4 acquitted in toppling of British slave trader statue

AP ^ | 05 January 2021 | uncredited AP

[blueplum]

LONDON (AP) — Four anti-racism demonstrators were cleared Wednesday of criminal damage in the toppling of a statue of a 17th-century slave trader during a Black Lives Matter protest in southwestern England.

Protesters used ropes to pull down the bronze statue of Edward Colston and dump it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7, 2020....

...Graham, Ponsford and Willoughby were caught on closed-circuit television passing the ropes around the statue that were used to pull it down, while Skuse was accused of orchestrating a plan to roll it into the harbor....

[blueplum]

Planning on removing the statue is one thing. But the perps didn't give anyone a chance to decide one way or the other, they took it upon themselves to destroy the statue. Not only that, but instead of allowing the town to choose a different notable person from their culture to honor with a statue, the statue was replaced with a BLM protest leader's image, who's only claim to fame is promotion of violence towards and erasure of anglo cultures. It's a shameful verdict.

[mylife]

fighting a war long won

[mylife]

did de brits invent slavery? I recall this William Wilberforce fellow..

[ScaniaBoy]

It's a shameful verdict, whathever the reasons for the "Coulson 4" to tear down the statue. One would have wished both the members of the jury and the culprits had been more educated - educated in the proper sense of the word.

Here is the argument against why it was so wrong to do what they did, explained in very simple words:

(From the play "A Man for All Seasons", about Thomas Moore, the 16th century Chancellor who was eventually executed by Henry VIII. Here he is discussing with his son-in-law.)

“William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”

[Clutch Martin]

“did de brits invent slavery?”

Next to prostitution, 2nd oldest profession.

To answer the question, is that it is common knownledge that the Rothschilds and the bank of England financed the whole mess, (at least in the western civilizations version of this global catastrophe) which continues practically unabated to this day, and in some quarters slaving is a perfectly acceptable occupation and is performed by and across the societal strata.

[ScaniaBoy]

Common knowledge is often not correct.

The person, Edward Colston, that this article was about lived 1636 - 1721. He was involved with the Royal African Company 1680 - 1692. The RAC held monopoly on the British trade in African slaves.

The founding father of the Rotschild dynasty, Mayer Amsel Rotschild, was born in 1744 (and died in 1812). He started from very poor beginnings, but he gained the patronage of the Crown Prince William of Hesse, and eventually became “Court Factor” in 1769. The initial business was mainly in rare coins. It was not until the Napoleonic Wars that the Rotschild banking industry grew. So, at least a century after the exploits of Edward Colston.

So, did the very wealthy Landgraves of Hesse (Wilhelm and his father Fredrik) deal in slaves? Maybe, but not the slaves we usually think about these days. Fredrik II how made the “family fortune” made his money by “renting” soldiers to Great Britain to fight the Revolutionary War. So, depending on who willing the Hessians were to take part in foreign wars or not, a kind of human trade, but not part of the black slave trade.

[ScaniaBoy]

Some further history:

The British slave trade was abolished by an act of Parliament in 1807. The Rotschild banking enterprise in Britain started in 1805.

Slavery as such was not abolished in the British empire until 1833. In 1837 a Slave Compensation Act was passed which compensated slave owners in the Colonies. Such liberal luminaries as Gladstone helped to pass this law. The Rotschilds were involved in financing a huge loan taken by the British State pay for the compensation to the slave owners,

This is the background to the canard that the Rotschilds financed the slave trade.

[T.B. Yoits]

Good to know that if anything offends you, just smash it into the ground and the court will clear you.

Tollbooths are racist. Just saying.

[DownInFlames]

Mob rule. This was done in Baltimore recently when BLM tossed a statue of Christopher Columbus into the bay.

[bgill]

He was just the middle man who transported across the ocean. Strange how we never hear of the original sellers.

[ScaniaBoy]

As you well know that does not fit the modern narrative. ;-)

[Clutch Martin]

“it is common knowledge that the Rothschilds and the bank of England”

Perhaps I should have said ‘both the Rothschilds and the Bank of England’ which wouldn’t have sounded so synonymous.

Or perhaps it was the East India Company that greased the skids of the Triangular Trade? The financial aspect of such a large and long term “endeavour” didn’t appear out of thin air.