To think the judge was right to throw the book at Just Stop Oil?

[StripedPiggy]

Five Just Stop Oil activists, including leader & XR founder Roger Hallam have been sentenced to up to 5 years in jail for blocking the M25 & other main roads.
Their intention was to cause gridlock on roads in the South East. The disruption they caused resulted in people missing medical appointments, flights & business meetings.

Well done to that judge. The criminal justice system is right to pass serious sentences on these fanatics which will act as a strong deterrent to others who might try to cause mass disruption, and put people’s lives in danger, to further a political agenda, whatever it might be.

@Collexifon

Believe it.

A cursory look at Wiki reveals Roger Hallam - real name Julian - has barely held down a normal job in his life.

Apart from being a professional student, studying for a PhD in his fifties,

"he was part of a cooperativee* that opened a vegetarian cafe.... he was part an organic food cooperative. He lived in a communal-type house, with around six people, with division of labour.
He was previously an organic farmerr* on a 10-acre (4-hectare) smallholdingg*.

These people aren't 9-5ers grafting at the coalface and forming the backbone of the economy. I can't say for sure, but I doubt many of them work 'regular' jobs subject to PAYE taxes. What right do they think they have to prevent others from doing so? Arrogance of the highest order.

I bet he had a very nasty shock when he was handed that sentence.

Morally anaesthetised is thinking it’s acceptable to inflict inconvenience on other people. I go about my day seeking not to inconvenience other people because I’m not a twat

So he was a farmer, he ran a cafe and he's an academic.

God. String him up!

I'm guessing those jailed didn't need jobs to go to, no zero hour contract to get to while hoping your car doesn't conk out on the M25 until these privileged twats go out and stop them earning a crust.
These people are hobbyists who don't live in the real world. The sense of disregard and lack of care for others is astounding.
I agree with the cause but not the methods. I bet that they are all financially well cushioned with a care in the world
apart from their wee hobby.

I think the point is that the way we all "just go about our day" is going to do more than mildly inconvenience our grandchildren

Beggars belief that there actions actually make people less likely to support their cause.

Most people agree that we need to reduce fossil fuel use, but their actions just piss people off. They need to focus on providing/promoting alternatives, not just making life very difficult for people just trying to get on with life.

Perhaps - go and study engineering rather than sociology if they want to save the world.

No need. He's quite successfully messed up his own life for the next few years, by himself. Perhaps Julian can pursue his organic farming methods and PhD studies in the prison library?

Speak for yourself. You know nothing about me other than I’m not the type of over privileged twat who inconveniences other people.

And who, to quote his barrister, has “since rejected direct action campaigning due to its limitations and changed his approach to more conventional political campaigning”

In other words, who’s rapidly backpeddling when it looks like he might be mildly inconvenienced himself by a few years at HMP

They were.

I've seen your later posts, and you seem to conflate the amount of disruption they cause with how peaceful they are. Peaceful in this context relates to the methods used, and blocking a road is a non-violent, aka peaceful, method.

Some of their protests, where they damage property, aren't peaceful, but the road blocking is.

Deliberately causing an obstruction, by blocking a road to say, ambulances, isn’t peaceful. I don’t care if their direct actions weren’t violent in the literal sense.

I don’t disagree with you. What I would like to do to these people is apparently illegal

YANBU!
And to the PP who asked what a better way to get 'decision maker's attentions are.
Directly target them for a start? As a PP said. Block an SUV dealership.
Block the roads to a private airfield.
Disrupt the operations of a plastic factory.
Etc
The fact is 'decision makers' KNOW how bad things are. They also know that if, tomorrow they 'just stopped oil' as a PP said the world economy would grind to a halt.

Organise a mass boycott maybe?

A woman died because an ambulance couldn't get through. The idiots that caused that should be charged with murder.

If you don't believe in climate change (which is fine), then yes it would seem like a sensible decision to prosecute them. If you do believe in climate change but don't support the activists, then there's not much hope for you 😅

Yeees, and people die from air and water pollution, too, and believers of climate change predict many deaths from lack of urgent action against it. Come on, put your logical hat on.

If you do believe in climate change, surely there’s no hope for you anyway

Argue your case reasonably. I don’t take any notice otherwise.

The judge was biased, allowed no expert witness evidence from a scientist Emeritus Professor, and did not allow the five to say even why they were protesting to the Jury. Five years for organising a traffic jam that one can get on the motorway any day of the week from dangerous drivers? This is a life and death cause with an urgency that is difficult to sell unless one is living in a 45 degree oven. That will come and is coming. What about our children and grandchildren? Will we condemn them to the consequences? This is Mums Net.

Smacks of Toll Puddle martyrs. Massively excessive sentences.

💯 this. The people here complaining about the "lunatics" who just want to save our planet while the big oil companies pillage it for profits are shocking. I wonder how many of your kids will die on a burning planet if nothing is done about climate change. Will you be complaining about waiting an extra 20 minutes in traffic then? Prob not.

So what if it's mumsnet!?

They caused a death by refusing the ambulance

We have gone barking mad. I don't support what they did. 5 years? That's insane. They are a fucking nuisance, not rapists or robbers or fraudsters. This sentence frightens me.

I remember that this sort of crime was looking at being categorised as terrorism

My friends ex partner got 3 months in prison for beating her to unconsciousness… and then he went on to drink drive and crash into a women crossing the road- she had to have a leg amputated, along with other life changing injuries. He got 3 years for that. So no, I find it hard to accept we are going to give longer sentences to these people. I guess for me, I think our justice system and sentences are a joke as it is.