There are lots of things that people find offensive there are also plenty of ways to seek redress without resorting to violence.

Bristol Council held a referendum on the statue and the people did not vote to remove it but then I guess democracy is only acceptable when it comes up with the right answer.

This is not about whether Colston was a good or bad person but about criminal damage.

Following a mob pulling down the statue of Colston in Bristol, London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, set up a committee to look at which statues in London should be taken down.
Now Khan has praised the decision to put up a statue of John Chilembwe on the ‘4th Plinth’ in Trafalgar Square, stating that it is: "shining a spotlight on important issues that our society continues to face, and I know they will spark debate and interest at home and abroad."
Chilembwe was a Baptist preacher in Nyasaland (now Malawi). In 1915 he was a leader of an insurrection against colonial rule. He sent his followers with orders to “kill all European men” and bring back the head of William Livingstone, a local plantation boss. Livingstone was decapitated with an axe – in front of his wife and two small children. Chilembwe proceeded to conduct a sermon in church next to the severed head of Livingstone, impaled on a pole.
Colston founded and endowed schools, houses for the poor, hospitals and churches. Yet his statue was pulled down due to his business connections to slavery. Chilembwe was a terrorist, racist and inciter of murder.
The likes of Khan clearly don't want to remove statues that may cause offence, nor do they want to remove statues of racist individuals from the past – they want to remove dead white men in their anti-white, anti-British agenda.

A majority of a jury seemingly agrees with me, Hrolf.

Seems you're on the lunatic fringe now!

Colston was born into money. His money came from a wide variety of businesses. He was also an MP in Bristol.

Yup back to that pesky democracy, direct action is the answer. Don't like Tony Blair getting a knighthood go smash up his house.

If the jury had any sense they would have found them guilty the judge would then have taken any mitigation into account, but they didn't so it is a moot point.