MANY Oxford Mail readers feel intimidated or threatened by the Black Lives Matter movement.

We know this because of the comments we receive on our stories.

Some people feel that the values they were brought up with are being threatened, that the country they love is somehow under threat, or that the toppling of statues threatens the history of our country that they want to take pride in.

Depending on your exact beliefs, much of this may well be true.

It’s not nice to feel like the country, values and history which you grew up believing in are being called into question, or worse, torn down by an angry mob and thrown into Bristol harbour.

It might be even harder if you’re a certain age and the majority of people doing this are younger than you.

And, if some people feel like some of their traditional ways of thinking are being attacked, well, they are.

We hope that some of the story on today’s front page helps to provide a little extra context about what black and Asian people in our country feel they are up against.

For example, according to one police statistic, 20 per cent of all Taser discharges in this country are against black people, who make up just 3.3 per cent of the population.

Some people would argue that in our country there are more black people living in poorer areas with higher crime rates, which helps explain the figure.

That doesn't help you if you're an innocent black person minding your own business knowing that you're still statistically more likely to have a Taser pulled on you because of the colour of your skin.

Besides which, the attitude that some people are more likely to commit crime risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The whole point of the Black Lives Matter movement is that it is categorically unfair for a certain group of people to feel more threatened, vulnerable or insecure simply because of their heritage.

One would hope that this view at least is one that those critics who do feel threatened could understand.

The Oxford Mail has a no-tolerance policy on abusive or racist comments and those which violate our T&Cs. Failure to comply will result in users being banned from our website. In the most serious cases, racist or threatening comments will be referred to the police.