Just Stop Oil activist jailed for six months for taking part in slow march [UK]

The fact that the comment sections of these posts are always the same just shows how much oil propaganda has affected the situation.

That and people thinking protesting isn't deliberately meant to disrupt the daily lives of people in an attempt to force them to acknowledge there's a problem and do something about it.

By nature protests are supposed to be disruptive to the average person because it's the average person that decides what policies and laws we have.

The problem is the average person is too stupid/ignorant/tired/lazy to realize this and just sees it as a personal attack and reacts with pure emotion.

No. Protests are supposed to change the mind of the average person, or at least bring their attention to a given cause.
Holding someone's time to ransom doesn't help your cause, it just makes people resent you.
Has the UK become more environmentally aware since Just Stop Oil kicked off?
- Do you not remember the protests for civil rights? The sit ins? The marches? The protests outside the white house?
  Literally every part of what is protesting is based on disrupting everything for the average citizen so the govt is forced to make a change.
  The point of protesting is to force action without violence. People blocking traffic or stopping people from entering certain businesses is exactly what protesting is.
  Protesting isn't just rallies where people come together to talk about what they all agree on. It's actively forcing people to acknowledge the issue without resorting to violence.
  Edit: I didn't see this was a UK post which is my bad but it's still relevant
- Here's a quote from Martin Luther King that I think is very relevant:
  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."
  Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
- @Ilovethebomb @ThatWeirdGuy1001 Some protests are instead designed to raise the cost of an abusive behavior so the rich ruling class will buy less of it.
  Don't waste time trying to speak truth to this kind of power, speak power to oppressors instead. Make sure they understand that we can match ANY level of escalation on their part.
  This is how we killed Huntingdon "Life" Sciences: the public already opposed vivisection, but vivisection was on both sides of the ballot.
- Lol and you all wonder why most surface life on the planet is going to die along with most humans
- I'm amazed at how few people realise this. I don't agree with jailing this guy but people seem to think that as long as a protest gets noticed by people it MUST be effective.
  Arguing with anger makes people who are already on your side agree with you, arguing with calm and logic might actually change a few minds though.
  Just Stop Oil are the former and appears to me to be doing nothing to help the effort, do they think that people believe oil is good for the planet and that they're actually making others aware of the environmental impact? Nobody is learning anything but plenty of people are getting pissed off with the cause because it's unnecessarily disruptive and furthers nothing.
  Edit: you guys proved the point phenomenally. There's the people already on their side agreeing, meanwhile at least 2 commenters who are anti oil are painted like we coat penguins in it for fun in our free time. Why do so many suggest it's either JSO or ineffective sanctioned protests? Could there not be something in between? What would be so wrong with protesting directly to MPs by the houses of Parliament? You could chain yourself to whatever if you need to make a strong point, throw oil/paint/whatever at 10 downing street, do something that the decision makers will actually notice and have people talking about you favourably. Most conversations about JSO are one side saying they're fucking morons, and the other side naively echoing this chamber like that has any chance at changing anyone's mind.
  Ah well, lemmy seems even less flexible than reddit did with its views, so I shouldn't be surprised. There is no room for nuance here.

The UK is truly becoming a fascist hellhole.

"You're allowed to protest, but only between 5PM and 6PM and you must get a permit and also don't bother anyone or make too much noise and also you must walk at the right speed otherwise you're just being a meanie and we're going to arrest you >:("

While I think some of Just Stop Oil's previous antics were counterproductive to the public image of climate activists, arresting someone because they didn't protest "at the right speed" is ridiculous. The whole point of protests is to be disruptive and bring attention to the protesters and their cause, and this is an incredibly mild way of doing it.

Also did the British government forget about the troubles? When folks cant peacefully protest shit tends to explode both metaphorically and sometimes literally. Oh wbo am I kidding the British government is full of dipshits. Give it to the inbred english aristocracy and oligarchy to repeatedly smash their dicks with a hammer.
- Also did the British government forget about the troubles?
  Damn right they forgot about Northern Ireland. They barely care about anywhere outside of London.
- Gotta pick up some little Armalites
- @vaultdweller013 @RagdollX
  IRA hell yeah! When the Easter Rising was shot down by British troops, the UK earned themselves 80 more years of war.
Are you crazy?! 5-6pm is rush hour! No it must be 2-3am, but if any of your neighbours are woken up, they must spend six months in a re-education camp kindly funded by our BP sponsors.
People have a right to go about their day, you can't have everyone with a gripe going around blocking roads all the time.
- You are an awful status quo, please don’t rock my boat it’s working for me and I don’t care about anybody or anything else person.
- Here's a quote from Martin Luther King that I think is very relevant:
  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."
  Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
- This. I don't care how righteous your cause is. Get the fuck out of my way and go stab an oil exec if you actually want change.

If you're going to get six months for slow walking then you may as well make it six months for hurling rocks at Rishi Sunak.

I'd respect that a lot more than what they're currently doing.

What a fucking abomination. Everyone who passed this law needs to be locked up.

Well shit at this point the British need to protest the laws around protest.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A climate activist has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to taking part in a peaceful slow march protest on a London road.

The sentence handed to Stephen Gingell, 57, is thought to be the first jailing under a new law that critics say makes anyone walking in a road liable for prosecution for “interference with key national infrastructure”.

Gingell, a father of three from Manchester, was one of about 40 supporters of Just Stop Oil who spent about 30 minutes marching on Holloway Road in north London at about 4pm on 12 November, the climate campaign group said.

The campaign’s “guerrilla tactics” were cited by the Home Office when it introduced the Public Order Act’s tough new anti-protest measures to parliament.

Police began using section 7 to tackle Just Stop Oil’s protests at the end of October, arresting 60 people taking part in a march in Parliament Square.

A spokesperson for the campaign said: “Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, a law drafted by the fossil fuel lobby, was introduced in April by Priti Patel, and covers ‘interference with the use or operation of key national infrastructure’.

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How have we forgotten that an oil heiress is behind just stop oil ??

What? Who? And why ?
- It's not really true, see: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/22/just-stop-oil-van-gogh-national-gallery-aileen-getty
  This is one donor, not "the person behind". The family made a lot of money on oil and has since entirely divested. The "heiress" in question is on the record saying she believes climate change threatens all of civilization and so she wants to put her fortune -- especially given that a lot of it came from oil -- to use stopping fossil fuels.
  It's basically EXACTLY what a sane person with a functional moral compass should do in that position, but it's used as attack and slander regardless. Threads like this you ALWAYS see the right-wing talking points parroted faithfully by people who are either too gullible to do basic fact-checking or else are flatly disingenuous and manipulative.

Hey at least you’re unarmed and can’t fight back against your fascist government when they take your rights.

The suffragettes put acid in postboxes, chained themselves to railings, and bombed the Chancellor of the Exchecquer's house.
- A few years ago, I read about how Mary Molony was an Irish Suffragette who disrupted a speech Winston Churchill was giving in Dundee by ringing a bell every time he tried to speak. She wanted him to apologise for remarks he had made about the women's suffrage movement.
  I remember when I read this, it reeked of something awesome that you find online that's actually false (the story was shared on social media via a captioned photo with no sources), so I went digging for a proper source to check. I found some newspaper articles from 1908 and I learned that this event did happen, but also that people fucking hated Molony for this. There was a lot of "see, this is why everyone hates the Suffragettes". (Sorry for saying this and then not sourcing)
  It makes sense that people would be salty - Churchill was an asshole, but also a great orator, so I can see why one might be disappointed in missing the chance to see him speak, but I was shocked at the level of vitriol aimed at Molony and other Suffragettes from the time. Until this I hadn't realised just how unpopular they were at the time. It's drastically changed my perspective on protests and public perception.
Do EVERYONE a favor and pick up a history book at least ONCE in your sad little life.
The only people who say this are people who are ignorant of history. Here's a quote from Martin Luther King that I think is very relevant:
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."
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

These people keep causing problems and inconveniencing everyone except the people that actually have the influence to do what they want.

The only thing they have accomplished is making "Just Stop" people look like clowns, and making everyone else dislike them and their message.

Just Stop Oil activists are among the worlds ultimate clowns.

Yes, it's the people who are protesting the thing that are wrong, down with them. Jail is too good for them, I saw on the news that five people were a little bit late to work that day, so obviously, we can't stand them.
Maybe you should stomach some of this contempt for the oil companies.
- Just so you are aware, there are people who believe Just Stop Oil is intentionally trying to make climate activists look bad because some of their funds come from a member of the Getty family. I first became aware of the conspiracy theory when they threw soup on that painting. I do not have the opinion that they demonstrate behavior that is significantly worse than any other group.
  I fund climate activism – and I applaud the Van Gogh protest
  Aileen Getty
  The Just Stop Oil protest shocked the world, but we must take disruptive action on the climate crisis before it’s too late
  ...
  I am the daughter of a famous family who built their fortune on fossil fuels – but we now know that the extraction and use of fossil fuels is killing life on our planet. Our family sold that company four decades ago, and I instead vowed to use my resources to take every means to protect life on Earth.
  People often come up with theories about my motivation to engage in the climate movement. My motivation is clear: I am fighting for a livable planet for my family and yours. I am not dwelling on the past. I am looking to build a better future.
  -https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/22/just-stop-oil-van-gogh-national-gallery-aileen-getty
- A valid protest targets the perpetrators of the offending acts, not the victims of those acts.
  Harassing people for having been victimized by a bad actor is not a protest. It's a temper tantrum.
…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 cannot agree with your methods of direct action‘ …
- Thank you, this is exactly what's going on.
Or you could say these protestors are regularly getting in headlines, showing that there's an escalating culture of absolute rejection of social mores so long as major, vital changes don't happen. Creating serious problems for bureaucrats and elected officials that forces a response that often makes those officials and bureaucrats look like assholes.
The protests are factually inconveniencing and causing problems for people that have the influence to get policy changed, at least so long as democracy is functional. You aren't going to be able to protest an oil magnate. They are not accessible for protest.
Your thesis is that people will vote against climate protestors just because they were late getting to work one day. If that's correct, we may as well get out the Flavor-Aid because this world's beyond saving. Everyone needs to be reminded and thinking about this crisis. Every day. It needs to be front and center. Time is running out. We have the solutions needed to avoid catastrophe, but too many are simply not aware and thinking about how terrible the danger is and need daily reminding.
We seem to be forgetting that protests once involved burning down neighborhoods and executing rulers. Which really is what we should be doing, given the enormity of the problem. This is a more civil compromise. Don't buy into the media powers that want to turn you against anyone expressing discontent.
If the Earth Day protests happened today, the media narrative around them would be "Look at all these fuckers, on the streets, stopping me from getting to the gas station to buy a Slim Jim!" It's fucked. The attitude is fucked.
- The protests are factually inconveniencing and causing problems for people that have the influence to get policy changed, at least so long as democracy is functional.
  The only policy they are affecting is the policy on jaywalking.
  If the Earth Day protests happened today, the media narrative around them would be "Look at all these fuckers, on the streets, stopping me from getting to the gas station to buy a Slim Jim!" It's fucked. The attitude is fucked.
  Yes, that is the effect that JSO is achieving with their idiocy. They are fucking that attitude right into the general public.
- They're not specifically targeting their protests to inconvenience the influencers, politicians or industries supporting the licensing of Big Oil. The majority targets making a large spectacle, with a significant amounts of criminal damage - something to become news-worthy.
  Not once have I seen them promote alternative policy changes for oil & gas use. They're also not promoting projects dealing with climate change.
  They're certainly getting exposure, but they're not winning the public vote. I agree with their cause, but I despise their methods.
The time and effort you put into typing this comment, would have been better spent discussing the more important, relevant and dangerous issues you can find simply in the headline. 1- big oil has our politicians in their pockets. 2- The UK government is putting people in jail for protesting, not rioting. And so what if you're late for work? Are you so overpaid that you prioritize getting to the office on time over a protest to avoid planetary genocide? Turn off your car and join the march!!
- The time and effort you put into typing this comment would have been better spent overthrowing your corrupt government and replacing it with an incorruptible one. Or at least a less corrupt one.
  Ah, but why do that when you can scold random people on the internet for not joining a protest you admit is pointless?
  And is it not pointless to protest when the government is corrupt? They will not care after all since they're in someone's pocket...
  Look around the world and say how many protests against corrupt, tyrannical governments actually work instead of being squashed into silent submission?
  Now I'm not saying you shouldn't do something about it, but to do something that actually works instead of just walking down the street with a sign and then calling it a day once you've pissed off enough people.
Agreed they should show up to the oil executives houses drag their families out in the street and hang them from the streetlights from shortest to tallest.
What are they going to do put them in prison? The same thing they do for a slow walking.
- They did attack trucks at oil refineries. Do you know what the lasting impact was? Nothing. It didn't even make the news.
- No need to involve the families. Just take the executives out back.
- I'd actually respect that more than what they are currently doing.
Do you realize they blocked the road in front of an oil refinery before this?
The only people who fall for this propaganda from upholders of the status quo are ignorant of history. Here's a quote from Martin Luther King that I think is very relevant:
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."
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Every-time this is said I always think of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gje3HiouzvQ
You're quite right, they never go after the politicians, or anyone with actual power. It's always the average guy that ends up copping it.
- @Ilovethebomb @RightHandOfIkaros The higher level politicians are better defended. It is often necessary to strike at targets that are both high value and soft. For every general secure in their fortress there are a dozen war profiteers just begging to be dragged to the front to clear their own mines.
- They go after politicians and people with actual power all the time. You ignored it because it didn't inconvenience you.
They are bankrolled by fossil fuel groups, right ?
- No, that's basically misinformation.
  There's a major donor who's the daughter of a family who's previous generation made money on fossil fuels and has since divested and wants to distance themselves. Based on the fact that it is now clear how utterly destructive fossil fuels are.
  Conservatives / climate deniers use some parts of this fact as part of a campaign to discredit the organization and keep the media narrative around these protests on "oh, this style of protest does not match my aesthetics so it must be bad" instead of "the climate is on fire and the perpetrators are getting rich doing it and we should ALL be in the streets making noise and inconveniencing people until something is done."