No more Protest

[lightinthebox]

Regardless of your views of Just Stop Oil, we should all be worried.

This has gone through easily because people hate Just Stop Oil, it’s an easy target and has fooled people.

We should not be celebrating lengthy jail sentences for planning protests, we should be scared about what this means.

Not just that, but if peaceful protests equal a jail sentence then what’s to stop people from going to violence if they know they can’t protest.

People should stop and think, ignore your prejudice and see the bigger picture.

I agree.

Obviously fines (for the criminals themselves) would be ridiculous for causing deaths, scheming to cause more chaos and harm, and having a long history of criminal activity.

Prison is perfect as are the sentences.

Thank God you're not the judge....

I wish I had been. I think fines would be better than custodial, however, if you agree with a prison sentence we'll just need to disagree.

Then your punishment would have been inappropriate for the crime of conspiracy as well as their calculated attempts to disrupt the proceedings.

And the fact they were on bail plus expressed an intent to do it again.

Custodial sentence was only option for the judge. See the sentencing remarks above. 🤦‍♂️

Well. I disagree.

Whether you agree or not is irrelevant. All opinions are not equal. Again, see Sentencing Remarks for full context instead of media reports. 🤦‍♂️

I know. Just expressing my opinion. It's a discussion thread.

Cyber terrorism is terrorism, it should be punished as such.

I posted the definitions of terrorism earlier, Cyber is clearly included, nothing JSO have done is classed as terrorism, but if they launch cyber attacks on the NHS etc, then clearly they ve moved from protest to terrorism.

Not really sure why you ve posted this question to me.

Because you said “Comparing JSO to a terrorist organisation is just crazy.”

So I pointed out that blocking a massive and critical infrastructure part of the transport network is self-evidently as bad as a cyber attack.

You’re not really arguing that five years for mass disruption is excessive; you’re arguing that you sympathise with their cause.

I don’t really understand why people are so resistant to reading or listening to the sentencing remarks and just witter on about fines.

In any event, how are they going to pay millions of pounds in fines, to “cover the cost” ?

Thinking about it, a law that made rich hippy donors to these causes liable for paying compensation might be a winner. 👍

On top of the protesters’ fully deserved prison sentences of course.

Love it when people tell me what i think.....

Especially when i ve said repeatedly i do not hold to their cause.

I just don't believe people who have not taken part in terrorist activities, like cyber attacks on the NHS, should be sent to jail for longer periods of time than say someone who stuck a glass in someones face or killed someone whilst driving pissed.

Prison should be used sparingly & as a last resort, normally to be reserved for violent people.

However, it appears that many people believe prison should be used for people they don't agree with.......

YANBU.

I agree totally OP.

I'm utterly shocked, and also repulsed, by the vicious posts on here towards the JSO activists.

I'm not a fan of JSO either. But very clearly their hearts are in the right place. They're trying to save your children's futures!

Remember that suffragettes were despised in a similar way in their time. Hopefully most of us see them as heroines now. Please remember this.

Also, re them causing, or contributing to, loss of life - that's not clear, as this article suggests -

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/just-stop-oil-dartford-ambulance-not-delayed-m20-accident/

The climate emergency is so serious. It's already wrecking lives in the global south 😔

@TryingToSeeTheFunnySide are you having a laugh? There hearts were in the right place? In the land of grown-ups, in fact after about the age of 5, you need to recognise that how you feel about something is not the decisive factor from which everything must flow. They care deeply about climate change, but what have they actually achieved beyond making sure we all know just how deeply they think about it by inflicting deliberate suffering on innocent people.

I'm gleeful because these morons caused all sorts of major problems for people getting medical treatment (sometimes urgent), seeing family, going on holiday.... list is endless
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I hope its a miserable 5 years for them.

Regardless of your opinion on the individuals, it is utterly ridiculous for them to have been given jail time just as the new government have expressed their shock at the dire extent of overcrowding in prisons.

I also find it hypocritical that the protesters have been given jail time with weight given to the “potential” dangers of their actions, but the same isn’t applied to the potential danger of other people eg. abusive men, who can harass their victims for years but they’re told nothing can be done until they actually cause harm, by which time it’s too late.

Regardless of your opinion....the judge sent them to prison. And it's the judges decision, not yours, that is adhered to.

@Whammyammy you hope it's a miserable 5 years for them? Honestly that's just such an awful thing to say about a fellow human being, I don't know where to start. That's the kind of thing you'd expect someone to say about rapists, not peaceful climate activists. It definitely won't be as long as 5 years thankfully. Only Richard Hallam got 5 years, the others got 4. But highly unlikely they'll serve their full sentences. Thank goodness.
How about humanising them, and trying to understand?
One of the five is a doctor, a GP. One is a young woman of 22, desperate to save the future for her generation. Roger Hallam is a former farmer, who kept losing crops to the changing climate, and realised how fragile our food supplies are. I actually don't know much about the other two, but I'll do some reading.
I wouldn't personally engage in the kind of protests they have; but I will defend the rights of all our citizens to peacefully protest till my dying breath. It's such a precious thing.
I can't even start to get my head round some of the awful comments on this thread and others about this case. Heartbreaking 😔

Peaceful? I'd hardly think blocking ambulances with patients requiring urgent medical attention peaceful. They may have been partially peaceful in their intent, but the results were far from peaceful for so many.

@Whammyammy

Please read this article. I already posted it a few minutes ago, but I'll post it again for you.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/just-stop-oil-dartford-ambulance-not-delayed-m20-accident/

If you bothered to read the Judge's Sentencing Remarks, you'd have realised this wasn't a peaceful protest at all.

Judge was very clear on that.

Additionally, the five JSO convicts "embarked on a calculated campaign to disrupt the proceedings", according to the judge. They clearly have zero respect for the law or the proceedings and wrongly thought disruption would lead to the case collapsing.

It didn't.

This is what's called FAFO.

Their intent is very much not peaceful

So sadism then. Got it.

@Whammyammy another one for you -

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/19/just-stop-oil-tactics-prison-chris-packham