Seems like there are three different questions here.
1. Should statues that memorialise / celebrate people who did bad things be removed?
2. Should protesters get to remove them by force?
3. What's up with black people? Slavery was a long time ago and nothing to do with modern Britain.
My personal view (with no facts or sources to back this up in any way) is....
1. It is a bit dangerous to try to erase our history, or to demonise people who did both good and bad things, but where a statue seems to celebrate a 'bad person' then the community should democratically consider removal, and those not bothered by the statue really should take the trouble to try to understand why other people are bothered. But I recognise that this isn't easy. There has been a long and vociferous campaign in Bristol to remove Colston, which has been resisted by people who don't seem to care about how it makes black people feel. An alternative approach is to change the message. I think it might be more useful for everybody to attach an educational message to things like this, or to install a 'counter-statue'. This was attempted with the Colston statue but resulted in more argument.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/second-colston-statue-plaque-not-2682813
2. Criminal damage is criminal damage and should really not be condoned, but in the end people get frustrated and take action. And sometimes it is better to allow a bit of leeway than to get into violent crushing of insurrection, just to make a point about law and order, or to prioritise the value of property.
3. I used to be a bit 'I don't see colour' and 'All Lives Matter' and 'that was a long time ago', but over the past few years, I have gradually started to better understand the debilitating effects of casual, systemic (and often unconscious) racism, and to recognise the very real privilege of not having to experience that. I started to recognise that some of what is happening today is very much linked to the past, and that the symbols of the past do have an impact on both white and black perceptions and behaviours today. And we are also seeing very vividly the more extreme forms of race-based oppression, that are being highlighted in the USA at the moment. A significant influence on me was the book "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race" by Reni Eddo-Lodge, which I expected to be an irritating whiney rant, but which turned out to be an eloquent and eye-opening challenge to many of my preconceptions. It was still irritating, but in a good way, and it took me a while to quell the 'yes but what about...' voice in my head as I was reading.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/wh...-vJVt2RiNZbaSRe6R5YAS1ajDu83r_ylsCHdK_j6HpDeY
And as a reward for reading all that blather: