London mayor Sadiq Khan has said statues of historical leaders linked to slavery could be torn down.
Bengaluru: As Winston Churchill’s statue was defaced in London's Parliament Square last week, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has said that statues with history of slavery leaders could be torn down.
He said that the city "shouldn't be commemorating or memorialising people who were slavers".
He announced that he will be setting up a “diversity commission” to investigate which statues should be retained and which new ones should be erected. The commission will comprise of historians and arts, council and community leaders.
He further said, "The Black Lives Matter protests have rightly brought this to the public attention, but it's important that we take the right steps to work together to bring change and ensure that we can all be proud of our public landscape.”
He also added, "It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored. This cannot continue.”
The protest #BlackLivesMatter is a protest to lodge feelings of offence against the killing of George Floyd who was pinned to the ground as there was a complaint of counterfeit note against him.
Police officer Derek Chauvin, in visuals that went viral, was seen kneeling on Floyd, completely checkmating him.
Presently, Derek is facing charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder manslaughter. A bail of 1 million dollar has set.
Back to Winston Churchill, he is held in a very high regard in Britain as he is even voted as the greatest Briton even after his death. But as a popular website noted, he has faced the wrath of the people as he is accused of not handling the Bengal famine that broke out in 1943.
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