday as Black Lives Matter demonstrations took place in cities across the UK.
Crowds of demonstrators wore face coverings and held placards outside the embassy in Battersea, south-west London, in protest against police brutality following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The Metropolitan Police warned drivers of disruption on Nine Elms Lane, while video footage showed protesters flooding the roads outside the embassy.
Free masks, gloves and hand gel were being given out to the thousands of people, with some wearing T-shirts reading “I can’t breathe”.
Another protester had written “get your knee off our necks” in luminous ink on the back of his jacket, echoing the words black civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton who spoke at Mr Floyd’s memorial service last week.
Meanwhile, London Black Lives Matter organised an online protest via Zoom for those who are unable to attend demonstrations in person.
Elsewhere, hundreds of people crowded into Manchester’s St Peter’s Square, kneeling in silence as a mark of respect for Mr Floyd, who died after a white police officer held him down by pressing a knee into his neck on May 25.
England’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it is “undoubtedly a risk” that there will be an increase in Covid-19 cases following the protests, as he urged people not to gather in groups of more than six people.
Mr Hancock said he supported the activists’ arguments, but said: “Please don’t gather in groups of more than six people because there is also a pandemic that we must address and control.
“And so we’ve got to make the argument, we’ve got to make further progress on top of the significant progress that has been made in recent years, but we’ve got to do it in a way that’s safe and controls the virus.”
Protesters also took to the streets on Saturday for events held in London, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle, among other cities.
Demonstrations in central London were carried out peacefully for much of the afternoon, but disturbances began breaking out at around 6pm outside Downing Street.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said 14 officers were injured during clashes with a minority of protesters, while 14 people were arrested.
A rally in Rome’s sprawling People’s Square yesterday was noisy but peaceful, with the majority of protesters wearing masks to protect against coronavirus.
Participants listened to speeches and held up handmade placards saying Black Lives Matter and It’s a White Problem.
In Berlin, police said 93 people were detained in connection with a demonstration in the German capital on Saturday – most of them after the main rally of 15,000 had ended.
Police said several officers and one press photographer were injured in Berlin when bottles and rocks were thrown from a crowd that had gathered despite police orders to clear the city’s Alexander Square.
In France’s southern port city of Marseille, police fired tear gas and pepper spray in skirmishes with protesters who hurled bottles and rocks after what had been an emotional yet peaceful demonstration.
The Marseille protest was one of several on Saturday that attracted 23,000 people across France, where Mr Floyd’s death has shone a spotlight on similar French police abuses and given voice to complaints from minorities that they are frequent targets of harassment and worse from French police.
In Hong Kong, about 20 people staged a rally in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement yesterday outside the US consulate in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
“It’s a global issue,” said Quinland Anderson, a 28-year-old British citizen living in Hong Kong.
“We have to remind ourselves despite all we see going on in the US and in the other parts of the world, black lives do indeed matter.”
Organisers called off the Hong Kong rally late on Saturday because of the city’s coronavirus restrictions.
Those that still showed up gathered in groups of eight to follow size limits on public gatherings.
Rome’s first major rally against racism had many organisers, including a 25-year-old Roman student, Denise Berhane, a group called Black Italians, a women’s group, the environmental group Fridays for Future Rome, a US expatriates’ organisation and the Sardines, a grassroots Italian protest group that encourages civic involvement.
Asked by broadcaster SKYTG24 whether Italy has a racism problem, Ms Berhane replied: “There are some problems in the country if all these people turned out.”
The gathering was useful, she said, to help people develop awareness of the problem.
At one point, the protesters, most of them young and some with children or siblings, took the knee and raised a fist in solidarity with those fighting racism and police brutality.