BLM protesters cleared over toppling of Edward Colston statue

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Three men and a woman have been found not guilty of criminal damage after toppling the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol, an act of public dissent that reverberated around the world.

Rhian Graham, 30, Milo Ponsford, 26, and Sage Willoughby, 22, were accused, with “others unknown”, of helping to tie ropes around the statue’s neck and joining with others to pull it to the ground.

Jake Skuse, 33, was accused of helping to roll it to Bristol harbour where it was thrown into the River Avon.
...
Giving evidence in their own defence, each described being motivated out of sincere antiracist conviction, frustration that previous attempts to persuade the council to remove the statue had failed, and a belief that the statue was so offensive it constituted an indecent display or a hate crime.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/05/four-cleared-of-toppling-edward-colston-statute

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A jury trial - glad to see the jury accept the defendants' arguments.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "roll it to Bristol harbour where it was thrown into the River"

That's what should have happened with all those Lee statues.

[jimfields33]

2. I'm not in agreement with polluting a river

Throw it out. Cut it up. Anything but in a river. But our waterways have enough issues with being destroyed by pollutants. Has to be a better solution.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. That's true

although things like that have been used in certain waterways (notably oceans) to create artificial reefs.

https://www.livescience.com/54487-outstanding-artificial-reefs-to-visit.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/underwater-museum-180951559/

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It was later pulled out

A demonstration can't "throw it out" - unless you mean "leave it on the ground where it fell" (taking it away could have left them open to a charge of theft - with more likelihood of conviction). Cutting it up wouldn't have changed anything.

[Demovictory9]

5. so long Edward