British ‘Black Lives Matter’ rioters recently tore down a historic statue of Edward Colston, reportedly a 17th-century slave trader. The statue was in Bristol, England. A statue of a protester was secretly installed overnight to replace the slave trader, Colston.
Apparently, the locality had not approved this statue though, and it only lasted a little longer than a day before being tossed into what appears to be a mobile dumpster by the local authorities.
The new statue of Jen Reid has been removed from the plinth by Bristol City Council this morning. pic.twitter.com/dUFYN4wq3Y
— Anthony Ward (@Anth0ny_Ward) July 16, 2020
CNN tweeted about the illicit statue when it was initially raised, with a link to the story. Nothing in the tweet mentioned that it wasn’t approved by the locality though, or that it was likely not going to stay for that reason. They tweeted gleefully:
“A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester has replaced a slave trader statue in the UK. The work is officially titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020″ and depicts a woman with her fist raised in a Black Power salute.” See tweet:
A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester has replaced a slave trader statue in the UK.
— CNN (@CNN) July 15, 2020
The work is officially titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020” and depicts a woman with her fist raised in a Black Power salute. https://t.co/Qx42f7ntNK pic.twitter.com/aOVVCzxdmH
Activists and social media warriors were livid on Twitter:
WATCH: Here’s the statue of #BLM protestor Jen Reid being driven away. It lasted 24 hours on the Colston Plinth before @BristolCouncil removed it. pic.twitter.com/4gSmGhkTLR
— Pete Simson (@SimsonPete) July 16, 2020
Dumped in a recycling skip barely 24 hours later ??#Colston #JenReid #BristolStatue pic.twitter.com/G5GzZPWnHz
— Bin The Labour Party (@binlabour) July 16, 2020
The Bristol City Council tweeted a video in June of the statue of Colston being retrieved from the ‘harbour’ where it was chucked by the lawless rioters. The statue is purported to have a future in a museum according to the official post. They tweeted:
“Early this morning we retrieved the statue of Colston from Bristol Harbour. It is being taken to a secure location before later forming part of our museum’s collection.” See video tweet:
Early this morning we retrieved the statue of Colston from Bristol Harbour. It is being taken to a secure location before later forming part of our museums collection. pic.twitter.com/moRG8AnNYa
— Bristol City Council (@BristolCouncil) June 11, 2020
It’s unclear if there will be any sort of appeal or plans to re-erect this statue or something similar after a potential approval process, although, in today’s politically correct society, it won’t be a surprise if that happens. BizPacReview reported on the story in part:
A group of British Black Lives Matter vandals who’d ripped down a statue of a 17th-century parliamentarian and slave trader in Bristol and replaced it with a sculpture of one of their proud members/vandals, Jen Reid, got some bad news Thursday.
“Workers removed the resin-and-steel statue of Ms. Reid at dawn Thursday, 24 hours after it was put up, bringing a swift curtain down on an act of guerrilla art that attracted widespread attention but did not impress city leaders,” The New York Times confirmed.
Nice try, though …
The report emerged hours after Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees, a black man, issued a statement making it clear how he felt about the act of vandalism:
I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission.
— Marvin Rees (@MarvinJRees) July 15, 2020
Anything put on the plinth outside of the process we’ve put in place will have to be removed.
The people of Bristol will decide its future. https://t.co/dEsZF9kNRt
