Photographs show activists at the illegal Black Lives Matter protests in London have defaced the Cenotaph, which honours the fallen, on the 76th anniversary of D-Day.
Sited on Whitehall near the Prime Minister’s official Downing Street residence, the Cenotaph — “empty tomb” — is Britain’s national war memorial, constructed and dedicated to the memory of “the glorious dead” in the First World War.
It remains the focus of the country’s most significant acts of remembrance down to the present day, particularly on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, and with June 6th being the 76th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy it would have, in normal times, likely been the focus of ceremonies honouring veterans of all colours across Britain and the former British Empire.
Such ceremonies have been suspended virtually worldwide, however, as people are prevented from attending large memorials or even a typical funeral — but this did not stop Black Lives Matter supporters from staging a thousands-strong, closely-packed, and ultimately violent protest, ostensibly over George Floyd’s death on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in Minneapolis.
Graffiti on the Cenotaph, the memorial to Britain’s war dead, during the #BlackLivesMatter protest in London.
It’s also the 76th anniversary of D-Day. @LBC @LBCNews pic.twitter.com/zEyfaCcGnl
— Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) June 6, 2020
Our forefathers of ALL backgrounds fought together to defeat actual fascists.
They gave their tomorrow for our today and to gift us a free world where people can freely protest *peacefully*THEY DID NOT MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR THEIR MEMORIAL CENOTAPH TO BE DESECRATED. pic.twitter.com/VxNANeMO6G
— Aman Bhogal #StayAlert (@AmandeepBhogal) June 6, 2020
Can there be anything more objectionable than defacing the cenotaph on D-Day? The day on which we commemorate those who gave their lives to liberate Europe. They died so that these yobs were free. pic.twitter.com/cYknaTzhJB
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) June 6, 2020
Activists defaced the Cenotaph with “BLM” graffiti, an escalation of the last round of protests in which they contented themselves with merely swinging from the flags which adorn the memorial — an act which earned Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, a prison sentence in 2011, although the mainstream media and even the police attempted to downplay this with dubious “fact checks” suggesting no “damage” had been done to the memorial.
Prior to defacing the Cenotaph, attendees at the Black Lives Matter protest — which both the Health Secretary and the Home Secretary urged people to stay away from, given it is unlawful and could lead to a resurgence of the coronavirus in Britain’s multicultural capital — had vandalised not just the statue of wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, but also the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. leader who was assassinated for leading the war to free America’s slaves in the 1800s.
PICS: Clashes Erupt at BLM London Protest, Mounted Police Knocked from Saddle https://t.co/CohIYM8w9O
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 6, 2020
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