In many cases, what is right & what is legal are two very separate things.
Hopefully the jury remembers that no matter how they’re instructed in court, they can return a not guilty verdict if they think the accused should go free.
Seems like an obvious candidate for jury nullification, although we’ll see, I suppose.
“Mr Willoughby told the court that requests to remove the statue had been refused for 20 years and he believed the removal of the figure was the right thing to do.”
Precisely. Sometimes the direct action is the only way. I hope that they either will be let go as not guilty or the punishment is symbolic, like £1.
I don’t understand the calls to ignore Colston’s slave-y history. It’s like asking a jury to ignore the motivation for a murder.
There should be a special verdict for when you know something was wrong but no one gets in trouble because it was really funny.
Honestly I think the best solution for this is to find them guilty but give no actual punishment. They did commit a crime and it would be worth it being able to become evidence should they choose to override other laws later but what they done isn’t entirely wrong.
We don’t need a precedent of being allowed to break the law and vandalise things because you believe it to be indecent but we also need to view this in context.
So? This is still a crime…
Im all for slavers being removed, but by the right people at the right time. Not by four bellends whenever they want.
Give them a £20 fine. Its only right a crime is treated as such.
Edit – people seem to be missing the significance of my final comment… a £20 fine is a symbolic punishment… a way to not punish the people but have it still be a broken law…
I can’t understand all the comments “but they still broke the law”.
If there were statues of Hitler all over Germany then we’d probably be praising any young Germans that tore them down.
Colston was responsible for the enslavement of about 85,000 people, whose lives were brutalised as a result, and about 20,000 of them died on the ships across the Atlantic.
If, in your eagerness to condemn those who vandalised his statue, you can dismiss his crimes with no more than “he was a bad guy, but…” then I really think you should take a good long look at your values and the things you care about.
10 comments
In many cases, what is right & what is legal are two very separate things.
Hopefully the jury remembers that no matter how they’re instructed in court, they can return a not guilty verdict if they think the accused should go free.
Seems like an obvious candidate for jury nullification, although we’ll see, I suppose.
“Mr Willoughby told the court that requests to remove the statue had been refused for 20 years and he believed the removal of the figure was the right thing to do.”
Precisely. Sometimes the direct action is the only way. I hope that they either will be let go as not guilty or the punishment is symbolic, like £1.
I don’t understand the calls to ignore Colston’s slave-y history. It’s like asking a jury to ignore the motivation for a murder.
There should be a special verdict for when you know something was wrong but no one gets in trouble because it was really funny.
Fun fact: [John Cabot](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sgwarnog/15036042790) traded slaves before getting into exploration.
Honestly I think the best solution for this is to find them guilty but give no actual punishment. They did commit a crime and it would be worth it being able to become evidence should they choose to override other laws later but what they done isn’t entirely wrong.
We don’t need a precedent of being allowed to break the law and vandalise things because you believe it to be indecent but we also need to view this in context.
So? This is still a crime…
Im all for slavers being removed, but by the right people at the right time. Not by four bellends whenever they want.
Give them a £20 fine. Its only right a crime is treated as such.
Edit – people seem to be missing the significance of my final comment… a £20 fine is a symbolic punishment… a way to not punish the people but have it still be a broken law…
I can’t understand all the comments “but they still broke the law”.
If there were statues of Hitler all over Germany then we’d probably be praising any young Germans that tore them down.
Colston was responsible for the enslavement of about 85,000 people, whose lives were brutalised as a result, and about 20,000 of them died on the ships across the Atlantic.
If, in your eagerness to condemn those who vandalised his statue, you can dismiss his crimes with no more than “he was a bad guy, but…” then I really think you should take a good long look at your values and the things you care about.