Do the people being arrested for Palestine Action not know about the sledgehammer attack?

[noblegiraffe]

With 500-odd people having been arrested for expressing support for proscribed terrorist organisation Palestine Action, I'm just baffled as to why they are willing to get a criminal record which could bar them from travel to the USA and work in education for an organisation whose members attacked police officers with a sledgehammer.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/disturbing-sledgehammer-attack-police-during-9463071

Regardless of whether this group should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, surely no one should look at that and think 'yeah, that's a group I think should be allowed to continue to do its thing, attack a few more police officers with sledgehammers, that's the hill I'm willing to die on.'

Wouldn't you think 'I'm not sure if they should be proscribed as terrorists, but given the sledgehammer attack, I'm not going to turn up with banners in support and be arrested for them, I'll just get on with protesting the genocide instead because that's a better cause'.

So do they not know about the violence? Or do they not care and are willing to support violent organisations?

(note this is not a thread for debating Gaza, I want to talk about British people who are absolutely legally allowed to protest genocide but aren't allowed to support proscribed terrorist organisations - which is also not allowed on MN).

I did notice some people on other threads claim that Palestine Action were 'non-violent' and 'non-threatening' so I'm wondering if it's generally not known that they are violent.

Thank you for posting @noblegiraffe. I'm afraid the peaceful pensioners who just hold up bits of paper are being used as propaganda cover for these co-ordinated political thugs.

I don’t think I’ve seen this on mainstream news.

The vast majority of people are protesting about the illegal collective punishment and forced starvation of the people in Gaza. But you knew that.

They can do that without supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation. If they choose to support PA then they will suffer the consequences.

You haven't seen news of 500-odd people arrested for deliberately supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation in an organised protest?

https://news.sky.com/story/police-make-arrests-at-protest-in-support-of-proscribed-group-palestine-action-13409027

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8de6rq37v5o

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/09/palestine-action-protests-live-israel-gaza-war-police/

I assume you also believe the Israeli government and IDF are terrorist organisations as well, Sharon? Palestine Action aren’t committing genocide, as far as I’m aware. But Israel is.

This isn't a thread for discussing Israel/Gaza, it's for discussing British support for a violent group who attacked police officers with sledgehammers.

I think most people hadn’t heard of them apart from the paint attack which doesn’t sound like that big a deal.

The people showing public support for Palestine Action deserve to be jailed for stupidity as much as anything else. I hope they all get criminal records that have a long lasting adverse impact on their lives.

You can assume what you like but the reasons for PA's proscription are clearly set out by the government and 'committing genocide' wasn't one of the reasons.

Did you read the link?

They are sanctimonious twits obviously, who think they know best. But actually I don't think many of them do know about the sledgehammer attack. It's more important to them to be seen to be doing something than to research the organisation they are supporting. Thats always a big mistake.

The OPs question isn't affected by whether you think the group should be prescribed or what your views on the conflict are.

PA are prescribed, which comes with consequences. There are other ways to peacefully protest and hold signs if that's your wish, that don't come with the same risk. Those things are all facts.

Which leaves two possibilities. They do know but want to protest in that way anyway, or they don't know. Reasonable to suppose that a cohort of 500 people might contain some of both.

A lot of them are pensioners who perhaps aren't bothered about going to USA or teaching. I found this in Covid that because I was retired and could afford the fines I could pretty much do what I wanted regarding not obeying the rules.

If you are referring to the incident at Brize, that was a big deal that could have had some serious consequences.

Exactly 💯

I don't think people are bothered about being arrested. They see criminals getting away with things all the time so don't see why they should be any different. As the UK descends into chaos and barbarism, more and more people will join in. The police will become overwhelmed at some point I suppose. I see they're arresting people in their 90s now. Yay, go police 🙄

They probably don’t know about it, no. It happened a year ago and was reported as an attack on Elbit systems rather than an attack on the police by the BBC and others.

It’s no different to saying the same about christianity, islam, being catholic, or even British.

Groups are made up of individuals, some of whom won't identify with the violent types amongst them. A group isn't going to split itself into subgroups of Violent, Peaceful, Violent If Provoked, Bored and Along For The Ride, Intellectual and Educated etc. They're just a group.

Someone said to me about the arrests, the police, arrest, charge, the courts find you guilty or innocent. You aren't blocked from flying etc until you're found guilty by the courts.

They broke into a Royal Airforce base and tampered with aircraft. That is a very serious act. If we were in a war time situation it's possible they might not have left alive

This?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mnnje4wlro.amp

I didn’t hear of it last year and I look at the BBC news page most days. I’m guessing most people didn’t hear of it, no.

Palestine Action unapologetically posted videos of the attack and claimed it as their own. They are, as a group, proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

There are many other groups that you can support if you oppose genocide in Gaza. Why pick the one that attacked the police with sledgehammers and risk arrest while doing so?

But they literally held up placards supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation. They're not innocent, are they?