Sir Winston Churchill’s statue was vandalised with the words, “is a racist” tagged on the plinth of Great Britain’s famous wartime leader. Current sentencing guidelines say any such offence carries the potential for a 10-year jail sentence in England or Wales under the crime of damaging war memorials or graves. With this in mind, Express.co.uk asked readers in our exclusive poll today, “Should punishment for vandalising a statue be harsher?”
In response, a massive 3,227 out of 3,270 voted that the sentence should be harsher.
Just 35 people voted no in the poll while eight were unsure.
Commenting on the poll, one person said: “Definitely stronger punishments for those vandalising monuments to national heroes.”
Another said: “Rather than money being spent on cleaning up after these criminals, I would rather they were spent on longer custodial sentences!”
Police confirmed today a man was charged after defacing the statue on Thursday.
This summer, the Metropolitan Police have attempted to contain protests and unlicensed musical events amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the last 10 days, Extinction Rebellion protestors have held demonstrations across the capital.
On the last day of the demonstrations, police arrested 13 topless female protestors.
The group of women had chained themselves to railings around Parliament.
Last weekend, the group had also stopped the printing of newspapers in Herefordshire and Merseyside.
