{"id":241249,"date":"2023-11-15T21:25:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T21:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=241249"},"modified":"2023-11-15T21:25:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T21:25:37","slug":"campaign-launched-to-remove-padlocks-on-bridge-named-after-slave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/campaign-launched-to-remove-padlocks-on-bridge-named-after-slave\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign launched to remove padlocks on bridge named after slave"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Campaign is launched to remove padlocks left by loved-up couples on Bristol bridge named after slave because they are a &#8216;symbol of oppression&#8217;<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>&#8216;Lovelocks&#8217; have been visible on Pero&#8217;s Bridge in the city&#8217;s harbourside for years<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Named after Pero Jones, an 18th century slave brought to live in the city aged 12<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Petition starter Helen Tierney says the &#8216;hideous&#8217; locks dishonour his memory\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A campaign has been launched to remove hundreds of padlocks left by\u00a0loved-up couples on a bride named after a 18th-century slave, as they are\u00a0&#8216;symbols of oppression&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Pero&#8217;s Bridge in Bristol Harbour was named\u00a0after Pero Jones, who was brought to live in the city by his &#8216;owner&#8217; after he was purchased at the age of 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0&#8216;Lovelocks&#8217; have been visible on the bridge ever since its\u00a0construction in 1999,\u00a0copying the tradition best known from the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the locks are technically not allowed, Bristol City Council have never enforced a ban on the practice &#8211; instead removing the locks every few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But now, city resident Helen Tierney says that Pero was never granted his freedom &#8211; and the thousands of &#8216;hideous&#8217; love locks dishonour his memory.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/14\/77833779-12752631-Pero_s_Bridge_in_Bristol_Harbour_was_named_after_Pero_Jones_an_1-a-24_1700060027551.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pero&#8217;s Bridge in Bristol Harbour was named after Pero Jones, an 18th century slave brought to live in the city by his &#8216;owner&#8217; after he was purchased at the age of just 12<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/14\/77833769-12752631-The_Lovelocks_have_been_visible_on_the_bridge_ever_since_its_con-a-25_1700060031383.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;Lovelocks&#8217; have been visible on the bridge ever since its construction in 1999, copying the tradition best known from the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/14\/77833759-12752631-While_the_locks_are_technically_not_allowed_Bristol_City_Council-a-26_1700060036242.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>While the locks are technically not allowed, Bristol City Council have never enforced a ban on the practice &#8211; instead removing the locks every few years<\/p>\n<p>In a petition on 38 Degrees, she is calling on Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees to remove the locks from the bridge which is &#8216;weighed down by the very symbols of oppression&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She wrote: &#8216;To Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol. In the heart of Bristol is a pedestrian bridge crossing the harbour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The City Council agreed the name Pero&#8217;s Bridge to honour a young enslaved African, Pero Jones, who in the 18th century was sold into slavery aged 12 &amp; brought by his &#8216;owner&#8217; to live in Bristol.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Pero was never granted his freedom &amp; died enslaved. A tiny plaque by the bridge tells this story.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Pero&#8217;s Bridge is now defaced with thousands of padlocks, so called &#8216;lovelocks&#8217; locked on to its structure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The keys most likely dropped into the water below. Only a few steps from the bridge is the place where, in 2020, the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was thrown into the harbour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I call upon the Mayor &amp; City Councillors of Bristol to remove these hideous padlocks, not symbols of love at all but of oppression down the centuries, of enslaved people chained &amp; padlocked with the keys thrown away, those people disrespected still today in the very place where they should be honoured.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The pedestrian bridge linking Queen Square and Millennium Square also sits a matter of meters from the site of controversial Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>In that protest, campaigners famously threw a statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston into the city harbour just meters from the bridge.<\/p>\n<p>The statue was later recovered and put on exhibition from June 4 to September 5 2021 at the M Shed museum in Bristol.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/15\/14\/75825539-12752631-Pero_s_bridge_can_be_seen_in_the_background_as_BLM_protesters_la-a-27_1700060069546.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pero&#8217;s bridge can be seen in the background as BLM protesters later dragged the statue into the harbour, spray painted it and then threw it into the water<\/p>\n<p>The activist who helped mastermind the protest which led to the toppling of the statue was jailed for fraud in October.<\/p>\n<p>Xahra Saleem spent more than \u00a330,000 in donations earmarked for charity to fund her lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saleem admitted fraud following a police investigation into a GoFundMe page called &#8216;BristBLM&#8217; set up before the protest.<\/p>\n<p>The BLM organiser received \u00a332,344 in donations raised from 558 individual contributions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She went on to spend the money earmarked for local charities to fund her lifestyle &#8211; from her rent, hair and beauty appointments, and takeaways, to a new iPhone, iMac and Amazon purchases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bristol Crown Court heard that she even splurged nearly \u00a36,000 on Uber rides.<\/p>\n<p>Saleem, of Romford, Essex, was jailed for two-and-a-half years at a sentencing hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12752631\/Campaign-launched-remove-padlocks-couples-bristol-bridge-named-slave-oppression.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Campaign is launched to remove padlocks left by loved-up couples on Bristol bridge named after slave because they are a &#8216;symbol of oppression&#8217; &#8216;Lovelocks&#8217; have been visible on Pero&#8217;s Bridge&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Campaign launched to remove padlocks on bridge named after slave - lovemainstream.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/campaign-launched-to-remove-padlocks-on-bridge-named-after-slave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Campaign launched to remove padlocks on bridge named after slave - lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Campaign is launched to remove padlocks left by loved-up couples on Bristol bridge named after slave because they are a &#8216;symbol of oppression&#8217; 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