Extinction Rebellion wins court challenge to London police ban

 

FILE PHOTO: Protesters hold a banner as they block the road during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration at Bank, in the City of London, Britain October 14, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Extinction Rebellion climate-change activists won a legal challenge in London's High Court on Wednesday against a police-imposed blanket ban on protests during its "Autumn Uprising" in the British capital in October.

 

The court said separate gatherings, even if coordinated by one organization, could not be defined as a single "public assembly" and the officer who set the ban was not present at the scene.

 

Therefore barring any Extinction Rebellion protest in London other than at Trafalgar Square was unlawful and would be quashed, it said.

 

Extinction Rebellion blocked roads, targeted financial institutions, sprayed paint on the government's Treasury and disrupted transport during two weeks of direct action.

 

It aimed to force the government to transform the current economic model so that radical action can be taken against climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and the risk of social and ecological collapse.

 

Police, however, said the protests were hugely disruptive to London and action planned on the London Underground posed a threat to the safety of customers and staff, according to the court ruling.

 

Ellie Chowns, a Green member of the European Parliament who was arrested while the ban was in place, said the ruling defended the right to peaceful assembly and public protest.

 

"The judgment in our favor shows that the police clearly overstepped the mark when they imposed a blanket ban on any XR (Extinction Rebellion) related protest," she said.

 

London's Metropolitan Police Service said it was disappointed by the judgment.

 

Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the decision to ban the protests was not taken lightly.

 

"After more than a week of serious disruption in London both to communities and across our partner agencies, and taking account of the enormous ongoing effort by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service and across the UK to police the protest, we firmly believed that the continuation of the situation was untenable," he said.

 

"I want to be clear; we would not and cannot ban protest. The condition at the center of this ruling was specific to this particular protest, in the particular circumstances at the time."

 

The police said 1,828 people were arrested in 10 days of protest, with 165 charged by 6 Nov. The policing cost stood at over 24 million pounds as of 30 Oct.

 

Extinction Rebellion said more than 400 of its activists were arrested during the four-day ban, and those not charged with other offences could now sue the police for false imprisonment and could be entitled to compensation.

 

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Michael Holden/Guy Faulconbridge)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-07

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

They are fighting for the right cause .

But it is too late already , I'm afraid : https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806

 

" We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency. "

 

" The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle. The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical GHG emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions .

Profoundly troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat production, world gross domestic product, global tree cover loss, fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers carried, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and per capita CO₂ emissions since 2000 ."

 

" Despite 40 years of global climate negotiations, with few exceptions, we have generally conducted business as usual and have largely failed to address this predicament . The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected . "

 

Too late already means no need to wake up , just continue sleeping and ignoring , even radical change in lifestyle ( illusionary anyway ) right now will not save the biosphere anymore , the damage done is not reversible .

 

bye bye ...

Oh , I forgot to say : 11000 scientists , they are all wrong , some TV members here will know much better ...

50 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

Oh , I forgot to say : 11000 scientists , they are all wrong , some TV members here will know much better ...

They were wrong 10 years ago when we were all told to buy diesel cars

It's amazing how quickly the courts can act when they want to 

Now Extinction Rebellion are free to get back to their tiresome cosplay activities..... 

 

2 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

Oh , I forgot to say : 11000 scientists , they are all wrong , some TV members here will know much better ...

And how many scientists disagree?

I don't care. Let the planet implode. Let the atmosphere heat to boiling point. Let future generations live in hell. I don't care. 

 

Mankind - peoplekind to that traitorous dog Justin Trudeau - have FUBARed this place. Wipe the slate clean and start again. 

 

I'm not contributing to future generations and I don't care about yours. No apologies.  

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

And how many scientists disagree?

All those who have been paying for disagreing by the multinationals upset for their profits

Another swat down of Illiberals and this government denying people their democratic rights.

 

 

If you have something to say, please say it, dont just post youtube videos, cartoons or meme's as they will be removed.

 

This is a discussion forum not a promotion site or comic book .

PJW actually says it all, glad to watch that again.

Ill hope they all go extinct kind of reminds me of these animal protestors  VI|Deo rEMO|Ved  apparently  not  allowed anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many of them are on UK benefits I wonder??

 

4 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

Oh , I forgot to say : 11000 scientists , they are all wrong , some TV members here will know much better ...

Its a scam, dont be so naiv. Even Micky Mouse is on the list. 

 

so they've now been given carte blanche to bring London to a standstill and causing more pollution by disrupting transport. 

8 hours ago, CharlieH said:

If you have something to say, please say it, dont just post youtube videos, cartoons or meme's as they will be removed.

 

This is a discussion forum not a promotion site or comic book .

And apparently some members can't read well. 

 

More posts and replies removed.  

 

21 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency. "

Including that well known scientist Mickey Mouse.

No wonder few people believe in the cause, like, IMO, most of the people on the planet.

All civilizations fall from within as they become rotten. Seems that Britain is well on the way to becoming a failed state. When a state organisation allows those that apparently hate the state to operate with impunity, it is proof, IMO, that the state has lost it's respect, and it's all downhill from here.