Colston Four acquitted after pulling down slave trader statue

Four protestors who pulled down the statue of a slave trader during a Black Lives Matter protest were on Thursday acquitted of causing criminal damage in what could be a landmark legal case.

The memorial to the 17^th century slave trader Edward Colston was toppled during a protest in Bristol on 7 June 2020, and the defendants, referred to as the ‘Colston Four’ admitted that they had helped to pull the statue down and roll it into Bristol harbour.

However, their lawyers argued successfully that a public statue of a slave trader was itself an offence and that convicting the defendants would breach their human rights. They also pointed to locals’ 30 years of public petitions to have the statue taken down and urged the jury members to “be on the right side of history”.

Following the murder of George Floyd by a United States’ policeman, protests across Europe saw many monuments to slave traders, and colonial leaders attacked and vandalised.

The verdict prompted a mixed reaction from government ministers, with Transport minister Grant Shapps, stating that “destroying public property can ever be acceptable”.

The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said that he was “glad” that the statue was gone but pointed out that tackling the drivers of racial inequality lay in housing, education, and employment policy.

Bristol’s first black Mayor, Rees added that “you can change names without changing substance.

(Benjamin Fox | EURACTIV.com)