We differ on this.

I have no care about a Bristol figure related to its past and I can understand why a percent will be against this statue.

I am also against certain statues but I would never support mob rule in a democratic state.....Has state control broken down?

In a democratic state, there are legal processes that are required and hence this is a criminal act and I'd restore this statue under armed guard if required.

If enough people in Bristol want this statue removed they must do it legally.

If the legal processes fail, well then the losers have to suck it up as that is the point of a democracy.

If they succeed fine.....again, that's democracy.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

This is where we go round in circles because the attempts at a democratic decision were ignored.

I can imagine the reaction to riot police dealing with this statue removal yesterday. As I said, it’s a small victory they’re willing to let go because they probably also don’t feel it’s necessary he statue is there. Like you, I’m not that fussed about it and I reckon nobody will be in time either. It’s about more than this statue and this is my concern. When the young black people who are just like low income white people next have a reason to go on a rampage. Plenty have ability, glass ceilings, face subtle racist problems etc and that’s fine to deal with. The problem is when I hear about not having a father or an education.

COYP

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As previously posted this should be of more concern than a statue. Even if these figures are wrong by 50% they are still shocking.

There's that pesky democracy again. It's soooo unfair when they don't get their way.

One more point

The news last night (BBC), they asked a girl about why she was protesting and all she could come up with is, “we can’t take this racism any longer and we are oppressed and it’s wrong” and “stop and search is wrong”. Really, is that the kind of thoughts running through people’s minds that makes them want to protest and riot. I would have thought there might be something a little more complex than this.

I would say 90% of protestors have absolutely no idea what they want or how something can be done to improve things. Just shouting racism is bad is going to achieve f all and then rioting to enforce it is just going to make the majority of this country switch off to their plight. We like a minority or an underdog if you like in this country, someone or groups of people that beat the odds, we always have. What we don’t like is being told en mass that we are all fundamentally racist and that we must change. That attitude will never work.

I look at the Indian, pakistani, Chinese, Bangladeshi and others who work so hard to make their place in British Society and I don’t see them rioting about racism or injustice.

I wish the black people who feel they have been so hard done by tell us why they feel like this. Maybe then we can try to understand what the problem is.

Brilliant. As usual, a completely different situation which bears no relation to the discussion.

If people are going to keep using history to indoctrinate new generations with past grievances then perhaps it would be better if we buried it.

It is being used by political groups to sow disharmony where very little actually exists.