You should not get a prison sentence for “planning” something unless it’s terrorism or another act of extreme violence. I.e. the guy who was just jailed for planning to kidnap, rape, and murder Holly Willoughby.
Arresting people for planning a nonviolent protest is authoritarian behaviour.
This is the UK, land of the GCHQ (same as the NSA, but worse, and when the Snowden revelations brought up what they were doing, it was simply made legal, unlike in the US), the most video surveillance cameras per person in the World, were they’ve been using techniques such as kettling of demonstrations for years and were the police were early adopters of AI face recognition cameras.
That place is hugelly authoritarian, they’re just posh about it and their use of violence against normal people tends to hide behind “rules and regulations” unlike cruder nations were the cops just shoot them.
In these difficult times this is awful and depressing news :(
Just do a hunger strike in jail lolz! Let’s see how hardcore you are in there when the gloves are off mah fucka
Facing the end of the world is neither here or there
Said the judge. I wonder if he’ll remember his words in a few decades when it’s the end of the world?
“I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns motivating you are, at least to some extent, shared by many,” he said.
“But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law.
“And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.”
A quote from someone who will probably die long before we see the worst effects of climate change.
Whoever (judge or whichever other position) said that should have considered the personal risk these people took in order to take an action many others would benefit but also shy away from. Especially considering that the ones responsible to reflect the wishes of the people and benefit of the people have given themselves all the exceptions that will protect them from not doing their duty.
News of the sentencing reached the public broadcaster here in Estonia, including Dale Vince’s comment that “this resembles Russia or maybe North Korea” and Chris Packham’s assessment that “this is a threat against freedom of speech”.
I hope the judgement gets overturned on appeal, and the law that enabled the judgement gets scrapped or rewritten.
I also suspect that the next people who want to stop traffic on a highway will not choose peaceful assembly as their method, but will use far more dangerous methods - sabotage from distance. Needless to say, state will cry “terrorism” then, and that is not a desirable outcome.
A rightful punishment for us being mildly inconvenienced and billionaires losing a couple of dollars that day.
Mildly inconvenienced, you say? I bring my pitchforks and torches even for people making sense on a platform I don’t even visit regularly. How dare they even think of or plan for mildly inconveniencing me?
longest ever sentences for non-violent protest
For planning non-violent protest. They didn’t even fucking commit “public nuisance.”
How do appeals work in the UK?
“I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns are shared by many, but the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.”
Don’t you get it? There’s no more fucking time to fuck around. Earth will be uninhabitable for humans if we continue the course.
Earth will be uninhabitable for humans if we continue the course.
Lol, that’ll show us!
Ah shit.
And you want to achieve that by alienating everyone and turning them against the cause?
Those fools destroy decades of hard work of climate activists.
What do you mean turn people against the cause?
Like you think people will be like, yeah to spite these people imma start burning coal for fun. Like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The only ones alienated are the dumbfuck deniers. If you disagree with that, I said what I said.
That doesn’t make sense, because I’m here saying exactly that and being the opposite of a denier.
You heard me. They’re getting fooled into helping the oil industry and all enemies of nature. They’re making the randoms that form the majority hate climate activists, and I think it’s deliberate.
How much positive have you heard from people outside of activism about their actions? How much criticism have you heard from withing activist circles?
You heard me. They’re getting fooled into helping the oil industry and all enemies of nature. They’re making the randoms that form the majority hate climate activists, and I think it’s deliberate.
How much positive have you heard from people outside of activism about their actions? How much criticism have you heard from withing activist circles?
How much positive have you heard from politicians about the huge climate report that scientists worked on for almost 10 years, delivered March last year ?
There’s more people complaining about those protesting the climate than doing literally anything about it. Be the change you want to see and don’t poo poo others who go about the same goal in a different way.
Say it with me: we need a diversity of tactics.
Because playing nice has worked so well so far, right?
Just to be clear, you get a shorter sentence here for beating the absolute shit out of people. Rapists have been given less time. You could do the exact same thing but Vladimir you did it because god hates gay people or whatever and barely spend a day in prison.
They were given those sentences because these protests are working. So, the fossil fuel lobby’s plan is to make the human cost of it not worth doing.
Yes, they really are that cartoonishly villainous.
Wait, for planning? Is this pre-crime?
Get your sick sticks ready
Does King Charles have pardon powers?
The thing about the UK system is that the King might nominally do something, but what he does is entirely decided by the cabinet. There are a handful of residual powers (eg: interfering with the timing of Canadian elections) but that’s pretty much it.
The sentences are 5 years in one case and 4 in the others.
Seems like a bit much to me.
Our prisons are designed for revenge and punishment not just to those going to prison, but to have a terrifying affect on others.
So ironically, the use of 5 years prison time is the real terrorism, in the literal sense of trying to make people terrified of protesting and of putting someone in a cage for 5 years.
In the Netherlands in the last few years a significant difference was seen between how protesting farmers were treated and how climate protesters were treated. The farmers were allowed to do crazy things like setting things on fire on highways and not getting arrested. Eventually some got arrested, and then two of them were released awaiting their court-case because they had a family to take care of and a 40+ hours work week (sic). The climate protesters were usually all arrested, and almost no matter how many they were. Hundreds of protestors ? No problem. Just hijack some public buses as usual and take them out. Farmers ? Oh no, let’s not get our food serving workers even more angry than they are! It is almost like cops are trained to counter certain types of protestors only. Maybe they need some better counter farmer protest training.
5 years is also the maximum sentence for illegally selling firearms, violent disorder, performing female circumcision, assault, abandoning young children and some cases of sexually assaulting a child.
Basically the same as planning to block a road /s.
Might as well commit violent disorder if you’ll get the same sentence.
Yeah 4-5 years too much.
Outrageous!
