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A 24-year-old was arrested by the British Police over the toppling of a statue of a slave trader final month.
The statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston falls into the water after protesters pulled it down and pushed into the docks, throughout a protest towards racial inequality, in Bristol, Britain on June 7. (Photo:Reuters)
British police mentioned that they had arrested a person over the toppling of a statue of a 17th Century slave trader final month, an incident which sparked a significant debate about Britain’s imperial previous.
Anti-racism protesters demonstrating within the port metropolis of Bristol in western England within the wake of the killing of George Floyd within the United States pulled down the statue of Edward Colston and threw it into the harbour.
“A 24-year-old man was … arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and has since been released under investigation,” Avon and Somerset Police mentioned in a press release.
Colston had made a fortune from buying and selling in West African slaves and his statue had lengthy been a contentious problem in Bristol. The memorial has since been retrieved from the water, and the mayor mentioned it might displayed in a museum alongside Black Lives Matter placards.
After the incident, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman mentioned he understood folks’s sturdy emotions on the problem however eradicating the statue was a legal act.
The tearing down of Colston’s statue led to different memorials being taken down or their future being debated, whereas many lecturers and public figures voiced opposition to the removing of such monuments, arguing they merely mirrored historical past and ought to be used as factors of dialogue.
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