To not be sure what I think about the Stansted 15

[Softleftpowerstance]

Guardian coverage today. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/02/stansted-15-emma-hughes-jail-fear-separation-baby-son?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Obviously it must be horrific for the woman to be contemplating being separated from her baby and I think custodial sentences for women with small children should be avoided.

But beyond that, I’m not sure how much sympathy I have but am open to being persuaded. The group seem surprised that a serious law was used against them, which strikes me as naive. The government is going to want to make sure it’s discouraging people from doing similar action in future. Locking on to an aircraft is in itself a serious business.

I’m also not sure what I think about people stopping deportations. I have complete sympathy for the argument that the Home Office is inept and some people are unfairly deported. But I don’t think that’s true of all cases and moreover I’m not sure I’m comfortable with citizens overriding due process to stop planes etc. If collectively we have, like it or not, made a decision that we don’t have open borders and do have immigration rules then the system needs to be able to enforce them.

If you can't do the time don't do the crime.

She endangered the lives of others. Just because she's a middle class mummy doesn't she should get away with it.

If she is convicted of a crime then she should serve her sentence. Breastfeeding mothers are put into mother and baby units so it won't affect her child.

I think a custodial sentence would be a miscarriage of justice. It was a peaceful process about a humanitarian cause.
Similar to locking up suffragettes.

Are you glad of things like equal pay and the vote? Because without middle class mummies being prepared to put their freedom on the line you'd still be a lesser class citizen than a man, unable to open a bank account or own a house or get custody of your children after a divorce... the list is very long.
Be careful what you wish for.

Are you glad of things like equal pay and the vote? Because without middle class mummies being prepared to put their freedom on the line you'd still be a lesser class citizen than a man.

Personally I’m supportive of civil disobediance if the cause justifies it. I suppose that really I’m not convinced that indiscriminately stopping deportations does.

You most likely dont know what to think as it's an imagined worse case scenario. if she's imprisoned and if she's separated from her baby and if (for some unexplained reason) her husband needs to quit his job then it'll be easier to know what to think.

I think she doesn’t live with her partner so maybe that’s why he’d need to quit? It’s very unclear anyway.

I think also I’m very mindful of this case. Members of the public assuming deportations are miscarriages of justice is a very simplistic stance. metro.co.uk/2018/10/14/man-whose-deportation-was-blocked-by-passengers-revealed-as-convicted-gang-rapist-8036129/

"Hughes and her codefendants are bracing for the immediate impact on their future employment, on getting mortgages and travelling abroad"

Good

Most employers and lenders - and some countries - are unlikely to favour those who feel entitled to break the law when it suits their need for a bit of "look at meeeeee" shroud-waving. I'll gladly put my hands up if it turns out they know the exact circumstance of each deportation, but somehow I doubt it

And Amnesty do their credibility no favours at all with their nonsense about "a serious breach of human rights" when applied to cases like this

No ones life was endangered. This was a peaceful protest. I hope they don’t go to prison.

Equal pay act was fought for by working class women in factories but yes, you're right that dismissing women taking a stand as 'middle class' is a convenient way to imply that they are silly.

I’m not sure how I feel about the crime itself, but it’s clear she fell pregnant long after being arrested and charged.

Any woman who continues with a pregnancy when they’re facing being sentenced for a fairly serious crime needs to accept that the consequences may mean being separated from a young child.

They are utter morons and deserve the time. How do they know People on that flight didnt want to go home, weren't convicted murderersect.
Not to mention how many people they put in potential danger, how many flights they cancelled and how much up heaval this one act caused that had a knock on Effect for days!
Repat flights take a hell of a lot of work and there moral outage is daft as they don't know a whole story just what's reported.
As said before don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

According to the article the action/crime took place March 2017, and currently her baby is ‘just a few weeks old’. So presumably she got pregnant around March 2018.
What stands out for me is that it’s a very odd time to choose to conceive a child, when a possible custodial sentence is hanging over her head. She’s gone on in the article to say “It’s a crazy time to be spending this already absorbing, life-changing period establishing my son in the first few weeks of his life and contemplating what will happen to us at the sentencing.”

And yes, now true. Having a newborn is probably one of the most all-consuming times of your life so why oh why would you choose to clash it with a court case that could result in a custodial sentence? Surely any rational person would wait until AFTER the case is over, and whatever punishment imposed has been served, to then think about having a baby.

Girlfromtomorrow, you have echoed my thoughts.

A cynic might think it was deliberate timing to try and reduce her sentence...

I sympathise with their cause but surely they knew they were breaking the law and the risks that entailed?

I agree with User6949671. Any trespassing on an airport runway will cause massive disruption. All flights get cancelled, and any flights already on their way to the airport have to be diverted elsewhere. It's far from a "peaceful protest" a PP stated.

The picture in the article linked above of the 15 happily posing on their first day of court shows how they obviously all thought they would get a little slap on the wrist for their behaviour. I'm not surprised that the courts have decided to impose more serious charges and sentences as a deterrent.

It’s a travesty. She’s a hero who stood up for something good and important. Men walk free every day after raping women, but she might end up in prison? Absolutely absurd.

Some of you on this thread are the types who would have agreed with the imprisonment and force feeding of suffragettes, or the arrest of Rosa Parks, because ‘they broke the law’. Take a hard look at yourselves.

She committed a crime. In the time the legal issues have dragged on she and her partner chose to have a baby. They knew the charge and that she might go to prison but still chose to bring a child into the mess.

So yes my sympathy is rather limited

For the sake of the baby I do hope that she doesn't go to prison.

For the sake of justice I do hope she goes to prison.

How the heck are they hero's or anything like the suffragettes?
No one know whys those people where going,no one knows if they wanted to leave or not.
It's like comparing night and day. No comparison what so ever, one is utterly self serving the other totally justified.

Being a women and a mother doesn't mean uou shouldn't go to prison.

If the others involved don't go to prison she shouldn't. If the others do she should.

Stop making this a feminist issue. Men, women, parents, childless they all did tge same thing they should all have the same sentence. If it's not prison fine but her getting pregnant to avoid prison should not ho unnoticed.

Figand

A hero?

One of the men she saved gang raped a school girl.

Agreed that they should all get the same sentence.