A U.K. judge handed down shockingly harsh sentences to peaceful climate activists, sparking outrage and disbelief. Is this justice or suppression of dissent?
My assumption is that they’re aiming for a penalty sufficient to get people to stop doing stuff like this. You don’t punish for the sake of punishment, but to deter. If they stop, there’s no reason to have more-severe penalties. If people keep doing it anyway, consider the penalties not a deterrent, then I’d assume that sentences will increase in severity.
The sentences are the longest since the introduction by the last government of the new law of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, in a bid to clamp down on disruptive protests.
The court heard the intention was to block most of the M25, preventing traffic from other roads from joining the motorway.
The action resulted in chaos on the M25 over four successive days, causing nearly 51,000 hours of driver delays, the court heard. The protests closed parts of the motorway in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.
People missed flights, medical appointments and exams. Two lorries collided, and a police motorcyclist came off his bike during one of the protests on 9 November 2022 while trying to bring traffic to a halt in a “rolling road block”.
Prosecutors alleged the protests led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was put at more than £1.1m.
Yeah, it’s good rhet we stop people from trying to stop Humanities end. climate change will fuck you and your children for the next multi digit generations and frankly I wonder if there will be humans left when this is over, but sure… Lets celebrate jailing those that are trying to stop it.
It’s not the road. It’s the travelers on the road.
They aren’t blocking the road. They are blocking the people from going home, going to work, looking for a toilet, picking up their kids, buying groceries, visiting their families, trying to get to the hospital before the baby comes or grandma dies…
It’s one thing to be slowed down by someone who also has places to be, things to do, people to see; a fellow traveler who is sharing the road.
It’s something entirely different to be stopped by a selfish prick whose sole intent is to prevent others from completing their journey.
Their intention is to protest how we are ignoring climate change, you know, the civilization ending catastrophe. There are road delays all the time, for construction, crashes, event traffic, weather, floods, electricity outages, etc. Do you get this upset for every one of those events?
I’d argue “share the road” includes uses such as protests, marches, bike races, whatever. It’s a public good, you don’t have the final say on “approved” uses. Traffic in my town is insane on game day, do I get to jail the sports teams organizers for the disruption for 5 years? Someone probably shat their pants due to the delay, where is their justice?! Boggles the mind that a trivial delay causes this much outrage. Car brain is a hell of a thing.
The intention is to obstruct people from traveling. The purpose behind that intent is irrelevant as that intention is completely unacceptable.
There are, indeed, road delays all the time, caused by people attempting to share a shared resource.
JSO isn’t sharing a shared resource. They are monopolizing, privatizing that resource, excluding anyone else from using it.
Marches, bike races, even protests can be acceptable, so long as detours are available to bypass the obstruction. In all of these cases, the roadway is marked “closed” before the last intersection before the obstruction, so traffic can choose a different path. But such courtesies don’t achieve JSO’s intent. The courtesy of a “road closed” sign completely defeats their intention of preventing people from traveling. They want as many people as possible trapped for as long as possible, and that makes them a bunch of fucking assholes, no matter how righteous their cause.
Tribal Police in Arizona had the right approach to this sort of idiocy.
Good.
Edit:
That’s it?
Gonna switch my “Good” to “Well, I guess it’s a start”.
Did an oil derrick write this?
My assumption is that they’re aiming for a penalty sufficient to get people to stop doing stuff like this. You don’t punish for the sake of punishment, but to deter. If they stop, there’s no reason to have more-severe penalties. If people keep doing it anyway, consider the penalties not a deterrent, then I’d assume that sentences will increase in severity.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c880xjx54mpo
Yeah, it’s good rhet we stop people from trying to stop Humanities end. climate change will fuck you and your children for the next multi digit generations and frankly I wonder if there will be humans left when this is over, but sure… Lets celebrate jailing those that are trying to stop it.
If you’re going to break the law anyway, go target an oil executive or burn down a gas station. Just stay the fuck out of the road.
Why is the road so sacred? Aren’t there multiple roads all going to the same places?
It’s not the road. It’s the travelers on the road.
They aren’t blocking the road. They are blocking the people from going home, going to work, looking for a toilet, picking up their kids, buying groceries, visiting their families, trying to get to the hospital before the baby comes or grandma dies…
It’s one thing to be slowed down by someone who also has places to be, things to do, people to see; a fellow traveler who is sharing the road.
It’s something entirely different to be stopped by a selfish prick whose sole intent is to prevent others from completing their journey.
Their intention is to protest how we are ignoring climate change, you know, the civilization ending catastrophe. There are road delays all the time, for construction, crashes, event traffic, weather, floods, electricity outages, etc. Do you get this upset for every one of those events?
I’d argue “share the road” includes uses such as protests, marches, bike races, whatever. It’s a public good, you don’t have the final say on “approved” uses. Traffic in my town is insane on game day, do I get to jail the sports teams organizers for the disruption for 5 years? Someone probably shat their pants due to the delay, where is their justice?! Boggles the mind that a trivial delay causes this much outrage. Car brain is a hell of a thing.
The intention is to obstruct people from traveling. The purpose behind that intent is irrelevant as that intention is completely unacceptable.
There are, indeed, road delays all the time, caused by people attempting to share a shared resource.
JSO isn’t sharing a shared resource. They are monopolizing, privatizing that resource, excluding anyone else from using it.
Marches, bike races, even protests can be acceptable, so long as detours are available to bypass the obstruction. In all of these cases, the roadway is marked “closed” before the last intersection before the obstruction, so traffic can choose a different path. But such courtesies don’t achieve JSO’s intent. The courtesy of a “road closed” sign completely defeats their intention of preventing people from traveling. They want as many people as possible trapped for as long as possible, and that makes them a bunch of fucking assholes, no matter how righteous their cause.
Tribal Police in Arizona had the right approach to this sort of idiocy.