Judge Christopher Hehir told Plummer and Holland they “came within the width of a pane of glass of destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world”
Meanwhile the people they are protesting are already destroying the planet which includes this artwork. And hey, that “pane of glass” is there to protect the artwork which it successfully did.
Poe’s Law here, so I’m just gonna point out that yes, in fact plenty of people have died from climate change. Increasing intensity of storms, widening storm seasons, diminishing water supplies in formerly healthy tables, growing habitats of disease bearing insects, crushing heat waves and worsening cold snaps, elevated ocean levels and acidification, shallower mountain top snow melts, intensifying wildfires, and many more effects have killed people and will continue to kill more people as they continue to be ignored.
The judge’s statement is so disingenuous, designed to deceive rather than to promote a realistic view of actions and consequences. They didn’t throw a can at the painting and luckily the glass held, they splashed some soup, with no chance of piercing the glass and doing no damage to it, and if the pane of glass wasn’t there they wouldn’t have done it.
Damaging the frame is something he can complain about, but the painting was never in danger. There’s definitely some political thrust to these overwrought and deceptive sentences the UK is giving to climate activists.
I hope it’s no more than 2 days in jail. Putting someone in jail for longer than the time it takes to clean up a foodstuff they threw at an inanimate object would be ludicrous and cruel wouldn’t it?
Some climate action activists in the UK recently got 5 year sentences. I’m worried for these people because even though they knew the risks of bashing up against the UK’s absurdly draconian anti-protest laws (and props to their bravery), the recent sentences were shocking and felt like another level of escalation beyond what most people were expecting.
“Ludicrous and cruel” is certainly the description for it
I know it’s not popular in this community, but we really need to understand that protest takes on many forms, and the Stop Oil protests have - for whatever reason - focused on a very unhelpful form.
We could talk about the reasons for that particular focus, or the other forms of protest that would be better.
Everyone always tells protesters they are protesting wrong but we are talking about Just Stop Oil right now due the their protest.
Prison is just a reality of the fight for freedom. Support our troops! >:(
Which protests would you approve of, and would anyone know they even happened beyond those who physically encountered them? Maybe some orderly sign waving on the side of a non-major road so no drivers are distracted?
Yes, big fan.
First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”
And yet the people ruthlessly pillaging the planet as we all plea for them to stop get to keep compounding their wealth while world leaders aid them. Fuck this world. The art won’t matter when no humans are around to appreciate it.
Here’s the Lady herself explaining her actions (which in no way damaged the painting).
Absolutely ridiculous that they’re given any time at all.
EDIT a letter
I’m not giving twitter any more clicks, but sounds like it’s worth watching.
