31 Dec 2020
The police chief who stood back and did nothing as Black Lives Matter activists ripped down a historic statue in Bristol, England, during lockdown has received a medal in the New Year Honours.
Superintendent Andy Bennet was in charge of the response or non-response to BLM activists pouring into the streets of Bristol despite a national lockdown to topple a 125-year-old bronze of Edward Colston (1636–1721), a figure once revered as a great Christian philanthropist, responsible for endowing many almshouses, schools, and other charitable institutions, who has now been transformed into a hate figure for his then-unremarkable business links to the slave trade.