Dartford Crossing protester, possible deportation

[WildAlphabet]

Essex radio did an interview with the partner of a protester who climbed the dartford bridge as part of Just Stop Oil.

The gist of it is he was surprised to get three years in prison, they expected a few months. The length of his sentence means he’s facing deportation, as a German national.

They did a phone in, and I was quite surprised that even the angry radio essex listeners they put on, who were massively against his actions, disagreed with deportation as additional punishment. Some wanted community service to make up for the loss they suffered, others name called, but they thought splitting a family was too much.

I was kind of intrigued how the mumsnet demographic would view it, often being quite rule-bound or conservative. Personally I disagree with the one year rule for deportation, particularly for non violent crimes. It’s out of sync with most of the world. I guess also as a second generation immigrant who could also potentially lose the right to stay here if wrongly convicted, it’s scary on a personal level. It’s played on my mind the last few days

Here’s an article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-66756841.amp

It’s amazing to me how everyone seems to agree this guy should be held to account for his actions (and I agree he should but I think the sentence is disproportionate), but they’ll happily vote for the criminals who run this country and do nothing much to try to prevent the massive injustices in this country / the world.

And before you all say “oh I wrote to my MP about…” or some other pointless comment, where did that get you?

but they’ll happily vote for the criminals who run this country.
Pity the whole parliamentary lot are useless. Nobody to vote for really. Very few with decency or morals now.

and do nothing much to try to prevent the massive injustices in this country / the world.
Very difficult for our government to prevent injustices in the world. If multiple governments joining together can't do it then one certainly can't. 🙄 Last time I checked none of them were wearing capes.

but I think the sentence is disproportionate.
No, it's proportionate for the chaos and harm it caused others. If you compare it to other crimes then actually those need longer sentences, not this one being shorter.

Hopefully it will make others think twice.

I agree with this. Why compare to undemocratic, punitive countries that are unreasonable with their punishments, it's not relevant.

It's interesting how much sympathetic coverage this white German European man is getting for being deported, compared to the vast majority of those deported.

I can't imagine why. 🙄

Well, I can't see any support on this thread

The government has found that at least 83 members of the Windrush generation may have been wrongly removed from the UK since 2002In some cases, long-term legal residents or even British citizens who are unable to prove their status have been returned, as illustrated by the 2018 Windrush scandal (see Williams, 2020).
The Home Office Windrush Historical Cases Review examined the immigration records of 11,800 British residents of Caribbean Commonwealth nationality who were born before 1973 and who had been held in immigration detention or removed from the UK since 2002. The review found that the Home Office may have wrongly removed 83 people of the Windrush generation from the UK, 31 of whom were detained beforehand (Home Office, 2020).
Of these 83 individuals, 61 (73%) were Jamaican nationals. The remaining 22 individuals were nationals of eight other Caribbean countries. As at 28 April 2020, 13 of these 83 individuals are deceased. The Home Office has been unable to contact a further 14 individuals. Of the 56 individuals with whom the Home Office has made contact, 28 have been granted citizenship or some form of leave, 9 will submit an application under the Windrush documentation scheme, 11 are awaiting a decision, and 8 have confirmed that they are not making an application (Home Office, 2020, p. 16).

Good of you to stick up for this rich white northern European man who fucked over loads of people, though, OP. Very 'left wing' of you.

Just the op. And apparently everyone in essex, according to her. And all the sympathetic coverage in the media.

But apparently it's 'right wing' to be more concerned about the wrongful deportations of Black people who have done nothing wrong and have worked hard most of their lives here, than about the actions of this rich white criminal POS.

I wonder why the op is so invested in this case.

So?
I don't agree with the OP, but I don't wade in with accusations of racism. Is no one allowed to post about something wi5hout it being swerved to include race.
Exactly the same happened with a thread on the National Trust recently.

Why are you so aggressive? Referring to a human as a POS who is hardly a hardened criminal or political despot that has murdered and tortured lots of criminals. It is about proportionality and has nothing to do with the cases of the Windrush generation.

Lots of people not 'criminals'.

Given that you need to get sentenced to 1+ years to be deported, it's not going to happen because you accidentally turned down a bus lane. These days you've got to be pretty bad for a custodial sentence to even be considered.

How pleasant of you.

He broke the law of course he should be deported.

Well that will put a stop to self entitled gallop.

Why are you ignoring the very valid point that quitting your job whilst you are on a work visa is a fairly standard thing that can get you deported @WildAlphabet

I'm not really pro-deportation but if you think this:

Not paying your taxes or having a residence permit is kinda going to get that result anywhere Tbf. It’s not exactly an oversight immigration wise?

Then it's somewhat hypocritical to protest the deportation of someone who violated the terms of their work visa by quitting their job

Well someone who got nicked for closing a bridge is going to tug on the heartstrings rather more than a rapist or murderer might do.

commit a crime and face the consequences. If one of those happens to be deportation then so be it. Maybe don’t be a jackass and you can stay.

I doubt many countries are fond of immigrant criminals.

Do you actually believe that most of the non-white people deported from the UK are rapists and murderers, or are you just pretending to?

I was wondering why the op was so invested in protesting about this deportation but not concerned about the deportation of innocent people who lived and worked here for decades?

DH and I lived and worked in the US for a few years. We were well aware that even a caution could see us deported and refused entry in future, so made very sure we never had any legal issues.

The idea that we could commit serious criminal acts and be allowed to stay would have seemed crazy.

This case seems to make sense in that context; if you’re a guest in a country and choose to break the law then of course you should be deported.

I am an immigrant and I agree with deportation if you commited crime where you actually got a 1+ yeat prison sentence.

Tbh I am for crime screening on borders to screen for serious reoffenders too.

I was wondering why the op was so invested in protesting about this deportation but not concerned about the deportation of innocent people who lived and worked here for decades?
Why is it your business?
If, every time someone posted on AIBU another poster replied by (strongly) criticising them because they should post about a instead of b what would be the point.
Rather than derailing a thread and accusing the OP of wrongthink, why don't you start your own thread?

I think sending him back to Germany is entirely proportional to what he's done and the fact that he has no work or home or family here.

No one seems to get exercised about sending gay people back to countries that may well kill them for their sexual orientation.

This case has been all over the media, including my local news. Because he's a privileged, entitled dickhead who can't believe that the rules apply to him.

I suspect the op has a personal interest in this story.

Asking her why she is so bothered about this completely justified deportation, but not about the many more unjustified ones, isn't 'derailing' the thread.

You don’t get sentenced to a year in jail for petty crime.