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A wave of protests against racial inequality and police brutality has swept through the United Kingdom over the death of American citizen George Floyd, with instances of police officers attacked and historic monuments vandalised by protesters.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he will not "indulge those who break the law, or attack the police, or desecrate public monuments", adding that they would "face the full force of the law".
Johnson said that Floyd's death awakened an "undeniable feeling of injustice", acknowledging that people from black and minority ethnic groups "do face discrimination", adding that those feelings are founded on a cold reality.
"We who lead and who govern simply can't ignore those feelings because in too many cases, I am afraid, they will be founded on a cold reality", the prime minister said.
On the second day of anti-racism protests in the UK, a bronze statue in Bristol honoring slave trader Edward Colston, who left his fortune to charities, was pulled down from its base and dumped into the harbour. Johnson said he sees the removal of the monument as a criminal act, his spokesperson said.
At the same time, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said he understood the sense of loss that some people felt but did not share it, commenting that the fact that the 125-year-old monument is now underwater is a "piece of historical irony".
Home Secretary Priti Patel said earlier in the day that over the weekend, a total of 35 police officers suffered injuries during the protests, which turned violent in the capital of London. Cenotaph, London's most symbolic war memorial, and the statue of Winston Churchill were also vandalised by rioters.
(SPUTNIK)
