“The Judge deemed that carefully cracking some glass to try to sound the alarm in the financial world, and demand Barclays and others like them stop financing the BAU death project, was sufficiently serious an ‘offence’ to pass the ‘custodial threshold’.” (Zoe Cohen, defendant)
Climate Activists Guilty of Smashing Barclays HQ Windows Spared Jail, The Guardian headline last Friday read. “Women were found guilty of causing £100,000 damage to building in Canary Wharf, London.”
Reported a jubilant defendant Zoe Cohen:
Well, I’m a #free #woman… Relieved and happy to be home with my family, and full of #gratitude for the incredible support I and the #Barclays7 have received from so many people
Here’s a short video from the Press Association (2 mins) just after we left Southwark Crown Court after 5pm on Friday. I’m speaking to camera from 40 seconds in.
I and my co-defendants all received prison sentences of 6, 7, or 8 months, all suspended for 2 years. I need to stress that these are custodial sentences, we have not been ‘let off’.
The Judge deemed that carefully cracking some glass to try to sound the alarm in the financial world, and demand Barclays and others like them stop financing the BAU death project, was sufficiently serious an ‘offence’ to pass the ‘custodial threshold’.
If that’s the case, then imagine the sentences the #board of #barclays would get, if and when there are #laws to try them with, and #lawyers who care enough to do it… (Here’s a video with a slightly longer clip, speaking from 2 mins in https://lnkd.in/eZsUiUaZ)
I’ll be posting more about the trial, the sentencing and my reflections on in the coming days
Dangerous stuff. To the extent the legal system sanctions a climate “ends justify the means,” expect a lot more property destruction. Think of it as the ultimate negative externality.
But the Judge in the above case, Alexander Milne, warned:
You appear to be proud of what you have done. You sought to justify what you have done by referencing your beliefs.” You risk alienating those who you look to for support …. I regard what you did as a stunt, a gimmick to attract attention.
Barclay’s chickened out by not asking for monetary damages, but the defendants had to pay court costs.
Climate Extremism: Counterproductive but Growing
The lawlessness of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil et al is worrisome for just about everyone. Many climate alarmists, including Michael Mann, are wary of a strategy that angers the masses.
“Ecocide” is another ploy of the climate cultism–trying to pin wartime-like atrocities on those producing and advocating for the fossil fuels that billions demand and need. (The latest from Stop Ecocide Foundation is here.)
Then there is Les “I campaign for the extinction of the human race” Knight, whose views are seriously considered by The Guardian and Bloomberg Green. Andreas Malm, author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021). Peter “fossil fuel leaders…should be in prison” Kalmus, embarrassing the climate science establishment with his civil disobedience at their own meetings.
Make no mistake: climate extremism and property destruction is the predictable result of the failure of CO2 mitigation policy. Rather than check their premises on climate exaggeration and falsified predictions, the climate cult soldiers toward the cliff with a false sense of moral authority and certitude. Too bad for them, but probably good for exposing deep ecology religion for what it is–anti-humanism.
And the trend toward more public disruption and anger toward climate cultism continues.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/30/peers-deliver-several-blows-to-governments-anti-protest-bill?CMP=GTUK_email