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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/11/edward-colston-statue-retrieved-bristol-harbour-black-lives-matter
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| Edward Colston statue retrieved from Bristol harbour | Edward Colston statue retrieved from Bristol harbour |
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| City council moves monument to secure location after it was toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters | City council moves monument to secure location after it was toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters |
| A statue of Edward Colston has been retrieved after it was thrown into Bristol harbour by Black Lives Matters protesters. | A statue of Edward Colston has been retrieved after it was thrown into Bristol harbour by Black Lives Matters protesters. |
| Bristol city council tweeted on Thursday morning it had taken the monument to a secure location and it would eventually form part of the area’s museum collection. | Bristol city council tweeted on Thursday morning it had taken the monument to a secure location and it would eventually form part of the area’s museum collection. |
| The statue was pulled off the plinth and dumped into the harbour during an anti-racism rally on Sunday. | The statue was pulled off the plinth and dumped into the harbour during an anti-racism rally on Sunday. |
| The city’s mayor, Marvin Rees, has said he wanted to start a calm discussion about what to do about the statue, the plinth where it stood and the other memorials and places in Bristol with links to slavery. | |
| He said: “I think we need to facilitate a citywide conversation about that. The conversation needs to be almost without emotion.” | |
| The statue was pulled down on Sunday amid worldwide protests triggered by the death of George Floyd. | |
| Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white police officer held him down by pressing his knee into his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis on 25 May. | |
| The statue’s retrieval came after a senior Labour MP said its forced removal was the result of years of frustration with the democratic process. | |
| Speaking on ITV’s Peston on Wednesday, the shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, said people decided to take action over the memorial because they felt their voices on racial issues were not being heard. | |
| She said: “Why was that statue removed in the way that it was removed? Because for 20 years, protesters and campaigners had used every democratic lever at their disposal, petitions, meetings, protests, trying to get elected politicians to act, and they couldn’t reach a consensus and they couldn’t get anything done. | |
| “Now this is reflective of what has happened to people of colour in this country and across the world for a very long time. We’ve had seven reviews into racial discrimination in this country in the last three years alone, and very few of those recommendations have been acted on. | |
| “That is why people are so frustrated, and that’s the question we should be asking ourselves, is why is it so difficult for so many people to actually be heard and to pull the democratic leaders to get the democratic change that they need?” |