Climate Activists Face Harshest Sentences in UK Courts For Non-Violent Protest

[Social Media]

 

As right-wing rioters carried out violent attacks on communities across the UK, climate activist Cressie Gethin, aged 22, found herself confined to a prison cell. Her crime was organizing a disruptive protest against new government licenses to drill for oil in the North Sea, a move that contributes to the continued use of planet-warming fossil fuels. In July, Gethin and four other members of the Just Stop Oil activist group were convicted by a London court for "conspiring intentionally to cause a public nuisance."

 

 

Their protest, which involved recruiting others to block traffic by climbing structures along the M25 motorway, caused widespread disruption across four days in November 2022. Prosecutors claimed that more than 700,000 drivers were impacted, with economic damages exceeding £760,000 ($980,000) and £1 million ($1.3 million) in police costs.

 

 

Now, Gethin, alongside co-organizers Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw, and Lucia Whittaker-De-Abreu, is serving a four-year prison term, while Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam was handed a five-year sentence. All are appealing their convictions. These sentences are considered the harshest in the UK for non-violent protest, and they were delivered under two controversial new laws that increase police power to clamp down on disruptive protests, even when peaceful.

 

The punishment for planning a "public nuisance" event now rivals that of serious crimes such as robbery, which carries sentences ranging from community service to 12 years in prison, or rape, with penalties of four to 19 years. 

 

The court justified the severe sentences by pointing out that all five activists had prior convictions for direct-action protests. The judge labeled them as "extremists" and noted that their actions had caused people to miss critical appointments, including medical visits and funerals. Yet, activists like Gethin argue that such protests are necessary given the existential threat posed by climate change. "A very harsh sentence like this doesn’t make sense morally or legally — but it does make sense politically," Gethin wrote from HMP Bronzefield, a women’s prison near Heathrow Airport.

 

These new policing laws have faced heavy criticism. Michael Forst, the UN's special rapporteur on environmental defenders, argued that the laws not only criminalize peaceful protest but are also applied in "punitive and repressive" ways.

 

The laws were designed to target groups like Just Stop Oil, with the UK government explicitly referencing disruption from Extinction Rebellion in its reasoning for enacting the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. The Public Order Act of 2023 introduced further criminal offenses and higher fines for protest tactics like "locking-on" and "disruptive slow marching." Civil society groups, including Amnesty International, have warned that these laws mark a "dark new era for protest rights" in the UK.

 

The influence of Big Oil on these laws has also come under scrutiny. Fossil fuel companies have poured money into think tanks and charities that helped shape these policies. For instance, Policy Exchange, a right-wing think tank funded in part by ExxonMobil, produced a report that served as the blueprint for the 2022 policing law. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked Policy Exchange for its contribution to the anti-protest legislation, calling Just Stop Oil's activists "slow-walking eco-extremists."

 

Despite the changing political landscape with the election of a center-left Labour government, the tough policing laws remain. "It is a pretty clear message, isn’t it?" Gethin remarked. "‘You’re demanding change that puts our power and profit at risk, so you must be stopped.’"

 

Activists like Gethin face significant legal challenges. During her trial, the judge barred the defense from discussing the climate emergency, dismissing it as "political grandstanding." This trend is troubling for environmental activists, as it limits their ability to justify disruptive protests in court. For Gethin, however, the struggle is far from over. Reflecting on her imprisonment, she remains committed to the cause. "Being a good person standing up for what is right — that is something I can work for, whatever the future brings," she said.

 

Credit: CNN 2024-09-16

 

 

 

[stevenl]

Please continue, the world needs people like you.

[herfiehandbag]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

Please continue, the world needs people like you.

Absolutely, we need more "Cressidas" and "Lucias" to screw up people's lives!

[JonnyF]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

Please continue, the world needs people like you.

 

I assume you weren't one of the people unable to get to the hospital for emergency medical treatment. 

[soalbundy]

3 hours ago, stevenl said:

Please continue, the world needs people like you.

They will only have a negative effect on the discussions regarding global warming, reverse psychology, people don't like extremism or holier than thou lectures. We are heading to a climate catastrophe and no matter what governments do now it is already too late. Enter the geo - engineers, they are going to have to buy us time, the pollutants already in the atmosphere however aren't going anywhere but we can't just stop using oil suddenly, the whole structure of our civilization is built on it, we are in a mess that's for sure, it's my children and grandchildren who will suffer, at my age I will just scrape by.

[mikeymike100]

 

 

"Their protest, which involved recruiting others to block traffic by climbing structures along the M25 motorway, caused widespread disruption across four days in November 2022. Prosecutors claimed that more than 700,000 drivers were impacted, with economic damages exceeding £760,000 ($980,000) and £1 million ($1.3 million) in police costs."

 

They should be forced to pay back all costs associated with the protest and then put in prison for 5 years as a lesson to others!

[digger70]

5 hours ago, stevenl said:

Please continue, the world needs people like you.

You mean more fruit cakes like that ? you go join them than your one too and can be put in Jail.

[billd766]

5 hours ago, stevenl said:

Please continue, the world needs people like you.

Do you still drive a car?

[riclag]

2 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

 

 

"Their protest, which involved recruiting others to block traffic by climbing structures along the M25 motorway, caused widespread disruption across four days in November 2022. Prosecutors claimed that more than 700,000 drivers were impacted, with economic damages exceeding £760,000 ($980,000) and £1 million ($1.3 million) in police costs."

 

They should be forced to pay back all costs associated with the protest and then put in prison for 5 years as a lesson to others!

Did you see the smile on its face as it laid on the ground in the picture.

 

Betcha that smile would disappear if it was financially held responsible!

[HK MacPhooey]

6 hours ago, JonnyF said:

 

I assume you weren't one of the people unable to get to the hospital for emergency medical treatment. 

Or someone in the Oil and Gas industries

[HK MacPhooey]

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

They will only have a negative effect on the discussions regarding global warming, reverse psychology, people don't like extremism or holier than thou lectures. We are heading to a climate catastrophe and no matter what governments do now it is already too late. Enter the geo - engineers, they are going to have to buy us time, the pollutants already in the atmosphere however aren't going anywhere but we can't just stop using oil suddenly, the whole structure of our civilization is built on it, we are in a mess that's for sure, it's my children and grandchildren who will suffer, at my age I will just scrape by.

You must be a real genius if you are able to determine from an almost infinite number of variable factors that we are heading for a climate catastrophe - perhaps you can also explain why market gardeners pump CO2 into their greenhouse to promote the growth of their tomatoes 

[soalbundy]

32 minutes ago, HK MacPhooey said:

You must be a real genius if you are able to determine from an almost infinite number of variable factors that we are heading for a climate catastrophe - perhaps you can also explain why market gardeners pump CO2 into their greenhouse to promote the growth of their tomatoes 

plants like CO2 to breath but as a 'greenhouse' gas in the atmosphere it holds in the heat.

[kidneyw]

Love a happy ending.

[daveAustin]

They did it because they thought they'd get away with it... the idiots disrupting snooker matches etc with bags of flour should also be banged up. Am all for changing our ways regards oil (and yes we have ruined the planet already), but causing upheaval by affecting ordinary people's lives is not the way. Can't stand the government but they have done the right thing here.

[herfiehandbag]

12 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

Absolutely, we need more "Cressidas" and "Lucias" to screw up people's lives!

But, continuing on from my arguments in the Huw Edwards thread, I don't see any point in imprisoning them, at  huge cost to the society they have held two fingers up at. 

 

Meaningful community service sanctions over a sustained period, which curtails their freedom coupled with  large financial penalties, covering costs will hurt them, prison will simply make them martyrs.