Arrested protesting for Extinction Rebellion. AMA

[Pinktable11]

32 year old woman, separated, one child, healthcare professional .

I've read the posts about XR on here over the last week

Happy to answer anything, but do keep in mind if I'm arrested again today I may well be out of touch for 24+ hours, and longer if my phone is impounded 😁

@ShinyHappySummers

No, we haven't forgotten; tthere were quite a few occasions when they got it badly wrong. And don't get me started on Emily Davison, who ran headlong into a bunch of galloping racehorses in the 1913 Epsom Derby, endangering the lives of all those animals and their jockeys.

@blacksax got you the vote though didn't they hmmm?!

Speaking as someone who is fond of horses, and who also knows a bit about the suffragists as well as the suffragettes, her foolhardy and ultimately suicidal actions did not contribute to the cause - quite the opposite actually.

I have done an awful lot to become greener, I have also ensured our business recycles (it hadn’t been before I came on board). Did XR inspire me? No! Absolutely not! I think they do more harm than good to be honest. Stopping traffic, taking the few police we have away from protecting the public, blocking public transport, littering, defacing historic buildings, graffiti.. well done on alienating the public XR

@Heidi1982

I don't know if the OP will come back, but I have found this thread very interesting. I don't have the antagonism towards XR that some do, but I do question their tactics and I am undecided on whether I think they will help or hinder their cause.

The big difference to the suffragettes (and other direct action protests such as the anti-apartheid in South Africa etc) is that we live in a functioning representative democracy. The suffragettes could not engage with the political process because they did not have a vote, and were in many ways second class citizens. Ditto black South Africans. So to me it is quite understandable that they would resort direct action.

Where there are democratic avenues open to campaign and protest, I do have a problem with the use of radical direct action, criminal damage etc, which are themselves fundamentally undemocratic.

OP, if you come back, what is your answer to this concern?

You make some very good points

Can someone tell me what exactly Is vegan water?

@skodadoda

Can someone tell me what exactly Is vegan water?

Water without added beef.

Water that doesn't eat meat

@ActonSquirrel

How many of you have been inspired to change your ways.

I don't have a car. I use public transport or bike. I have one oven, one microwave, one washing machine (no drier), one TV, one phone.

Not even a laptop as work lent me one for wfh and no tablet, smart watch, sound system nothing.

I rarely holidayed abroad before the pandemic.

What have you lot done?

I'm not entirely sure your claims are as brilliant as you think they are.

What you're doing differently to a lot of people is... not owning a car and a tablet, and maaaaaaaybe the one TV thing.

Because I'd say 99% of households have 1 oven, microwave and washing machine.

I'm assuming you have central heating of some sort. And are burning fossil fuels. I also assume you have a smart phone.

@MichelleScarn

So you're basically going out with plan to be arrested again? Sod all the things that actually need police intervention... Absolute arseholery!

Absolutely. OP is only prepared to be disruptive but not to put in any effort to actually address climate issues through legitimate organisations.

@BrozTito

Water that doesn't eat meat

🤣🤣🤣

According to the Metropolitan Police, your protests have cost the police £50 million since 2019. If you continue to cost the police this amount, it is likely that the cost will have to be met by ordinary citizens in the form of increased council tax. Do you think this is a good strategy for winning public sympathy? Do you think that £50 million could have been better spent or do you think hoovering up so much police funding is justified for the results XR have achieved in that period? I don't see any tangible positive impacts of XR actions in this period, by the way.

Can you explain why XR are currently disrupting & obstructing the work of environmental NGO WWF?

Or are you still in jail?

I saw a video yesterday being shared around the industry I work in of XR idiots trying to break the windows of JP Morgan, was quite laughable really as it was laminated glass and it wasn’t happening for them. First of all why attempt to break those windows? What does it achieve? You know they will need boarding up, new glass manufactured (likely outside UK) transported and installed. All with an environmental impact. That video shows stupidly in action.

According to Facebook it's a year today since XR marched through my town and spray painted some walls.

I'm yet to see how this has positively impacted the discussion around climate change.

When you do these protests it obviously generates a justifies massive police response. The other week in London there were two helicopters circling for ages. Have you any idea how much fuel that requires? Plus all the police vehicles needed. I can't imagine that being too healthy for the environment.

Also, I'm really interested to know how you,ensure success of your protests? I'm not being argumentative, genuinely interested. It seems that if anything it loses support, not generates new support and I wonder if you're seen as a nuisance as opposed to a voice for change.

Also I was in London for part of protests. Your leaflets being handed out were scattered all over the place Littering. Also not great

I work in sustainability and have cheered them on from the sidelines without getting involved myself. But going forward I have mixed feelings. XR have done a great job, along with scientists and NGOs, in getting the urgency of tackling the climate crisis in the minds of a lot of members of the public. They’ve also campaigned for and got a commitment to net zero from many local councils. Our local council has formed a citizens assembly as a result. It’s not perfect but it is progress.

But…one of the problems as I understand it is that they are a diverse and loosely organised group so some actions are better thought out than others.

For instance, a recent action near me put leaflets about unnecessary journeys and fossil fuels on windscreens in the long stay car park. It is arguably reasonable to encourage drivers who could opt to take public transport, switch to a less polluting vehicle, or even not make that journey to question their choices.

But most were the long wheelbase transit vans of local market traders, who need a way to transport their goods to and from the market. The call to action was unclear in this case and not thought through. What are the traders being leafleted supposed to do? They cannot transport a stall plus fruit and veg on public transport, and I would be surprised if any of these small businesses were making enough profit to replace their elderly vans with new electric versions of a similar load capacity.

If the call to action was something like signing a petition to lobby the government for small business tax breaks to make their transition to low carbon more affordable, or some other solution, that’s a constructive campaign that people could get behind. But all the leaflet did is make people, some of whom already care about climate change, feel guilty and angry. There are definitely strategic lessons to be learned.

When my school friends and I were young and idealistic we knitted squares to make blankets and went on sponsored walks for Oxfam - sigh! 🙁

@skodadoda

When my school friends and I were young and idealistic we knitted squares to make blankets and went on sponsored walks for Oxfam - sigh! 🙁

And we wore CND badges - but we really didn’t know why 😆

Find it laughable that you have meat and diary once a week as a ‘treat’

'Outbutnotoutout
I can't get past the fact an eldery husband wasn't there when his wife passed away in a Bristol hospital because he was held up in traffic for hours because of protesters like you.

You lost any and all support that day.
That's very sad. Had it been known at the time, he would have been escorted through'

Do you still believe this is true after yesterday?