Thread by @TristanCorkPost

THREAD:
BREAKING: @aspolice have launched a major appeal, with CCTV pics, to find the 18 people responsible for how the Edward #ColstonStatue into the docks
Full story here - please read first - but this thread will examine how we got here...
#Bristol
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

It took 83 mins from toppling to dunking & the police didn’t intervene once
Afterwards, the mayor & others praised police for their restraint - no one was injured & nothing else was damaged- compare that to scenes elsewhere
#Colston #Bristol #ColstonStatue
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

The question soon arose tho - should those responsible face a police investigation/poss prosecution?
The morning after, it was a Q the mayor said was not for him - he said he was not going to be a ‘cheerleader’ for a prosecution, & it was for the criminal justice system, not him

But Supt Andy Bennett, the police chief in charge that day, quickly pointed out the crime of criminal damage requires a victim, & requires that victim to report their property as damaged.
He said police & council had to have ‘a mature conversation’ about this.
#Colston #Bristol

If the people who toppled Colston were to be found & prosecuted, it would be because the owner of the statue made a complaint to the police about it.

But who owned it?

#Colston #Bristol

For a few days, the Mayor said there was a Q about ownership.
But by the Thursday, the only other candidate other than the council - the Society of Merchant Venturers - made it clear they weren’t claiming ownership of the statue, therefore dodging this particular thorny issue.

A barrister’s blog, read that here 👇, made it clear the council & the mayor would not be able to dodge the question for too long.
#Colston #Bristol
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

For this to be a crime, it needed a victim.
Would Bristol City Council formally complain? Write a witness statement detailing the damage sustained to its listed monument?
#Colston #Bristol
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

The criminal barrister, Matthew Scott, said it would be ‘inconceivable’ for a local authority to decline to make this statement.
It would effectively be saying to the police & the world, ‘no, it’s fine, we don’t want to report this as a crime’.
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

Were the council were going to report something as a crime that everyone from the mayor & senior cllrs, to even the Merchant Venturers by now, were saying they weren’t exactly unhappy had happened?
It was ‘right for Bristol’ that the statue wasn’t there anymore, the SMVs said.

Going through many different CCTV angles & finding & watching the numerous videos on social media, then putting together a gallery of wanted suspects takes a lot of police resources, a team led by a Det Supt.
They wouldn’t do that if it was going to go nowhere with no victim.

Today, the police go to the next stage of their investigation - a major public appeal asking to identify up to 18 people they want to question in relation to this.
And in doing so they confirmed...
In the past week to 10 days, Bristol City Council has submitted that statement.

We asked the council who made that statement of complaint to the police. When? And why?
They didn’t answer those questions, & the council's official response said merely that they did so ‘at the request of the police’.

To be clear, this is not about prosecution - that is not for the mayor or the council, or even the police, to decide. The council say it has had its property damaged.
The police build a case & submit evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service
The CPS decides what should happen.

Take a step back here & realise - as the barrister chap did - that it would be ‘inconceivable’ for the council not to make this statement, so of course they were going to.
Weren't they?
It’s the local authority & one of its listed monuments had been badly damaged.

The whole thing put the council, & the mayor, in an unenviable position - not making that statement would have stopped the police investigation.
But....

...making it now means the police have a wanted gallery out there of people who did something the mayor, the City Poet, most people in the city & around the world have hailed as right, even poetic, iconic & symbolic.
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

Imagine the repercussions if the council had told the police: ‘actually, never mind, it’s fine…’
We’ve seen two worrying ‘counter’ attacks on other monuments already.
#Colston #Bristol
bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

The mayor & council here are damned if they do, & damned if they don’t.
So this thread is just to put things in context, & also to explain that everything is complicated, nuanced and quite a challenge.
What would you have done?

This thread is also to make it clear that, as much as it wants to play it down, the council has an active role here.
It could have said no...

bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-n…

It will be the council's statement that will be read out in court as evidence that the crime of criminal damage occurred, that the council did not want Defendants A to R to break their statue.

If - and this is still a big IF, of course - it ever gets that far.....