Colston's fall Was statue's toppling a turning point in race relations or a big distraction?

THE global campaign to highlight racist police brutality was 'hijacked and skewed' - in Britain, at least - by the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, which happened five years ago today.

- Tristan CORK

That's the view of Bristol poet and activist Lawrence Hoo, inset, who said the debate and focus of the Black Lives Matter movement went in a 'completely different direction' in the aftermath of the statue toppling. Others say the act 'reignited the issues of racism and Bristol's past.

Five years on and there are still the same views and arguments about what happened on the afternoon of June 7, 2020 - many in Bristol say the toppling has given new impetus to education and discussion about Bristol's history, while others angered by the toppling at the time maintain that the act was vandalism and question the motivation for it.

The statue of Edward Colston had been in The Centre area of Bristol for 125 years when people on a protest march gathered around it on Sunday June 7, 2020.

The nation was still under Covid restrictions, but thousands had taken to the streets in Bristol and cities around the world that weekend as part of a movement called Black Lives Matter. Thirteen days earlier, police officers in the American city of Minneapolis murdered a man called George Floyd, who had been detained on the street on suspicion of trying to spend a forged $20 bill.

The murder, and numerous previous killings of black people by police in the US, reignited the long-running Black Lives Matter movement which quickly went global. The rally on College Green saw as many as 10,000 people gather with the focus on police brutality and racism both in the US and in the UK too.

The crowd - people of all races - toppled the statue, and videos of that moment, and of it being pushed into the Floating Harbour next to Pero's Bridge, were seen by billions around the world.

For many in Bristol, it was a shocking moment of mob disorder, damaging part of the city's physical heritage. For many others, it was a cathartic moment that had been a long time coming.