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[VIDEO] Statues of racist historical figures to be all torn down?

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for protesters who target monuments to be imprisoned.

The measure says anyone who damages a public statue must be prosecuted to the "fullest extent of the law".

Mr Trump's order also calls for withholding federal funds from local jurisdictions and police departments that fail to stop such "mob rule".

A number of US statues have been pulled down since the police killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd.

The president issued the order on Friday evening hours after he abruptly cancelled a planned trip to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, writing on Twitter that he would stay in Washington DC to "make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced".

The measure says: "Many of the rioters, arsonists, and left-wing extremists who have carried out and supported these acts have explicitly identified themselves with ideologies - such as Marxism - that call for the destruction of the United States system of government."

It accuses the protesters of "a deep ignorance of our history".

The order cites the recent targeting of a San Francisco bust to Ulysses S Grant, who owned a slave before he became Union Army commander and defeated the slave-owning Confederacy during the Civil War, a statue in Madison, Wisconsin, of an abolitionist immigrant who fought for the Union, and a Boston memorial commemorating an African-American regiment that fought in the same conflict.

"Individuals and organizations have the right to peacefully advocate for either the removal or the construction of any monument," the executive order says.

"But no individual or group has the right to damage, deface, or remove any monument by use of force."

It cites existing laws providing for up to 10 years in prison for anyone who damages federal property.

The order warns local jurisdictions that neglect to protect such monuments could face having their federal funding tied to public spaces withheld.

Police departments that have failed to guard statues from damage or vandalism could also lose such funds, the order warns.

It also states that anyone who "damages, defaces, or destroys religious property, including by attacking, removing, or defacing depictions of Jesus or other religious figures or religious art work" should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The measure appears to refer to a recent Twitter post by prominent social justice activist Shaun King who wrote that "statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down".

The tweet added: "They are a form of white supremacy."

Monuments linked to the Confederacy have been especially targeted in the US amid the nationwide protests ignited by the death of Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a month ago.

President Trump has defended Confederate symbols as a part of American heritage.

Statues of Christopher Columbus, the 15th Century explorer whose voyages on behalf of Spain opened the way for the European colonisation of the Americas, have also been targeted as perceived symbols of imperialism.

Some state and local leaders have themselves taken action to remove Confederate symbols.

Earlier this month, Virginia's Governor Ralph Northam announced that a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee would be taken down from the state capital in Richmond.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53201784
 
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for protesters who target monuments to be imprisoned.

The measure says anyone who damages a public statue must be prosecuted to the "fullest extent of the law".

Mr Trump's order also calls for withholding federal funds from local jurisdictions and police departments that fail to stop such "mob rule".

A number of US statues have been pulled down since the police killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd.

The president issued the order on Friday evening hours after he abruptly cancelled a planned trip to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, writing on Twitter that he would stay in Washington DC to "make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced".

The measure says: "Many of the rioters, arsonists, and left-wing extremists who have carried out and supported these acts have explicitly identified themselves with ideologies - such as Marxism - that call for the destruction of the United States system of government."

It accuses the protesters of "a deep ignorance of our history".

The order cites the recent targeting of a San Francisco bust to Ulysses S Grant, who owned a slave before he became Union Army commander and defeated the slave-owning Confederacy during the Civil War, a statue in Madison, Wisconsin, of an abolitionist immigrant who fought for the Union, and a Boston memorial commemorating an African-American regiment that fought in the same conflict.

"Individuals and organizations have the right to peacefully advocate for either the removal or the construction of any monument," the executive order says.

"But no individual or group has the right to damage, deface, or remove any monument by use of force."

It cites existing laws providing for up to 10 years in prison for anyone who damages federal property.

The order warns local jurisdictions that neglect to protect such monuments could face having their federal funding tied to public spaces withheld.

Police departments that have failed to guard statues from damage or vandalism could also lose such funds, the order warns.

It also states that anyone who "damages, defaces, or destroys religious property, including by attacking, removing, or defacing depictions of Jesus or other religious figures or religious art work" should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The measure appears to refer to a recent Twitter post by prominent social justice activist Shaun King who wrote that "statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down".

The tweet added: "They are a form of white supremacy."

Monuments linked to the Confederacy have been especially targeted in the US amid the nationwide protests ignited by the death of Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a month ago.

President Trump has defended Confederate symbols as a part of American heritage.

Statues of Christopher Columbus, the 15th Century explorer whose voyages on behalf of Spain opened the way for the European colonisation of the Americas, have also been targeted as perceived symbols of imperialism.

Some state and local leaders have themselves taken action to remove Confederate symbols.

Earlier this month, Virginia's Governor Ralph Northam announced that a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee would be taken down from the state capital in Richmond.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53201784
 
Mississippi moves to strip Confederate emblem from state flag

Politicians in the US state of Mississippi have taken a major step towards removing the Confederate emblem from the state flag.

On Saturday, both chambers of the Republican-led state congress voted to begin the process of changing the flag.

Mississippi is the last state in the US to feature the emblem on its flag.

The Confederate emblem is viewed by many as a racist symbol, with recent protests over the death of George Floyd reigniting debate over its use.

The flag was originally used by the slave-owning states who lost the US Civil War (1861-65).

The vote passed in both chambers of the Mississippi legislature: in the House of Representatives by a margin of 84-35, and then in the Senate by 36-14.

It means a bill to change the state flag can now be formally introduced. It is expected to be proposed on Sunday when the state congress is back in session, US media report.

A two-thirds majority was needed to begin the process. This was viewed as the biggest test because only a simple majority is needed to pass the final bill.

And in a major boost to the movement for change, Republican Governor Tate Reeves said that he would sign a bill to do so if it was approved in congress.

He had previously said that he would not veto a bill, but did not publicly back it.

"The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it's time to end it," he wrote on Twitter.

He added: "We should not be under any illusion that a vote in the Capitol is the end of what must be done - the job before us is to bring the state together."

"I would never have thought that I would see the flag come down in my lifetime," Democrat Barbara Blackmon, who is African-American, said on Saturday.

If the bill passes, a commission will design a new flag, to be be voted on in November.

Hundreds of statues dedicated to the Confederacy - the southern states which revolted against the US government - exist all throughout the US, and often serve as an reminder of the history of slavery and racial oppression in the US.

But the depth of feeling that followed the death of George Floyd has led to renewed demands for an end to institutional racism. In the US and other countries statues of controversial historical figures have either been pulled down or taken down.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53209854
 
Federal authorities have charged four men in connection with a failed effort last week to pull down a famous statue of former President Andrew Jackson near the White House.

In a complaint unsealed on Saturday, authorities allege that four men were among a group that damaged and attempted to tear down the Jackson statue, which is located in Lafayette Square, last Monday. The square has been the site of protests in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis.

The prosecution comes as Trump has ramped up threats against those who tear down federal monuments as part of a national movement to remove statues of contentious historical figures from public spaces.

Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and a slave owner. In 1830, he signed into law the Indian Removal Act, leading to the deadly expulsion of Native Americans from territory east of the Mississippi River. The forced relocation of some 60,000 Native Americans, a process in which about 4,000 people died, has become known as the "trail of tears".

Trump took to Twitter after the attempted toppling of the prominent statute, calling it "disgraceful vandalism". On Friday, he signed an executive order pledging to enforce prosecution of protesters who deface public memorials.

After the charges were announced, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany tweeted that Trump "was prosecuting individuals tearing down our statues to the fullest extent of the law".

The charged men are Lee Michael Cantrell, 47, of Virginia, Connor Matthew Judd, 20, of Washington, DC, Ryan Lane, 37, of Maryland, and Graham Lloyd, 37, of Maine. They can be seen in widely circulated videos of the attempt to tear down the statue, according to a statement from the US attorney's office for the District of Columbia.

Judd was arrested on Friday and appeared in Superior Court of the District of Columbia on Saturday, authorities said. The other three have not been apprehended. The FBI and the US Park Police have been investigating the incident, they said.

"The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia will not stand idly by and allow our national monuments to be vandalized and destroyed," acting US Attorney Michael R Sherwin said in a statement.
 
President Donald Trump's administration has put special law enforcement teams in place to protect monuments across the United States that it believes could be vandalised by protesters over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday.

The announcement did not provide details on the teams' sizes or makeup, how much the deployment cost, or how they would respond to any perceived threats. It also did not say exactly which memorials would be guarded or whether specific threats were made.

Trump this year will view fireworks celebrating US independence at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. He has taken a hard line on removing public statues commemorating figures from history, which he has called "beautiful", and has threatened to use force on protesters defacing memorials.

The executive order he signed last week on memorials established a task force of law enforcement agencies that will gauge the potential for civil unrest or destruction of federal monuments and could "surge" responses to possible threats, according to the department.

"While the department respects every American’s right to protest peacefully, violence and civil unrest will not be tolerated," Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in the announcement. "We won’t stand idly by while violent anarchists and rioters seek not only to vandalise and destroy the symbols of our nation, but to disrupt law and order and sow chaos in our communities."

Earlier this week, Wolf said the effort was being coordinated by several branches of the DHS including the Federal Protective Service, US Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

The police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a Black man, sparked national demonstrations against racial injustice last month. Since then states, cities and private universities and museums have begun taking down monuments and other memorials considered racist. Many targeted statues commemorate military figures from the Confederacy, the losing side of the 1861-1865 US Civil War, which seceded largely to maintain the enslavement of Black people.

Protesters have also attacked federal monuments, most notably attempting to pull down a statue by the White House of President Andrew Jackson, a one-time slaveholder whose administration is remembered for the Trail of Tears that killed thousands of Native Americans.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...rotect-statues-monuments-200701165642308.html
 
UK PM Johnson says statue of colonialist Rhodes should not be pulled down

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that a statue of 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes should not be pulled down from an Oxford University college because history should not be edited.

Oriel College, Oxford, said last month it wanted to remove a statue of Rhodes after a campaign by those who argue the statue glorifies racism and is an insult to black students.

Johnson told the Evening Standard newspaper he did not want to see the statue pulled down.

It would, he said, be like “trying to bowdlerise or edit our history ... like some politician sneakily trying to change his Wikipedia entry,” the Standard reported.

“I’m pro-heritage, I’m pro-history, and I’m in favour of people understanding our past with all its imperfections,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...hodes-should-not-be-pulled-down-idUSKBN2431SB
 
The grandeur of Liverpool's centre is awe-inspiring for a first-time visitor.

The architecture tells a story of wealth and power but in the magnificent structures, which tower above the streets, there is a sinister story of human trafficking on a massive scale.

For Laurence Westgaph, an historian whose expertise is the transatlantic slave trade, it is the perfect classroom at a time when many are looking at Britain's history with fresh eyes.

Demand for his slavery tours around the city has grown following the brutal killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests.

"I am surprised but I think people are now starting to make the correlation between events that took place long ago and the way black people are still treated in the modern day," he said.

"I don't think you can extricate the history of slavery and the slave trade from the history of modern racism and how it affects black people in the most visceral forms."

Employing social distancing, the tour journeys its way through the streets.

Many of the city's secrets are invisible but with a guide you soon realise they are hiding in plain sight.

Stopping outside the Martins Bank Building relief sculpture, panels of the Roman god Neptune - which represents Liverpool - are pointed out. He stands above two African children carrying bags of money.

The work is controversial and in the current climate is interpreted by many people as a reference to Liverpool's pivotal role in the slave trade.

By the 18th century, the city was Europe's largest slave port.

It is thought ships from the Mersey ferried at least 1.5 million kidnapped Africans across the Atlantic.

The journey was dangerous and miserable with many dying in transit.

Those who survived were forced to work on sugar plantations in the Caribbean and in America's Deep South.

On the back of this trade on the bones and blood of Africans, Liverpool and Britain became fabulously wealthy, Mr Westgaph explains.

"I think a lot of people are shocked - they don't realise how deeply our society has been shaped by the events that took place in the 18th and 19th century, both here and in America where the enslaved people were transported to," he said.

"Especially in a city like Liverpool, which I consider to be the greatest memorial to the slave trade in the country.

"The entire city has got remnants and connections to slavery either through street names, through buildings or places of memory. So for me, when I take people around the city, I'm really calling on that history, and the legacies of that history resonate into the present day."

Sky Sports News presenter Mike Wedderburn sought to explain to viewers why saying 'white lives matter' is considered offensive.

This is why 'white lives matter' is offensive
Judging by the uptake of the tours, there is certainly an appetite to look at our history in a new way that is not taught in the national curriculum.

For instance, when the UK does talk about slavery it often starts with Britain's role in its abolition - a glaring omission according to Mr Westgaph, as this country was one of the greatest slave trading nations and benefited enormously from it.

The killing of George Floyd is an opportunity to move things forward, he says.

But he warns there have been pivotal moments like this in the past which we have failed to learn from, and he is not as optimistic as others that this could be a time of real change.

If things are going to change, he says, there must be a focus on addressing systemic racism.

"I am very aware of the importance of symbolism but symbolism doesn't change things on the ground," he said.

"When you pull down a statue, when you go home that night you're still having to deal with poor educational opportunities."

https://news.sky.com/story/black-li...ind-liverpools-magnificent-monuments-12022128
 
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A Confederate monument that has long been a divisive symbol at the University of Mississippi was removed Tuesday from a prominent spot on the Oxford campus, just two weeks after Mississippi surrendered the last state flag in the US with the Confederate battle emblem.

The marble statue of a saluting Confederate soldier will be taken to a Civil War cemetery in a secluded area of campus. Students and faculty have pushed the university for years to move the statue, but they say their work is being undermined by administrators' plan to beautify the cemetery.

A draft plan by the university indicates that the burial ground will eventually feature a lighted pathway to the statue and that headstones might be added to Confederate soldiers' graves that have been unmarked for decades.

"Moving the monument should be a clear stand against racism, not another embarrassing attempt to placate those who wish to maintain the university's connection to Confederate symbols," faculty members from the university's history department wrote in a joint statement last month.

University Chancellor Glenn Boyce said the new site is not intended to glorify the soldiers.

"It's not going to create a shrine to the Confederacy," Boyce told The Associated Press last month at the state Capitol. "People will have to judge that when they see the end product."

The University of Mississippi, known as "Ole Miss", was founded in 1848, and the statue of the soldier was put up in 1906 - one of many Confederate monuments erected across the South more than a century ago.

Critics said the statue's location near the university's main administrative building sent a signal that Ole Miss glorifies the Confederacy and glosses over the South's history of slavery.

The state College Board on June 18 approved a plan to move the monument. The decision happened amid widespread debate about Confederate symbols as people across the US and in other countries marched loudly through the streets to protest against racism and police violence against African Americans.

The statue at Ole Miss was a gathering point in 1962 for people who rioted to oppose court-ordered integration of the university.

In February 2019, a rally by outside pro-Confederate groups at the monument prompted Ole Miss basketball players to kneel in protest during the national anthem at a game later that day. Student government leaders voted two weeks later for a resolution asking administrators to move the monument to the cemetery, where Confederate soldiers killed at the Battle of Shiloh are buried.

One of the student senators sponsoring that resolution was Arielle Hudson of Tunica, Mississippi, who graduated this year and has been selected as a Rhodes scholar. She told The AP on Thursday that her joy at knowing the statue was moved has been tempered by concerns about the university's elaborate cemetery plan.

As a student, Hudson gave tours to prospective students through an "ambassador" programme. She said ambassadors were generally told to avoid the Confederate statue, but she once ended up near it.

"Those conversations were hard, especially as a Black student trying to convince other Black students and their families that they belong here," Hudson said Thursday. "You're standing a few feet away from an object that tells them that space wasn't made for them."

The University of Mississippi has worked for more than 20 years to distance itself from Confederate imagery, often amid resistance from tradition-bound donors and alumni.

The nickname for athletic teams remains the Rebels, but the university retired its Colonel Reb mascot in 2003 amid criticism that the bearded old man looked like a plantation owner.

In 1997, administrators banned sticks in the football stadium, which largely stopped people from waving Confederate battle flags. The marching band no longer plays "Dixie."

Because of a student-led effort, the university in 2015 stopped flying the Confederate-themed Mississippi flag. A groundswell of support from business, religious, education and sports leaders recently pushed legislators to retire the flag.

Since 2016, the university has installed plaques to provide historical context about the Confederate monument and about slaves who built some campus buildings before the Civil War.

A plaque installed at the base of the Confederate statue said such monuments were built across the South decades after the Civil War, at a time when ageing Confederate veterans were dying.

"These monuments were often used to promote an ideology known as the 'Lost Cause,' which claimed that the Confederacy had been established to defend states' rights and that slavery was not the principal cause of the Civil War," the plaque says. "Although the monument was created to honor the sacrifice of Confederate soldiers, it must also remind us that the defeat of the Confederacy actually meant freedom for millions of people."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...inent-confederate-statue-200714185542317.html
 
A lot of Confederate monuments went up not after the war, but during period of black civil rights organisation such as MLK’s marches, to try to reassure white Southerners about their history.
 
A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester has been erected in secret on the same Bristol plinth from where the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled last month.

The monument, a black and resin steel piece, was installed just before 5am on Tuesday without the knowledge of Bristol City Council.

It depicts the moment black protester Jen Reid stood on the empty plinth during a Black Lives Matter march after the statue of Colston was toppled, dragged to the city harbour and dumped into the water.

The Colston statue was specifically dropped into the water at Pero's Bridge - which was named after an enslaved man called Pero Jones, who lived and died in Bristol.

Naming the new monument A Surge of Power (Jen Reid), artist Marc Quinn told The Guardian Ms Reid had created the sculpture with her actions, and that he was just "crystallising it".

He added that surveys and health and safety checks had been carried out, and that the installation had been made "extremely difficult to move".

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees had previously said that any decisions on what to do with the empty plinth would be subject to democratic decisions and would undergo consultation.

Ms Reid, who was pictured standing in front of the installation with her fist in the air after it was installed, said she couldn't see it being taken down any time soon.

She told the newspaper: "It's just incredible. This is going to continue the conversation. I can't see it coming down in a hurry."

Meanwhile, the Colston statue is due to go on display at a museum alongside placards used during Black Lives Matter protests.

It was fished from the bottom of the harbour on 11 June, several days after it was toppled.

Previous works of Mr Quinn's include self-portrait Self, and a sculpture entitled Alison Lapper Pregnant for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

https://news.sky.com/story/edward-c...ture-of-black-lives-matter-protester-12028799
 
A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester secretly put up on the same Bristol plinth where slave trader Edward Colston once stood is not expected to remain, Sky News understands.

The monument, a black and resin steel piece, was installed just before 5am on Tuesday without the knowledge of Bristol City Council.

It depicts the moment black protester Jen Reid stood on the empty plinth during a Black Lives Matter march after the statue of Colston was toppled, dragged to the city harbour and dumped into the water.

The sculpture has replaced Edward Colston without the knowledge of Bristol council
Image:
The sculpture replaced the statue of Edward Colston without the knowledge of Bristol City Council
Ms Reid said the new statue is "amazing" and "something that fills her with pride".

But Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees suggested it will be taken down pending a democratic consultation.

"The sculpture that has been installed today was the work and decision of a London-based artist. It was not requested and permission was not given for it to be installed," he said.

Artist Marc Quinn said he was 'crystallising' the moment Jen Reid stood on the empty plinth. Pic: Hassan Akkad
He added that "the future of the plinth must be decided by the people of Bristol" and any new statue should "tell our full history".

Naming the new monument A Surge of Power (Jen Reid), London-based artist Marc Quinn told The Guardian Ms Reid had created the sculpture with her actions, and he was just "crystallising it".

The artist got in contact with her husband after the photo he took of her making the gesture and then posted online went viral.

Mr Quinn added that surveys and health and safety checks had been carried out, and that the installation had been made "extremely difficult to move".

But Ms Reid, who was photographed standing in front of the installation with her fist in the air after it was put in place, said she hopes the council will change its mind.

She said: "I'd like the council to keep it here, because obviously of what it represents and who was there prior. It's a decision that they're going to have to make.

"I think the most important thing is that something is up there replacing Edward Colston. And for people to discuss, educate, learn and just keep talking about it."

The statue of Edward Colston was dumped in Bristol harbour by protesters. Pic: Bristol City Council
Image:
The statue of Edward Colston was dumped in Bristol harbour by protesters last month. Pic: Bristol City Council
Meanwhile, the Colston statue is due to go on display at a museum alongside placards used during Black Lives Matter protests.

It was fished from the bottom of the harbour on 11 June, several days after it was toppled.

Previous works of Mr Quinn's include self-portrait Self, and a sculpture entitled Alison Lapper Pregnant for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

https://news.sky.com/story/edward-c...ture-of-black-lives-matter-protester-12028799
 
A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester has been removed from the plinth where a statue of slave trader Edward Colston once stood.

The sculpture of Jen Reid was erected on Wednesday but removed by Bristol City Council just over 24 hours later.

Ms Reid had been photographed standing on the empty plinth after the Colston statue was pulled down during protests.

Mayor Marvin Rees said it was up to the people of Bristol to decide what would replace the Colston statue.

Bristol City Council tweeted to say it had removed the sculpture on Thursday morning and it would be held at its museum "for the artist to collect or donate to our collection".

Council contractors arrived at the sculpture on Thursday morning and it had been removed and taken away in the back of a lorry by 05:30 BST.

On Wednesday, Mr Rees tweeted: "I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission.

"Anything put on the plinth outside of the process we've put in place will have to be removed."

The black resin statue, called A Surge of Power, was created by artist Marc Quinn and designed to be a temporary installation to continue the conversation about racism.

He said he was inspired to create it after seeing an image of Ms Reid standing on the plinth with her fist raised during the Black Lives Matter protest on 7 June.

Mr Quinn then contacted Ms Reid through social media and they worked together on the statue, which was erected shortly before 04:30 on Wednesday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-53427014
 
Two statues of Christopher Columbus have been temporarily removed in Chicago.

It comes a week after protesters attempted to topple a statue of the Italian explorer in the city.

Although temporary, they are the latest monuments to be removed amid an ongoing backlash against perceived symbols of racial bias and imperialism in the US.

The movement has been sparked by the death in police custody of African American George Floyd.

His death in Minneapolis has led to protests in the US and internationally against police brutality and racial inequality.

The office of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement that the Columbus statues - in Grant Park and Arrigo Park - had been "temporarily removed... until further notice" on her orders.

The decision came after protesters clashed with police as they attempted topple the statue of the explorer in Grant Park last week.

"It feels great seeing the statue come down," resident Brenda Armenta told the AFP news agency while watching the removal of the Grant Park monument on Friday morning.

There had been heated confrontations between protesters and supporters of the statue hours before.

In June a 3m (10ft) bronze statue of Columbus was toppled in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while another in Boston, which stands on a plinth at the heart of town, was beheaded.

Many people in the US celebrate the memory of the explorer, who in many textbooks is credited with discovering "the New World" in the 15th Century.

But Native American activists and others have long objected to honouring Columbus, saying his expeditions led to the colonisation and genocide of their ancestors.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53530752
 
Trudeau condemns toppling of Canada's first PM as 'vandalism'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is "deeply disappointed" by the toppling of the statue of Canada's first prime minister over the weekend.

He called the act "vandalism".

Activists in Montreal pulled down the statue of Sir John A Macdonald, who was linked to policies that killed many indigenous people in the late 19th Century.

Video captured the moment the statue's head flew off and bounced on to the pavement nearby.

On Monday, Mr Trudeau said that, while he understands the "impatience and frustration" of Canadians who have dealt with discrimination, acts like pulling down the statue "will not move us ahead as a society".

He said it should be up to communities and cities to choose how to remember controversial historical figures, not a small group acting unilaterally.

The premier of Quebec and the mayor of Montreal also condemned the action by activists.

Mayor Valérie Plante said it "cannot be accepted nor tolerated", adding it is better to put historical figures "in context rather than remove them".

Quebec Premier François Legault wrote on Twitter, "whatever one might think of Sir John A MacDonald, destroying a monument in this way is unacceptable".

"We must fight racism, but destroying parts of our history is not the solution. Vandalism has no place in our democracy and the statue must be restored."

The statue has been a frequent target for activists over the years, and has often been covered in splashes of paint.

Macdonald was prime minister of Canada between 1860 and 1890 and is remembered for his nation-building policies.

But he also created the residential schools system, which forcibly removed at least 150,000 indigenous children from their homes and sent them to state-funded boarding schools.

Many children were abused and some died, and they were forbidden from speaking their own language or practising their culture. A government report in 2015 called the practice "cultural genocide".

He was accused of allowing famine and disease to kill many indigenous people and his government forced some First Nation communities to leave their traditional territories, withholding food until they did so.

Mr Trudeau said during a news conference in Montreal that it is fair to "ask questions regarding all our former prime ministers, all our past leaders who did many good things but made mistakes as well".

"Sir John A Macdonald did very good things but we need to be far more critical of some of his actions," he added.

A number of statues of controversial historical leaders around the world have been toppled in recent months during heated public debates over how societies should remember leaders tied to slavery, empire and racism.

In the US, statues of Christopher Columbus as well as Confederate leaders were removed, while in the UK monuments to prominent slave traders have been taken down.

Belgian protesters also defaced statues of King Leopold II due to the deadly legacy of his personal colony in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53954965
 
London statue of Churchill defaced again

LONDON (Reuters) - A statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposite parliament was on Wednesday sprayed with graffiti by protesters declaring him a racist for the second time in four months.

The plinth of the World War Two leader’s statue on Parliament Square was sprayed in yellow paint with the words “is a racist”.

“We have arrested a man in Parliament Square on suspicion of causing criminal damage to the Winston Churchill statue,” the Metropolitan police said on Twitter.

The statue was defaced in June during a fractious end to a mostly peaceful protest over the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, prompting authorities to board it up for a period.

Floyd’s death in police custody in May sparked protests about racial inequality across the United States and Europe and reignited a debate in Britain about monuments to those involved in the country’s imperialist past.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...atue-of-churchill-defaced-again-idUSKBN2613AW
 
KingKhanWC said:
It needs to be taken down then. It's a disgrace to the name of Pakistan, a nation which was created to save Muslims from persecuation but now has a statue of such a man. Sikhs come to see their holy site not to see statues.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you also agree with "taking down" Babri masjid (by RSS) and all building/statues in India that are related to the Mughal era?
 
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BreadPakoda said:
I'm guessing you also agree with "taking down" Babri masjid (by RSS) and all building/statues in India that are related to the Mughal era?
Click to expand...

He may not agree because of his shared identity (and his agreeing doesn't make anything right or wrong), but in principle it is as right as blacks taking down white supremacists statues.
 
An 18-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage after the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square was daubed with graffiti.

Benjamin Clark, of Wilton Crescent, Hertford, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, 9 October.

Clark is accused of damaging the statue of Britain's wartime leader on Thursday 10 September.

He was arrested after the plinth of the monument was defaced with yellow graffiti including the words "is a racist".

Clark was one of at least 680 people arrested in connection with 10 days of Extinction Rebellion protests in London.

Others have been held on suspicion of obstructing the highway and breaching conditions of protest set under the Public Order Act since the actions began on 1 September.

https://news.sky.com/story/teen-charged-with-criminal-damage-after-churchill-statue-defaced-12069272
 
Maybe we could learn from this movement and revisit our own history.

There is a massive statue of Mohd bin Qasim in the middle of Multan. Maybe we can consider removing it and putting up a statue of someone who wasn't a foreign invader?
 
Loralai said:
Maybe we could learn from this movement and revisit our own history.

There is a massive statue of Mohd bin Qasim in the middle of Multan. Maybe we can consider removing it and putting up a statue of someone who wasn't a foreign invader?
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How about Prahlada, a famous King of the region who belonged to the Kashyapa gotra?
 
Crowd cheers as Charlottesville takes down statue of Confederate soldier

Engineers in Charlottesville, Virginia worked to remove a 900lb Confederate statue on Saturday, a moment of symbolic reckoning in the university town that was rocked by a white supremacist march in August 2017.

The statue taken down was not that of Robert E Lee, which extremists said they were defending in clashes which led to the murder of a counter-protester. Instead, Charlottesville removed a bronze figure of a Confederate soldier, known as “At Ready”, that has stood for 111 years outside the Albemarle county courthouse.

Around 100 people cheered from behind barricades as bronze plaques were taken off the sides of the monument and a cannon was removed, the Washington Post reported. Police stood by.

“This is a magnificent moment,” community organizer Don Gathers, 61, told the Post. “Much of the racial tension, strife and protest we’re seeing across the country emanates from right here in Charlottesville. But now we’re moving the needle in a positive way.”

Donald Trump provoked outrage in 2017 when he said there were “very fine people” on both sides of clashes in which Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when an extremist drove his car into a crowd.

Statues to leaders and generals of the Confederacy, which fought and lost the American civil war in an attempt to maintain slavery, have returned to the news this year, amid nationwide protests over racism and police brutality stemming from the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis officers in May.

In Charlottesville, news reports said armed individuals and militia groups have made periodic “patrols” around Confederate monuments.

Albemarle is the first locality to use a process for removing statues that was approved by the state’s general assembly. But activists have said they are disappointed that “At the Ready” will be re-erected elsewhere.

“We feel like it’s just basically toxic waste disposal in another community,” Jalane Schmidt, an associate professor at the University of Virginia, told the Post.

In Richmond, the state capital, protesters removed a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy from 1861 until 1865. The Democratic mayor ordered another 11 memorials taken down.

Saturday’s removal in Charlottesville came after county supervisors voted on the matter. Larger statues of Lee and Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson, another Confederate general, remain in place.

Supporters who argue they are no more than memorials to war veterans have filed suit to save them. The city argues that the monuments, put up like many such statues decades after the civil war, “were intended to, and did, send messages of intimidation, exclusion and hostility to African Americans”.

The issue of whether the statues “were part of a regime of city-sanctioned segregation” is headed for state supreme court.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/12/charlottesville-statue-confederate-soldier
 
Indigenous protesters in Colombia have toppled a statue of Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar in the south-western city of Popayán.

Police looked on as members of the Misak community used ropes to tear down the equestrian figure of de Belalcázar, who founded the city in 1537.
 
US President Donald Trump has said that the protesters, who went violent in the aftermath of the death of African-American George Floyd, did not spare even the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Washington DC, describing the demonstrators as a “bunch of thugs”.

Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 after white police officer Derek Chauvin handcuffed and pinned him to the ground, and knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while the 46-year-old from Houston gasped for breath.

The footage, which went viral, showed Floyd pleading with the officer, saying he can’t breathe. His death sparked nationwide violent protests with some protesters resorting to vandalism, looting and rioting across the country, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

“You know, they started ripping down Abraham Lincoln. When they hit Lincoln, I said wait a minute. This is the man and you can do – then they hit George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. They had everybody,? Trump said at a well-attended election rally in Minnesota, a State that he lost by a little over 44,000 votes in 2016, on Friday.

He also mentioned about the statue of Gandhi in Washington DC that was vandalised by unknown miscreants at the peak of the nationwide protests.

“They even had Gandhi. All Gandhi wanted was one thing, peace. Right? We have peace. Rip down his statue. We don’t like him. I don’t think they have any idea what they’re doing,” Trump said.

“I think they’re just a bunch of thugs, okay, you want to know the truth. I think they’re a bunch of thugs,” he said.

The president told his cheering audience that he had signed an executive order that would put such miscreants in jail for 10 years.

Now, nobody even talks about taking statues down, he said.

The vandalised statue was restored later by the Embassy of India here, with the help of National Park Police and the State Department.

“We had a period of time when they were ripping down all of the statues and monuments, and I said to my people four months ago, I said this is crazy. These people–and they don’t even know,” Trump said.

Now that he has signed an executive order, Trump said that nobody has showed up in four months to take down a statue.

“Because you know why? They look and they say I want to take on that statue. I’m going to take down that statue. That statue’s coming down. And then somebody says, you know, it’s 10 years in jail. They go that’s too much. I’m getting out of here. It’s true,” he said amidst laughter.

“Ten years is not acceptable. Ten years is a lot to rip down a statue, have a little fun, especially when they have no idea what they’re ripping down. But we have an idea what they’re ripping down. They’re ripping down, in many cases, greatness. They’re ripping down our past. They’re ripping down our history,” he said.

“That’s where these guys begin. The take away your history. You look at the Middle East. You look all over. Look what ISIS did. Look what all of them do. They go down and they go to museums and they break everything and they rip everything. They want to take away your past. They are not taking away the past of the United States of America. Not as long as I’m here,” Trump said.

https://indianexpress.com/article/w...ugs-did-not-even-spare-gandhi-statue-6602207/
 
Four protesters have been found not guilty of causing criminal damage after toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court cleared Rhian Graham, 30, Jake Skuse, 33, Sage Willoughby, 22 and Milo Ponsford, 26, of charges, following a trial that lasted two weeks.

SKY
 
MenInG said:
Four protesters have been found not guilty of causing criminal damage after toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court cleared Rhian Graham, 30, Jake Skuse, 33, Sage Willoughby, 22 and Milo Ponsford, 26, of charges, following a trial that lasted two weeks.

SKY
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This disturbs me. Are all statues which “give offence” now fair game? Churchill terror-bombed German cities to the ground. Shall his statue off Parliament Square be torn down by protestors now, with legal immunity?
 
Ripping down statues strikes me as rather counter productive. It is after all a way of symbolically erasing people from history. But surely the best way to highlight the perceived crimes and misdeeds of historical figures is to leave their statues up, so these dark histories cannot be hidden away, and to write/publish about them through non-violent means.
 
James said:
Ripping down statues strikes me as rather counter productive. It is after all a way of symbolically erasing people from history. But surely the best way to highlight the perceived crimes and misdeeds of historical figures is to leave their statues up, so these dark histories cannot be hidden away, and to write/publish about them through non-violent means.
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Better to do it in a controlled way [MENTION=1842]James[/MENTION]. The Colston statue could easily have been put in a museum and his story told there warts and all.
 
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