Monuments to racism toppling around the world.

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Tear all their statues down for all I care about them and their contributions to history written from a white colonial perspective.

In Australia the colonists were often escaping a miserable existence of poverty in England so most sincerely wanted to create a new life for themselves. Many of the achievements in the early years of the settlement colonies were monumentally hard (many of us would not survive such conditions). I see no problem with statues of famous colonist settlers remaining as they laid the groundwork for people like our forefathers to settle in Canada or Australia. It is disingenuous to mock them.

Statues built to honor governors was common in that era and may or may not have been popular with the people, but I prefer my daughter learn about how Australia was settled, In the Melbourne docklands there are plaques all over that explain both the local settlements as well as indigenous. It respects everyone.

Lol it’s been on news programs here in Canada that systemic racism against Indigenous peoples exists in Australia just the same as it does here & elsewhere. The particular show was highlighting camps of homeless people on some major city and almost all of them were Indigenous.

I’ve also seen stories circulating lately about Indigenous deaths in police custody. As for more white people being shot - perhaps - and if so maybe that’s because there are more white people? (And even that’s because of colonization & genocide..)

Two people have been charged with inciting a riot, as well as a host of other charges, for their alleged role in toppling a statue of slave owner John McDonogh in Duncan Plaza Saturday and dumping it in the Mississippi River.

Arrest records indicate 27-year-old Caleb Wassell and 30-year-old Michaela Davis each face multiple charges.

Wassell faced one charge each of illegal possession of stolen property, inciting a riot, theft under $1,000 and inciting a felony. His bail was initially set at $3,000.

Davis was charged with battery of a police officer, being a principal to theft, possession of marijuana, inciting a riot, inciting a felony and aggravated flight from an officer. Her bail was set at $4,000.

Magistrate Court Commissioner Robert Blackburn released the pair on their own recognizance, meaning that they were released without bail under an agreement to return for all court proceedings.

e also found no probable cause for arresting the pair on charges of inciting a felony. He also found no probable cause for Davis' charges of battery of an officer and aggravated flight from an officer.

Court records indicate this is the first arrest for both in New Orleans. Information about a lawyer representing either of them was not immediately available.

Police said they were the people who drove the statue to the river after it was dragged from its base to the intersection of Gravier Street and Loyola Avenue.

The statue was of John McDonogh, a white slave owner who profited off black people who were forced to work for their freedom over a period of 15 years.

He developed a program where slaves he owned could buy their own freedom, generally over the course of 15 years while he took in money from their forced labor before they were able to earn their freedom.

McDonough left the bulk of his fortune to the cities of Baltimore and New Orleans to build public schools for poor children: white children and freed Black children. More than 30 public schools were built in New Orleans because of his donation.

Video from Duncan Plaza, which is directly in front of the New Orleans City Hall, and from the riverfront in the French Quarter, shows protesters using a skateboard, rope and a chisel to topple the statue from its stone base, and later pushing it down the rock shoreline of the Mississippi and into the river.

A crowd of people can be seen cheering in both videos when the statue falls and when it is pushed into the river.

NOPD sent a statement Saturday evening saying the pair had been taken into custody. According to John Simerman from the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate, both were questioned by the FBI after their arrest. Jail records show both were booked into the Orleans Parish Jail early Sunday morning.

Police said Sunday morning that they were also looking for a person of interest, who they say began to damage the statue with spray paint and a hammer.

That man, seen in these photos provided by NOPD, was reportedly one of the main participants in vandalizing the statue.

Why do you exclude the USA? The earlier colonist struggled just as much and all three(Canada, USA,Australia)took the land from the natives.
Weren’t most Austrian settles prisoners since it was a prison colony?

Yes. I had that song on my K-Tel records greatest hits of Motown album. Would cry because of how well little Michael sang that lovely sensitive song. But then I realized that "Ben" was the sequel to the movie "Williard", and that the "Ben" being serenaded in the song was...a killer rat!

I saw the reviews of the movie on TV, and I read the MAD Magazine spoof of Williard in the magazine. But never actually ever saw either movie. So I dont really know.

i've long been fascinated by the possibility that rats have some emotional attachment to their humans.

Almost everyone on the planet participates in slavery in one way or another.

If you believe some’s perspective, virtually all employees are slaves to their corporate owners and the slave traded just shifted from openly selling people to gambling on the success of specially trained slaves on the stock market. I can’t say I disagree with that.

And if you don’t agree with that line of thinking, almost every Western consumer participates in slavery by buying slave made textiles, electronics, food etc etc as the cheap labour around the world is essentially a bunch of slaves - America didn’t just offshore jobs; they offshored slavery so consumers wouldn’t have to watch actual slaves pick cotton and sew t-shirts. Out of sight out of mind, then on the rack at your local retailer for ten or twenty bucks or whatever - totally guilt free because you don’t have to watch 6 year olds make your clothes & furniture anymore.

As for why people do it: some philosophies say we’re always in a state of constant conflict, that it’s the way of the world to conquer or be conquered. Always has been that way, always will be. And the conquered do the slave work for their ruling class captors.

It happen, they tore down a Thomas Jefferson statue and wrote slave owner on its plaque