#BlackLivesMatter from US to UK: Churchill Statue Defaced in London as Social Justice Riots Erupt

By Staff, Agencies

US protests for racial equality and social justice have trickled into the United Kingdom as demonstrators in London desecrated Sunday the statue of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill with the words, “was a racist.”

While weekend protests went by relatively peacefully, riots erupted Sunday evening across Britain in London, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham, among others, following widespread protests in the US over the death of George Floyd while in custody by the Minneapolis police on May 25.

The graffiti to Churchill’s statue was added to the base of the memorial in Parliament Square, with a brown sign strapped to the monument's stomach. Protesters who huddled around the site were chanting “Churchill was a racist” and “Boris [Johnson] is a racist,” British daily Independent reported.

Policemen were captured on video escaping a crowded street after demonstrators hurled objects toward them, injuring one officer in the head.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the protests were “subverted by thuggery” and a “betrayal” to their cause, the BBC reported.

In the port city of Bristol, demonstrators tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th slave trader, and threw it into the city’s river, the Independent reported.