"Palestine Action activists hit police officer with sledgehammer, court told" - man hits woman with sledgehammer and fractures her spine.

[CassOle]

'Attack happened after armed gang in jumpsuits broke into Bristol defence factory intent on causing damage, jury hears.

Palestine Action activists hit a female police officer with a sledgehammer after bulldozing their way into a defence factory, a court has heard.

The gang, wearing jumpsuits and armed with whips, fireworks, an axe and a paintball gun, allegedly rammed an old prison van through the gate at Elbit Systems UK, Bristol, in August last year.

Woolwich Crown Court heard on Tuesday that Sgt Kate Evans suffered a fracture to her lumbar spine after she was beaten with a sledgehammer while she lay on the ground. Samuel Corner, 23, denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent.'

Continues here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/18/palestine-action-activists-hit-police-sledgehammer-court/

I am standing up for the rights of people to protest, though

The right for Palestine Action to protest by using violence?

Because that's what 'I support Palestine Action' means.

It wasn’t really confusion. More disagreement that an activist organisation like PA reaches the threshold of a terrorist org. At the point they were proscribed this wasn’t public information was it so not something that could have been taken into account. I’m still not convinced tbh.

It was public that a member put a police officer in hospital with a sledgehammer.

You would think all the “I support PA” lot would hang their heads in shame. I shan’t hold my breath though. They are on a moral crusade.

Was the full detail made public? What I read was very vague but I might have missed something.

People can protest without supporting a group which advocates and performs such violence.

Not the detail about breaking her spine. But e.g.

"A police officer was taken to hospital after being hit with a sledgehammer while responding to reports of criminal damage.
A vehicle was used to ram the entrance of the Bristol HQ of defence technology firm Elbit Systems on Bolingbroke Way in Patchway, on the outskirts of Bristol, shortly before 04:00 BST.
Employees and police officers who intervened were assaulted, Avon and Somerset Constabulary said, and six people were arrested.
Sledgehammers, axes, whips and other homemade weapons were seized, police added.
During the incident, two officers were assaulted with a sledgehammer, police said.
One of the officers was taken to hospital with injuries to her back and has since been discharged, while the other officer received medical treatment at the scene after being struck on the back of his legs.
An employee of the business was also treated by paramedics for an injury to their head."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mnnje4wlro

Fair enough. I’m still not convinced that proscription was the way to go. I hope they do some serious time though. Nasty bastards the lot of them.

They also attacked an RAF base and were planning more attacks on other RAF bases.

Not just violent but also a threat to national security. Basically doing Russia’s work for them.

You seem to be trying to justify a man attacking a woman - already lying on the floor - with a sledgehammer and breaking her spine. There is no justification for what he did, and the long post you've just written makes you look like an apologist for extreme violence. And the suggestion that this violent man was somehow doing people a favour is grotesque.

They could only get onto RAF bases because those bases had inexcusably poor security; the poor security of the RAF is the threat to national security, not this lamentable mob who merely exploited their failing. (They shouldn't have exploited it but a competent armed forces base wouldn't have allowed them to have exploited it.)

And, horrible though the spinal injury is, I don't think the use of a sledgehammer makes this mob terrorists. Unless of course the Krays were terrorists and virtually every county lines gangs are terrorists - because they all did/do far worse and definitely did/do engender terror in the communities in which they operated/operate.

I assume that Palestine Action is a big enough group with lots of different factions in it that it can accommodate both peaceful pensioners with signs and violent thugs with weapons.

Life is complicated.

That poor policewoman. She may well end up with life limiting injuries. I hope sledgehammer man rots in jail for the rest of his life.

I assume that Palestine Action is a big enough group with lots of different factions in it that it can accommodate both peaceful pensioners with signs and violent thugs with weapons.

Am I missing sarcasm or are you suggesting that peaceful pensioners should choose to join a group that accommodates violent thugs? When other groups are available?

It is the use of violence to achieve political ends that makes Palestine Action terrorists; not the severity of the violence used.

The Krays and county lines drug organizations didn't try and aren't trying to pressure the government into taking some kind of stance.

There is a bright line from organizations such as the Red Army Faction/Baader-Meinhof gang, Provisional IRA, Sendero Luminoso and others straight through to Palestine Action. Not to mention The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and others.

Thank you. Exactly.

Violently attacking people for political ends is not 'protest', its terrorism.

Mm hmmm so if a burglar gets into my home it’s actually my security that’s the issue and not the criminal trying to break into my home right? 🙄

Yes the whips were clearly for damaging property and not inflicting violence on people. 🙄 Hopefully this will wake people up and stop excusing these violent terrorists but I doubt it.

Well that's not a creepy picture at all😶

Are you really trying to excuse a man attacking a woman lying on the ground facing away from him with a SLEDGEHAMMER as justifiably really?
Do you understand the legal definition of terrorism in the uk? I ask as PA and their thugs fit the definition perfectly. Its simply unacceptable to behave like a terrorist and then cry about being called a terrorist.
Here's a basic description of terrorism under uk law for you

Weapons cant commit crimes.
And yes you are excusing their behaviour and justifying it.
People can still peacefully protest they just cant support a proscribed terrorist organisation. Pro Palestinian marches haven't been banned just supporting PA who are violent terrorist thugs and only terrorist sympathisers dont understand that.
Give your head a wobble and think before you get yourself arrested as a terrorist too

'I'm not excusing BUT.....'

No.

If you support ANY reasons or actions that lead to some absolute bastard breaking the spine of a police officer with a sledgehammer, which will permanently destroy her life anyway and could have killed her, your values have become alarmingly warped and so has your grip on objective reality.

Yes, of course people will keep repeating the violence of the attack, the weapon. Listen to yourself and why you don't want them to mention it; your conscience is trying to tell you something.

Yes it was public knowledge and many of us pointed to it as part of the reason they were proscribed but like atleast 1 poster on this thread it was denied (even though pa admitted it publicly) and the rest justified it like another poster has.
They think that violence is acceptable as long as it gets the political changes they want which is the very definition of terrorism.
Those who defend pa and their tactics are terrorists and belong in jail

"she wasn't targeted for being a woman, indeed, she may not have been targeted at all, but involved in an intercept when these people were trying to destroy property at the factory -"

Yep, "Auf der Flucht erschossen." (Nazi bureaucratese for shooting people in the back, who weren't actually escaping). This woman was lying on her belly, when he struck her with a sledgehammer.

This definition could also include climate orgs like Just Stop Oil.

@JazzyContemporaneousNotes "Please do read what I wrote again - I'm not promoting, excusing or glorifying violence, against humans."

Yes, you do.