Lincoln Freed the Slaves Over 150 Years Ago... Now Protesters Are Defacing His Statue with BLM Graffiti
On Sunday, marchers in Albion took to the streets in solidarity with protests in the United States.
The U.K. Guardian estimated the crowds at tens of thousands across the United Kingdom — certainly not anything approaching what we’ve seen in the United States, but certainly nothing to scoff at, either.
In Bristol, a statue of Edward Colston — a prominent 17th-18th century merchant and slave trader — was torn down by protesters, according to the BBC.
There were skirmishes with police, as is de rigueur for these events, leading Prime Minister Boris Johnson to tweet that the protests had been “subverted by thuggery — and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve.”
So pretty much like in America.
People have a right to protest peacefully & while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police. These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery – and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account.
— Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 7, 2020
However, there’s a distance between subversion by thuggery betraying the cause and the kind of hooliganry which truly defies description. In that vein, I give you the defacement of the Abraham Lincoln statue in London:
#BLMLDN Abraham Lincoln statue, Parliament Square London pic.twitter.com/zMA7bRZ7qm
— Mohammed Abbas (@MohammedAbbas79) June 6, 2020
The statue, dedicated in 1920, had originally been intended to be unveiled in 1914 to commemorate 100 years since the end of the War of 1812. However. World War I intervened.
It’s (arguably) America’s greatest president in the United Kingdom’s most populous city. There’s little to dislike here.
But no — now the statue bears the names of black individuals killed by police in the United States:
Statue of former US president Abraham Lincoln now bears the names of black people killed by American police pic.twitter.com/WHBwLIOqjb
— Mattha Busby (@matthabusby) June 6, 2020
Video posted to Twitter also showed Black Lives Matter demonstrators scaling the statue in protest:
A #BlackLivesMatter protestor scales the Abraham Lincoln statue in London’s Parliament Square.@LBC @LBCNews pic.twitter.com/7z3oxlnhrm
— Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) June 6, 2020
Jack Montgomery of Breitbart London noted that Lincoln’s statue was vandalized “worse than Churchill’s.”
Lincoln’s statue vandalised even worse than Churchill’s at the #BlackLivesMatter protest in London. Lincoln, of course, is the President who freed the slaves – and got an assassin’s bullet in the back of the head for doing it. That still wasn’t enough? https://t.co/MeTSrUwN5O pic.twitter.com/r8ICm6j3pS
— Jack Montgomery (@JackBMontgomery) June 6, 2020
I don’t think I need to remind anyone about Abraham Lincoln’s role in ending slavery, considering his election was the impetus for almost all of America’s slave states to break away and form the Confederacy — which was then soundly defeated, thanks to Lincoln.
Over 150 years ago, he freed the slaves — and now this.
I’m not entirely aware where you put the names of black people killed by police in America when you want to blame every single incidence of it on systemic racism, but the statue of the guy who got shot because he freed the slaves definitely isn’t the place.
Of the protests we’ve seen in the wake of George Floyd’s death, this wasn’t one of the more well-thought-out. Even if you believe, as these people do, that police malfeasance was responsible for every one of these deaths, remembering the “victims” by defacing the statue of one of the greatest champions of freedom and equality in the Western world is certainly a unique way to go about letting people know about it.
They might have done better if they focused on Edward Colston.
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