An interesting conversation to observe. I am the mother of a young person arrested and convicted of walking down the road on a JSO protest. I have name changed for this thread.
Thank you to @IllMetByMoonlight and @Merrythoughts7 for your posts on the issues of climate change, democratic rights to protest etc.
My DC last autumn participated in a Slow March organised by JSO and was arrested and charged with Wilful Obstruction of a Highway. They walked for 24 mins slowly down a road. For about half that time cars could overtake. All 40 on the march were arrested. They left the road and cleared it as soon as there was a blue light in accordance with JSO's blue light policy.
I attended the trial which lasted two days. The level of security was extraordinary and I was placed in a glassed in public gallery. As supporters if the defendants we were well and truly othered in way that doesn't happen in other trials. I've visited criminal courts on several other occasions though never previously linked to a defendant. It was stage I was even accused of grafftying the ladies loos.
it Sia. postcode lottery as to whether you are convicted or not - your solicitors knows which District Judges convict and which acquit - my DC wasn't entitled to a jury trial even though he could have been sentenced to one year in prison. At my DC's trial they were all allowed to make a statement about why they had participated in the march. Six defendants were on trial that day. They all spoke very articulately and with intellectual rigour. I'd prefer to have them running the country than many politicians. My DC spoke about the impact of flooding, about how we had participated in the Friday school strikes, about how he is a Quaker and how over centuries Quakers (and others) had taken a stand on many societal issues that were considered radical at the time and now are accepted as normal practice. Role of women, antisemitism & the Kinder transport, homosexuality, apartheid, civil rights in the US are just some.
The JSO marchers completely appreciate they are causing disruption - that is the purpose as a mechanism to raise awareness. I completely appreciate this is inconvenient to many caught up and for some causes missing very important appointments and family events. I am not in favour of damaging property and the slow walkers were not doing that.
This disruption does though need to be balanced against the existential threat to society from the climate emergency. As some previous posters have mentioned the disruption that has been caused by the climate emergency is already high and will only escalate over the next couple of decades. We ourselves live in an area very heavily affected by floods. Thousands of people suffer a lot more than being late for an appointment due to floods when their home is made uninhabitable. Hundreds of thousands of people are being displaced each year due to climate change and this is causing regional tension and conflict and affecting the UK with the increased numbers of displaced persons. and on a more day to day matter many disrupted by JSO protests forget that so often the M25 and other roads are blocked by sheer wright of traffic or an accident or road works - all a failure of the government to invest in affordable working public transport.
Closer to home just this week Spain is saying that their tourism sector is at risk because it is not safe for tourists to visit many traditional beach resorts in the summer.
Back the trial of the five with the long jail sentences Michel Forst the UN Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders has issued the following statement on the sentence of one of the five convicted for participating in the Zoom Call. 1000 señor public figures including the Archbishop of Canterbury have asked the Attorney General to review the sentences.
unece.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/ACSR_C_2024_26_UK_SR_EnvDefenders_public_statement_18.07.2024.pdf
This is a super complex issue - hard to unpick and requires governments to produce leadership separately and collectively rather than be in hoc to the oil and gas corporates who inevitably have vested interests.
My DC has just graduated and is planning a career working in public service with deprived families. He will now for the next 11 years have to declare a conviction for walking along a road. 2 years ago this wouldn't have been a recordable offence. In my view the last government weaponised environmental protest to protect their interests and the financial interests of their buddies. Instead they could have invested in address the issue of climate change and implemented the measures their own Climate Change Committee recommended.
There are plenty of brilliant scientists and policy advisors working hard on climate change but they are too easily ignored when it isn't in the interests of the government of the day. I have worked alongside cabinet ministers and other ministers and am acutely aware of the dither and delay in the system. Yes Minister is a massive understand of the reality.
While JSO's approach isn't how I seek to deliver change after two days in court I came away with new found respect for peaceful climate activists.
Please do consider this matter in the round before judging climate activists.