[Misc] Eco protestors now vandalising works of art

jcdenton08 said:

Cars pull aside to let emergency vehicles through. Cretins glued to tarmac or pissing off the public by climbing up lampposts can’t make that choice.

These people don’t believe in “just stop oil”. They believe in being full time victims. After a long day inconveniencing people, they spend a few hours in the cells then go home on Twatter and congratulate each other on “saving the world”.

Twatter which runs on huge banks of supercomputers and server farms, which require an enormous amount of energy to run.

If it wasn’t climate change they were fixated on this week, they’d be protesting BLM, LGBT issues, or whatever current issue will get them the most pats on the bum.

I honestly think - and this is a bit out there, bordering on Swansman, but I think these are false flag operations by the oil companies. I think they infiltrate these groups of hippies with dyed pink hair, nose rings and don’t shower for a few months, then encourage the more lunatic fringe elements to do stupid things to turn public opinion against them. There is precedent for this type of “operation” throughout history from Big Business, the police and the government.

There are a lot of vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of by dragging them into this nonsense. I’d suggest they are given jobs.

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Is it PotG? said:

The Sunflowers nutters have been banged up, one for 2 years and one for 20 months.

I'd have thought 5 more apt in the current trend.

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Billy the Fish said:

They're very confused aren't they. It's a lovely speech, but what she's saying makes no sense at all. It's just a load of muddled nonsense.

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Hotchilidog said:

These sentences are a joke. Two years for not damaging a painting when we have an overcrowding crisis in our prisons.

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The Clamp said:

Quite an odd message though;

Protect the earth
Heat soup


Dunno.

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The Clamp said:

This is what happens when governments and legal institutions are in the pocket of fossil fuel companies.

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Is it PotG? said:

The Sunflowers nutters have been banged up, one for 2 years and one for 20 months.

I'd have thought 5 more apt in the current trend.

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Stato said:

It's easy to go over the top in crying for harsh punishment, but we should note that these are very long sentences when compared with similar acts in the UK. Their attack came 5 months after a climate change protester threw a cake at the Mona Lisa in Paris. I don't think he's been charged.

The Countryside Alliance lot who stormed the floor of the Commons in 2004 got suspended sentences.
The Fathers for Justice who threw condoms full of flour at Tony Blair in the Chamber also in 2004 got three figure fines.
Cai Yuan and Juan Jun Xi who had a pillowfight on Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' in 1999 were arrested, but not charged.
Vladimir Umanets got two years for causing an estimated £200k worth of damage to a Rothko in the Tate in 2012. The JSO pair damaged the frame of 'Sunflowers', largest damage estimate £10k.
The suffragette (and future member of the BUF) Mary Richardson, put seven slashes in the Rokeby Venus in 1914 and got six months. That painting was repaired and is estimated to be worth £72.5 million today. (Who knows what it would be worth without the attack? I'd guess £72.5 million. Let's see what the JSO protestors get for attacking the protective glass of the same painting in November last year.
The two blokes charged with felling the Sycamore Gap Tree go on trial in December.

The only longer sentences I found for non violent protest were for the JSO activists who targeted the M25 convicted last year. They got 4 or 5 years each. Five years is only six months less than the average sentence for sexual offences. The average sentence for violence against the person is just over the 20 months that one of these two got and less than the other. Her sentence was approx twice the average sentence for weapons possession. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1100192/prison-sentence-length-in-england-and-wales-by-offence/

The suffragette lesson suggests that it is the reactionary response to these protests that will make them historic, not the protests themselves. Apart from one of them being Bryan Ferry's son, nobody remembers the Countryside Alliance lot. They were quickly forgotten in a way they wouldn't have been had they got a couple of years inside. Whereas the strong sentences handed to the rioters in the summer acted as a deterrant to those who may have considered getting involved in future trouble, it's likley to have the opposite effect on committed political activists. These sentences will not stop these protests. They will just create political martyrs for the movement.

Its a horrible situation. They are right about the urgency. They are right that the world isn't acting as it should be to save itself. You can understand the frustration at billions of us doing nothing that will inconvenience us. Rightly or wrongly, they acted radically according to their consciences, but we all know that after they've served their time in prison, they'll come out and nothing will have changed.

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Hotchilidog said:

These sentences are a joke. Two years for not damaging a painting when we have an overcrowding crisis in our prisons.

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nicko31 said:

Interesting to see the judge talking about ‘irreversible damage and even destruction’

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dejavuatbtn said:

Ironic on the day it was announced that the last coal fired generator is closing. Rome wasn’t built in a day - they need to be patient. They’re not going to get it down any quicker, however many martyrs they have.

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The Clamp said:

This is what happens when governments and legal institutions are in the pocket of fossil fuel companies.

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