Four cleared of criminal damage charges for pulling down slave trader statue

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-59727161

Four accused of illegally removing the statue of slave trader Edward Colston have been found not guilty of criminal damage by a jury.

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Reply 1

Stiff Little Fingers

Justice served. Shameful that the statue had not already been removed by the council despite constant calls from locals, even more so that they then pushed to prosecute four people for dumping it in the sea where it belonged.

Reply 2

Starship Trooper

These vermin deserve ten years hard labour for their despicable woke vandalism.

Reply 3

Quady

Original post by Starship Trooper

These vermin deserve ten years hard labour for their despicable woke vandalism.

Perhaps a statue to them could be erected by public subscription.

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Ehhh I’m not comfortable with the idea of people yanking down statues of those they don’t like (not saying Colston deserved a statue) . The whole thing could have been handled better all around.

Reply 6

DSilva

Original post by Starship Trooper

These vermin deserve ten years hard labour for their despicable woke vandalism.

The establishment are furious about this. Wha a way to stick it to them, you should be delighted!

Reply 7

Starship Trooper

Original post by DSilva

The establishment are furious about this. Wha a way to stick it to them, you should be delighted!

A- part of the establishment *are possibly, most are thrilled. Brainlets on the left think that Ben Shapiro and Rupert Murdoch are the establishment. Brainlets on the right think that Owen Jones and the Guardian are the establishment when truth is they all are.

B- even if that was the case whilst what's bad for the establishment is almost always a good thing there are exceptions.

C: the idea that the establishment is furious with these people is laughable. Ask Julian Assange what our regime does to people they're furious with.

D- I suspect that if the statue had been of Nelson Mandela or MLK they would have had the book thrown at them.

*(Consisting of Patel, a few conservative MPs, maybe a few papers like the DM). I suspect they doth protest too much.

Reply 8

Quady

Original post by Starship Trooper

D- I suspect that if the statue had been of Nelson Mandela or MLK they would have had the book thrown at them.

By 'they', I take it you mean the jury when they deliberated on their verdict? ie the jury would have found the defendants guilty rather than not guilty

Quite probably so, but the role of a jury of commoners is a key part of our legal system.

Reply 9

DSilva

Original post by Starship Trooper

Look at how lots of Tory Mps are reacting today.

I would say this has annoyed all the right people.

Reply 10

Starship Trooper

Original post by Quady

In part yes.

Yes...and in the past this was great. I'm not so sure now, although I don't have a better answer to hand.

Basically in order to have a functional liberal democracy you need impartiality, which itself is impossible but what you can have is an illusion of such when you have a strong monoculture or/and are ethnically homogeneous. When you have multiculturalism, ethnic pluralism and no unifying culture or religion it really makes trial by "peers" impossible and it becomes inherently political.

Reply 11

DSilva

Original post by Starship Trooper

So what's the alternative, trial by state apparatchiks?.

Reply 12

Starship Trooper

Original post by DSilva

So what's the alternative, trial by state apparatchiks?.

Probably, yes.

Not optimal of course but these are sub optimal times.

Reply 13

DSilva

Original post by Starship Trooper

Probably, yes.

Not optimal of course but these are sub optimal times.

You'd have been quite at home in Stalin's Russia.

Reply 14

Starship Trooper

Original post by DSilva

You'd have been quite at home in Stalin's Russia.

Stalin, particularly in his later years was pretty based.

And yes you need a Stalin/ Putin figure to bring order to a dysfunctional and corrupt system which both inherited.

Hopefully Trump will one day do the same.

Reply 15

username5854274

Good to see a bit of common sense.

Reply 16

the bear

i am disgusted by the statue of toddler killer Boudicca AKA Boadicea just 100 yards from Parliament.

it should be chucked in the Thames.

Reply 17

DSilva

Edward Colston was responsible for transporting 84,000 slaves, 12,000 of whom were children and 19,000 of whom died en route.

Standards change yadeya but telling that some people seem far more concerned with his statue being taken down than they do about his statue being still there in the first place.