“No monuments to crimes against humanity” – Massive Attack celebrate Colston statue acquittal
Four defendants were acquitted by a jury yesterday
Massive Attack have taken to Twitter expressing their support for the Colston 4, the four defendants accused of criminal damage for toppling of one of Bristol’s most known and controversial statues.
The Colston statue memorialised Edward Colston, a 17th Century Tory MP who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade.
Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, Jake Skuse and Sage Willoughbhy were all cleared of the charges of criminal damage against the state by a jury on Wednesday. The verdict comes after the four took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol city centre in June 2020, in which a large group of people (led by the four) pulled down the statue using ropes, before dragging it to the Floating Harbour and pushing it into the water.
The toppling came on June 7, 2020, two weeks after the murder of George Floyd, which sparked anti-racist protests around the world. During the trial, the defendants were said to have proudly recounted their roles in the toppling, and argued that it was justified based on the history of racial injustice that the statue represented.
It took 16 ordinary Bristol citizens – 4 innocent defendants & 12 jurors – to end a century of intransigence & delay at the hands of successive councils, elected mayors & the @SMVBristol.
— Massive Attack (@MassiveAttackUK) January 5, 2022
No monuments to crimes against humanity. #BLM #Colston4 https://t.co/K5kdtULR49
While Colston was a philanthropist venerated by many as Bristol’s best-known charitable martyr, historians such as David Olusoga have raised doubts over the origins of his wealth, which he argues was accumulated as a shareholder of Britain’s most powerful slave owning enterprise in his life, the Royal African Company – which is known to have enslaved over 85,000 Africans.
Massive Attack said, “it took 16 ordinary Bristol citizens – 4 innocent defendants and 12 jurors – to end a century of intransigence and delay at the hands of successive councils, elected mayors & the @SMVBristol.”
Previously, the band had also commented on how “totems of colonial violence & their systemic assocations could still play a role in consolidating racial injustice, in a city riven with racial inequality.” They condemned the Society of Merchant Venturers, a charity active in Bristol since the 13th Century, of which Colston was a member, and whom still hold extensive influence over the city of Bristol.