LONDON — Four anti-racism demonstrators have been cleared of criminal damage in the toppling of a statue of a 17th-century slave trader during a Black Lives Matter protest in southwestern England.
Protesters used ropes to pull down the bronze statue of Edward Colston and dump it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7, 2020.
The demonstration and toppling were part of a worldwide reckoning with racism and slavery sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
Loud cheers rang out from a packed public gallery at Bristol Crown Court as a jury acquitted the four on Wednesday.
Ben Birchall/PA via AP
