The Bristol City Council have formally reported the toppling of the slave trader Edward Colston’s statue as criminal damage, triggering a police investigation into the matter. Today, the cops released images of individuals they wish to speak with in relation to the direct action from 7th June, when, during a Black Lives Matter protest, the citizens of Bristol removed the statue and dumped it into the nearby Bristol Harbour. The toppling took place after a years-long local campaign to get the statue of Colston removed, as he was slave trader responsible for kidnapping and trafficking of approximately 84 thousand women, children and men from West Africa to the Caribbean and Americas. About 20 thousand of these people died during their forced transportation. You can read more about the statue, and Edward Colston himself, in this text published by Bristol Radical History Group. For obvious reasons, Freedom will not be reproducing the images of people with whom Avon and Somerset Police wish to speak to in relation to the events of 7th June. However, Bristol Anarchist Black Cross has come up with a message to them. We reproduce it below. (zb)

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Featured image: Caitlin Hobbs, published under CC BY 3.0