Edward Colston statue: Four cleared of criminal damage

[motorbiking]

I hope nobody will hold me to account for my deeds if they become illegal 112 years after my death.

@noseall would you like to upgrade for free all the houses and extensions you built that no longer meet electrical and building control regulations? How very generous that would be.

 

[AngleEyes]

The problem with the radical and dangerous left is that they do not look at history in context. Slavery is - quite rightly - viewed as an historical wrong, but it was an economic norm of the time.

That is absolutely not an acceptable excuse to ignore it now, viewed in today's 'norm of the time'.
If the additional plaque had been added in a suitable time frame, then i very much doubt there would have been any 'statue toppling' occurring.
It was the prevarication of history, that motivated the 'statue toppling'.

 

[cwhaley]

That is absolutely not an acceptable excuse to ignore it now, viewed in today's 'norm of the time'.
If the additional plaque had been added in a suitable time frame, then i very much doubt there would have been any 'statue toppling' occurring.
It was the prevarication of history, that motivated the 'statue toppling'.

Respectfully, I don't think you've grasped my argument. We should judge history with context and we cannot look at the past with a modern mindset as it warps our analysis. What I was saying is that Edward Colston did a great deal of good for Bristol, and we cannot ignore or 'blank him out' because he had connections to something which was normal at the time. Your ancestors may well have been executioners -- would that mean you'd feel ashamed to bear your family name?

Comparisons to any of the plagues is just plain silly.

What motivated the 'statue toppling' was raw emotion, and the false belief that by doing it, they were 'fixing' racism in Britain, which is totally removed from the life of an 18th Century philanthropist.

 

[AngleEyes]

From the article:

"Whenever the question was asked in the past two decades in opinion polls, letters pages and radio phone-ins, it seemed that the majority of people in Bristol said they wanted the Colston Statue to stay.
They also wanted the Colston Hall name to remain. The argument was that removing Colston's statue and the name from city landmarks and venues would mean the city's slave trade past could be forgotten."
?????

Mr Ferguson was replaced as Mayor in 2016, so his opinion was rather out of date.


You should have looked wider, and longer:

How the city failed to remove Edward Colston's statue for years
It's been the subject of controversy for years
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/how-city-failed-remove-edward-4211771

 

[motorbiking]

Surely democratic process should prevail? Who decides if something should be changed the elected leaders or the unelected who don't like it. Would I be justified in attacking statues of those who promote the concept of white privilege?

 

[Notch7]

Surely democratic process should prevail? Who decides if something should be changed the elected leaders or the unelected who don't like it. Would I be justified in attacking statues of those who promote the concept of white privilege?

I tend to agree, although maybe it could be argued, a jury acquitted them -is that not democracy, the law Id guess is part of democracy, laws get introduced by
parliament

 

[Deleted member 292770]

.

 

[Mottie]

.

Hey, God. Were you previously known on here as 'dontbelieveawordofit' or 'bennymultifinish'?

 

[AngleEyes]

I hope nobody will hold me to account for my deeds if they become illegal 112 years after my death.

@noseall would you like to upgrade for free all the houses and extensions you built that no longer meet electrical and building control regulations? How very generous that would be.

Some things don't have a statute of limitations.
Building regs is not one of them.

 

[AngleEyes]

because he had connections to something which was normal at the time.

I'd say being instrumental in the transport of 84, 000 slave, many of whom died, is a lot more than 'having connections to'. Wouldn't you?

As a high official of the Royal African Company from 1680 to 1692, Edward Colston played an active role in the enslavement of over 84,000 Africans (including 12,000 children) of whom over 19,000 died en route to the Caribbean and America.

“Colston also invested in the Spanish slave trade and in slave-produced sugar. As Tory MP for Bristol (1710-1713), he defended the city’s ‘right’ to trade in enslaved Africans.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/how-city-failed-remove-edward-4211771
​

 

[IT Minion]

I hope nobody will hold me to account for my deeds if they become illegal 112 years after my death.

I hope none of my deeds will be so horrific that I, or rather my statues, am held to account 112 years after my death.

 

[AngleEyes]

Surely democratic process should prevail? Who decides if something should be changed the elected leaders or the unelected who don't like it. Would I be justified in attacking statues of those who promote the concept of white privilege?

What happens when people are frustrated by the 'fillybusters' in the political process, that in effect deny the proper working of the political process?

 

[Deleted member 292770]

Hey, God. Were you previously known on here as 'dontbelieveawordofit' or 'bennymultifinish'?

Not that I know of. Only been here a couple of months.
Who were they ? Is that one or two people?

 

[noseall]

an anarchist against the rule of law.

Did you see the verdict - played out in a British court of law, overseen by a judge and jury. I'm not the anarchist here Woods.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I don't like the Normans; stole the whole country and enslaved all the natives; let's remove all reminders of them.