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Watery End for Statue of Slave Trader in UK City of Bristol

Associated Press

   LONDON - For someone who died nearly three centuries ago, Edward
   Colston has become a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement in
   Britain.

   The toppling of his statue in Bristol, a city in the southwest of
   England, on Sunday by anti-racism protesters was greeted with joyous
   scenes, recognition of the fact that he was a notorious slave trader --
   a badge of shame in what is one of Britain's most liberal cities.

   Demonstrators attached ropes to the statue before pulling it down.
   Footage of the moments after the statue crashed to the ground saw
   hundreds, if not thousands, of local Bristolians, in ecstasy.

   Images on social media showed protesters then appearing to kneel on the
   neck of the statue for eight minutes, recalling how George Floyd died
   in Minneapolis on May 25. The statue was then rolled into the nearby
   BristolHarbor-- again to rapturous scenes.

   Police said officers have launched an investigation and are looking for
   those who "committed an act of criminal damage."

   Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said the removal of the statue would "divide"
   opinion, but added that it was "important to listen to those who found
   the statue to represent an affront to humanity and make the legacy of
   today about the future of our city, tackling racism and inequality."

   The symbolism of the statue's demise can't be overstated not least
   because the bridge overlooking its new resting place is named Pero's
   Bridge, after Pero Jones -- an enslaved man who lived and died in the
   city in the latter part of the 18th century.

   Colston, who was born in 1636 to a wealthy merchant family, became
   prominently involved in England's sole official slaving company at the
   time, the Royal African Company, and Bristol was at the heart of it.

   The company transported tens of thousands of Africans across the
   Atlantic Ocean, mainly to work the sugar plantations in the Caribbean
   and cultivate the tobacco fields that were burgeoning in the new North
   American colony of Virginia. Each enslaved person had the company's
   initials branded onto their chest.

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