Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Greta Thunberg has stated that rules must be broken if they stand in the way of climate action.
Greta Thunberg condemns ‘unlawful’ police ban on Extinction Rebellion climate change protest
‘If standing up for humanity is against the rules then the rules must be broken,’ says teenager
Chris Baynes, Jane Dalton (2 days ago)Greta Thunberg has called on Extinction Rebellion demonstrators to defy a police order banning them from protesting across London.
The climate change activist spoke out before the group won the go-ahead to take legal action over the order, which has been condemned by human rights groups as unlawful.“If standing up against the climate and ecological breakdown and for humanity is against the rules then the rules must be broken,” Ms Thunberg wrote on her Instagram account.
…
A judicial review of the ban, which the group’s lawyers say is “disproportionate and unlawful” will be held on Thursday afternoon.
…
Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Liberty have also criticised the Metropolitan Police over the “heavy-handed” and “chilling” tactic.
Deputy assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor said the ban had been imposed following “continued breaches” of a previous order, which restricted protesters to Trafalgar Square.
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The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, distanced himself from the police order and said he had asked senior officers to “find a way for those who want to protest the climate emergency we face to be able to do so legally”.
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Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/greta-thunberg-extinction-rebellion-protests-police-ban-climate-change-london-a9158191.html
The Thursday judicial review was deferred until next week, so Extinction Rebellion are still under a ban forbidding them to protest in London.
Extinction Rebellion London: Met Police ‘ban’ on protests will continue over weekend as judge delays judicial review
TRISTAN KIRK Courts correspondent (2 days ago)
Scotland Yard’s controversial “ban” on the Extinction Rebellion protests will stand this weekend after a judge refused to hear a judicial review bid until next week.…
Phillippa Kaufmann QC, representing a collection of activists including Green Party peer Baroness Jenny Jones and Guardian journalist George Monbiot, asked for a fast-tracked hearing tomorrow to determine the case.
But Mr Justice Dingemans rejected the idea this afternoon, saying he was worried a judge could make a mistake if rushed into a decision.
“I’m wholly unconvinced this is a case where it is right to speed up the process as quickly as that”, he told the High Court this afternoon.“These are important points, both for the complainants and the defendant, on the construction of a criminal statute.”
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The effect of today’s ruling is that the section 14 order brought in by the Met this week to tackle the Extinction Rebellion ‘autumn uprising’ will continue to stand until 6pm on Saturday.
…
Read more: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/police-ban-on-extinction-rebellion-protests-will-continue-over-weekend-as-judge-delays-judicial-a4264301.html
Extinction Rebellion naturally had no respect for the law, and defied the ban, resulting in at least 1760 arrests including the arrest George Monbiot (the video shows Monbiot laughing as he is dragged away by police – all a big joke to him).
This is not about banning freedom of assembly. The British police appear to have done everything in their power to accommodate Extinction Rebellion’s ongoing right to protest. The rule does not prevent Extinction Rebellion from holding protests elsewhere. All the police asked is that Extinction Rebellion structure their London protests in such a way as to allow ordinary people to continue going about their normal business, a request Extinction Rebellion repeatedly ignored.
Trafalgar Square, where police asked Extinction Rebellion to protest, is one of the most prominent landmarks in London, an important nexus in London’s road system. If you want to cross London Bridge there is a good chance you will drive past Trafalgar Square. Thousands of people see Trafalgar Square every day. But Extinction Rebellion have so far refused to compromise, even a little.
As for Greta Thunberg, she is now on record publicly inciting people to break the law.
Perhaps it is time for President Trump to review whether he really wants a rabble rousing foreigner who has no qualms about inciting mass law breaking and civil disorder running around the USA.
Update (EW): Amended “Hundreds of thousands” of people see Trafalgar Square every day to “Thousands”. “Hundreds of thousands” is probably an over-estimate.
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There are places where a protest may be reasonable. On streets in central London, or elsewhere, such as Brisbane, or Melbourne, are not included . If a protest is permitted in one place, such as Trafalgar Square, there is no problem, provided it does not spill onto the street.
They can always go to Hyde Park, and protest there, even arranging speeches at Speaker’s Corner.
I agree that the POTUS should seek her deportation as an alien supporting mass law breaking and civil disorder.
Sitting on top of an airliner, a tube or shutting an international airport doesn’t really seem reasonable or peaceful to me.
Greta should be in school learning about another person with many followers, Charles Manson. It was the followers of Manson who had committed crimes but at his behest. If she orders her climate following to commit crimes, she is just as responsible for their actions as if she committed the offence herself whatever offence they commit.
This girl is going to validate my thoughts by getting these people imprisoned before they turn into another terrorist organization.
I want her right where she’s at.
They already are a terrorist organization. What’s worse is that many of them probably don’t know it. Iow: “useful, expendable pawns”.
They already qualify as a terrorist organisation. They incite an exaggerated or completely fictitious in this case fear and then exploit that fear to disrupt and destroy society.
Greta’s lawyers will claim she is a minor!
She will go scott-free.
They aren’t a terrorist organization. Weather Underground was a terrorist organization. They actually committed acts of violence. Now they are the Democratic Party.
I like watching them lose.
Instead of the Nobel Peace Prize, let’s award Greta the Bombshell War Prize – after all didn’t Alfred Nobel make his money on patenting his discovery of dynamite.
Why him? Greta should be at school learning her science so the she’s able to do as much for the environment as hundreds and thousands of unnamed and unknown young ladies who work in science laboratories all over the world trying to curb the environment crisis. It’s them who are environmental heroes, unsunģ as it is while an ignorant truant is hailed as the world’s saviour!
Alan
xr use the excuse that it’s formed of numerous organisations over which they have little control.
Funny how they all know where to go, what time to get there and how to conduct themselves e.g. any of them arrested are urged not to apply for bail, so they choke up the prisons.
If Extinction Rebellion wanted to hold a march down a major street in the middle of peak hour traffic, I don’t think that would be an issue. Britain is OK with the occasional mass protest. If I was caught in the traffic jam I might grumble a bit, but I would defend their right to have their views heard, even though I think they are idiots.
But Extinction Rebellion aren’t just interested in being heard, they want to force everyone else to obey their demands. They crossed the line with their relentless ongoing disruption, illegal roadblocks, and refusal to stop messing up everyone elses life.
Eric
Even worse is that they are not really behaving in a manner where their primary concern is to have their grievances heard, and to show how many people support them. Rather, they are engaging in a form of extortion where they are trying to inconvenience people in the hopes that the bloke heading for work will get so frustrated that he will support their demands in order just to clear the streets. A minority are trying to force the majority to submit to their demands through methods that infringe on the rights of others.
Mmm, isn’t that the definition of terrorism?
London roads and London transport have absolutely no spare capacity. Anything from weather to road works reduces it to a parking lot., all that CO2 generated by delivery trucks keeping the economy moving, by buses transporting workers, tax
payers, consumers, then gets ramped up by a bunch of meatheads who despise everyone who does not share the worldview of this cult. They are trampling on the rights of everyone else. Btw I hope Greta is swimming back from Canada with her entourage because, “you know, it’s the right thing to do!”
Here’s a good take by a Londoner on when they invaded the Tube and a riff on some of the other denizens of the cult:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T2wz1IvZUtQ
(Language rather strong)
That video puts XR in the proper perspective. They’re all a bunch of idiots.
She will be watching us all? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kD1zubg3cA
Dudley,
You will be aware that the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions is on record as defending the rights of a rogue trade union to disregard the Rule of Law where it, and she, believe that the “ rights of workers” should prevail.
The Rule of Law then becomes dispensable.
This recipe for anarchy is exactly what is being repeated here by Extinction Rebellion.
Aren’t there laws against urging other people to break the law?
conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace
Incitement to riot.
Thomas Paine urged the colonists in the Americas to break the laws of the then legitimate British government. Of course you will object that circumstances are different. But if someone, foolishly or with defensible reason, really is convinced, rightly or wrongly, that a law is unjust, they have the moral duty to break it, if they fully understand the consequences and are willing to accept them. And those who reasonably disagree have the moral duty to stop the lawbreakers.
Thomas Paine didn’t have the option of standing as a candidate in a democratic election on a platform of having the law changed.
The British (or the Tories) would have hung him had the colonists turned over their guns and powder.
Now?
“The British … would have hung him”
Hanged. A Judge at the Old Bailey explained it to a young barrister. He said: “Beef, sir, is hung, men are hanged.”
But sometimes men are hung, and beef are hanged in slaughterhouses.
The legitimate elected governments of the American states, “In Congress Assembled” declared their independence from Britain. They proceeded to defend their independence against British invasion. It was to that task that Paine urged them on.
They weren’t a bunch of lunatics and teenagers harassing ordinary people. They were citizens under their own democratically chosen governments protecting their homeland against marauding invaders.
Walter Sobchak:
You say,
“The legitimate elected governments of the American states, “In Congress Assembled” declared their independence from Britain. They proceeded to defend their independence against British invasion. It was to that task that Paine urged them on.”
They were revolutionaries who were opposing their then government.
The reality of behaviour is not affected by whether or not you agree with the reason for that behaviour.
There is a long history of civil disobedience leading to legal and/or societal change. The American revolutionaries are one example of such civil disobedience as are the Catalonians who are now imprisoned for similar civil disobedience in Spain. Such civil disobedience is ONLY justified by those conducting it being willing to accept the full burden of the law for their actions (as the Catalonian politicians seem to be).
Importantly, the civil disobedience is not justifiable by post hoc assertions concerning the rightness of the cause espoused by those conducting the civil disobedience.
Greta Thunberg is arguing that the law should ignore the Extinction Rebellion rebels.
Richard
The Manga Carta.
It basically said that the pee’ed ons should have a voice in Government.
Now we do.
Grrrrrreta and company (like the UN) want us to return to all but the “The Elite” are just the peed’ons.
Grrrreta is just a pawn in the ‘Game of Thrones”.
In that game, any “cause” that removes power from the peed’ons and returns it all to the “Pee’ers” is OK with them.
Yes, the continued disruption by the XR (or is it ER) nuts should be dealt with as it was in the (Brits call it) “Tube”. (The US would call it the subway.)
They’d already had their say. The Peed’ons responded.
Richard October 19, 2019 at 8:03 pm
No. You have no understanding of what you speak read the links below in no way are they related to the present discord. Shame.
https://nccs.net/blogs/articles/these-are-the-times-that-try-mens-souls
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1776-paine-common-sense-pamphlet
michael
Had Paine, or any of the others been caught by the British at any time prior to Cornwallis’s surrender, they would have been promptly hanged.
Inciting to riot is a serious crime, a felony, in the US.
Normally, yes. But Greta is untouchable. Imagine the outrage if she was arrested. She’s like Ghandi or Mother Theresa.
It doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t be publicly reprimanded for doing so and pointing out that there is much support for her cause being lost. It should be made clear to her (and her handlers) that there are more people simply tolerating her than actually actively support her.
The end is closing in for young Greta. Neither Ghandi nor Mother Theresa had youth on their side. The reality is, it’s all that Greta has. Gore could not do what she has done. Even if he wore pig tails.
Eamon.
Almost no one ever gets charged with it here in the US, even when they are doing it in the midst of actual riots.
But it is notable that her handlers have seen fit to transition her talking points to publicly calling for others to commit acts of violence and lawbreaking.
After her UN tirade, complete with angry condemnation and hate-face for anyone who is not of a mind with her message, it was obvious her message is evolving fast.
Her parents are 100% amoral psychopaths, and I suspect things will not end well for them.
An education including a PhD does not guarantee someone has the skill set to analyze a complex set of equations, data etc However, and it will appear unseemly, but Greta has recently completed Grade 9. She is a dedicated intelligent performer parroting a few phrases. At a minimum she has not had the time to review the subject in any meaningful way AND yet the UN, Government Leaders etc are meeting with her for photo ops and to promote their own climate agenda. Here in Canada, our former drama teacher Prime Minister and Greta were a great fit. A sad state of affairs.
“ Aren’t there laws against urging other people to break the law?”
But, but, but Democrats can‘t “break any laws”, ……. only Republicans can “break laws” and be convicted for doing said.
They don’t need to have actually broken any laws in order for them to be convicted in heavily Democrat counties.
There, fixed that for ya.
But, but, but Democrats can‘t “break any laws”
And, if by chance they did, “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case” to court.
The judge ought to restrict them to protesting without the use of fossil fuels. Greta too. No more internet for her.
The autistic one is actually now in Canada essentially interfering in the national elections on behalf of the current child PM which is illegal in itself for non citizens. Lets see if anything is done about it.
Yeah is this not the same thing as foreign agent meddling in a sovereign country’s election.
The left defines right and wrong based solely on whether they are benefiting or not.
She’s not Russian, so that’s okay then.
And she is not Trump….
How is that peaceful when people glue themselves to airplanes, or metro trains, disrupt economies to the tune of millions of $? I guess, if don’t work and u have no idea that ur benefits come from the very same people that u disrupt and put them in danger, then it is peaceful.
Physically preventing someone from going about their lawful activities is almost a form of kidnapping.
Ignore them even glued to the train. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Let the night crews clean up any messes …
The Clinton administration got rid of Elian Gonzalez because they wanted to kiss Castro’s ass. By the same token the Trump administration should get rid of Greta because she’s a pain in the ass.
Good idea, but I do not think Cuba will take her.
Is that why she’s stranded in Canada?
If Amnesty UK really said that then I am extra glad that I stopped contributing to them years ago. Another organization which appears to have forgotten what their reason to exist was supposed to be about.
You would probably enjoy Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s response to Amnesty Canada a month or so ago. It was an epic letter.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/read-the-full-text-jason-kenney-responds-to-amnesty-internationals-criticism-of-his-fight-back-strategy
An astonishingly lucid, sensible and to-the-point response. I just may have to revise my blanket and rather unflattering opinion on elected officials.
Yes indeed. Wasn’t it something to do with arbitrary detention and political prisoners? They seem to have morphed into the PR arm for trendy progressive causes in the west.
yeah they werent heard when all the british girls were being raped and drugged by the foriegn chappies
and their human rights were a LOT more violated and then some.
Watch out for incoming vegan Gretaburgers
Let’s rephrase this: As the Guardian escalates its activism and propaganda, Monbiot who got in Green College thanks to the powerful intervention from Sir Cripsin Tickell, former Chairman of the Thomson Reuters Foundation (see climategate emails) will play civil desobedience because he knows he risks little to nothing, being protected by green oligarchs.
Greta is the front for the green coup d’etat and if they advocate breaking the law, then people might follow their advice and deal with this treason in an expedited justice… What goes around comes around… Don’t get mad, get even!
Tom Rude
Re George Monbiot: it seems he continues to live up to Christopher Booker’s version of his name, i.e. moonbat
In the bigger scheme of things, XR’s antics of blocking traffic, trains, and planes is probably the best thing to ever happen for climate skeptics.
And now a Swedish autistic teenager encouraging it (XR’s traffic blockages) and her lecturing from US Congress enabled by Democrats only helps Republicans convince independent voters that the Democrats have gone full bat shit crazy. And there is no turning that around for them. The antics may rally their base, but their base is far from enough. We saw that clearly with Renewable Energy mandates on several state’s ballots last November 2018 get defeated by 2-1 margins from even blue places like Washington State.
So these antics only confirms what those voters knew then… the US democrats are the Party of Crazy.
To surmise and paraphrase Sun Tzu, “Never stand in the way of your enemies destroying themselves.”
Napoleon is reported to have said: Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making mistakes.
“…a request Extinction Rebellion repeatedly ignored” meaning get out of the way of commuters and hold your protest on the sidewalks. Those commuters pay the taxes that go into the welfare funding that supports these morons. And the idiots are pretentious versions of anarchists, who would let nothing stop them from destroying everything. There is no reason for them to not be arrested, stuffed into holding cells where they all start smelling like the sweaty little bums they are, and get them off the welfare rolls, so they no longer have any freeloading money, which comes from the very people they are annoying.
Maybe bear spray would send them packing.
Chilling tactics??? Look at uber-elite mouthpiece Monbiot, smiling, politely dragged from the protest spot, he did not face a LBD 40 grenade disfiguring him like the Gilets Jaunes in France who protested the carbon tax…
Where were Amnesty International and Liberty then? Nowhere, because they sided with the system, just like Bernard-Henri Levy who supported the Maidan but despised a non NATO orchestrated, real revolt from ordinary people.
Whenever I see the name Monbiot my brain pronounces it as “Moonbat”.
BTW, the Gilets Jaunes in France have understood the deleterious role of the media and targeted the Macron serving media such as BFM TV for their coverage… It is time ordinary people put the screw on their respective media…
CBC and their journos/activists in Canada will get a taste of it sooner than later, especially after the bias campaign they ran.
On the face of it, I would agree that XR has the right to free expression and the right to protest in a non-violent manner. That said, those protests should not impact or violate the right of any individuals free movement, especially if that movement is the lawful conduct of business (taxi or delivery drivers, ambulance, etc) or individual travel to their place of business or employment. People have the right to work and the free movement to get there.
It would be interesting to see a company or an individual take the leaders of the protests to civil court for lost business or wages.
Purposeful disruption of commerce with the intent to politically coerce is essentially terrorism.
No. No I don’t think it is. Nice try making up your own definition of the word though!
She’s only 16 where is she now? Should not the adults who are controlling her be held accountable?
It is their right to protest. But it is my right to commute to work without being stopped. They are selfish and infringe on everybody else’s rights.
Someone needs to prosecute this little Brat’s Parents for Child Abuse! After all, her handlers are just more Liberal Whores to George Soros Money. That’s who is paying for all her “green” transportation. Greta is just a programmed Parrot who cannot think on her own. Remember she is Mentally Handicapped and has Ausbergers Syndrome.
No one is perfect. Most of us have the one or other physical and/or psychological issue. To me it seems that the parents are behaving irresponsible with the free upbringing, which has revealed her not so well matured side. It is sad, because had the parents been more strict, she may had learned to listen better, be happier and more understanding for other’s viewpoints.
The act she has performed “… the rules must be broken” is no different from the norm of her upbringing – The type of school she joined, the parents. – You will find this with many kids and some grownups. Some will eventually learn from parents and friends, others will first learn from a court case against them.
The current situation reminds me how far political fanaticism may go – The National Socialists setting fire to the government building in Germany over 85 years ago. What is it Extinction Rebellion they want? Is it much different from what the National Socialists wanted?
Most politicians are incapable of listening to other viewpoints, especially if they are Americans or NATO lackeys. There was no popular mandate for war in Iraq, Libya, Syria, The Balkans and many more. But they went ahead killing millions anyway.
Little Greta is not some evil ogre, she is just a silly immature girl who prematurely adopted climate religion without investigating the evidence first. Organised religions thrive on recruiting such people: they know that the adolescent awakening and breaking from parental diktat is the perfect time to instil a new mantra without too much resistance.
What is evil is adults using her, publicising her views as if she were a sage and never questioning what she says.
No it’s not different at all. Just a different color coat of paint.
When CAGW is elevated to an existential threat … it becomes an act of “morality” to do everything possible to STOP what (you believe) threatens the life of every human on the planet. It becomes akin to the conundrum of what to do if you knew what Hitler was to become. You would be morally obligated to MURDER Adolph … to save 6M lives. Even murder him in his crib.
The escalation of CAGW into an “existential threat” gives license to this nonsense. It escalates the “struggle” of CAGW into a “religious” act. A religion that teaches civil disobedience as a sacrament. There is NO science in any of this nonsense. There is no REAL justification of these acts. It’s all make-believe.
Lock em up.
So I believe their stupidity will lead to Billions.. with a B.. of people dead from starvation.. does that mean it’s my moral responsibility to kill these crazies? Just looking for permission..
6m? There were 26 million who died in the USSR alone!
they dont count…they were the “wrong”religion..
some are more special than others etc..
So if they can ignore the law it’s ok for everyday commuters to ignore the law and throw their asses in the Thames?
Yeah, I thought that’s where the law breaking line would be drawn…
What? No!
I’m allowed to break the law because of the cause I believe in. You must not break the law for the cause you believe in…. You must capitulate to ME!!! For I am righteous.
They have a simple world view, no clutter at all. I do wonder if they’ll ever grow up and wake up.
Obvious consequences of Noble Cause Corruption to prevent Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW).
The Copenhagen Consensus has more than 560 experts evaluating all the major global humanitarian projects with 7 Nobel Laureates reviewing the studies. It finds almost ALL other projects have higher benefit/cost than climate mitigation.
Furthermore, what if warming is overestimated, costs over estimated, benefits under estimated, and the costs of adaptation are far cheaper than mitigation?
It appears Greta is sadly misled by those with a global control agenda.
The Climate Piper strikes again.
Let’s refresh our memories regarding the US First Amendment:
Nowhere in there does it say the People have to respect anyone else’s religion, speech, or right to assemble. I don’t have to “grumble a bit,” I can walk or drive past them, and if they try to interfere with my passage that is some kind of assault, surely, and I can use reasonable force to continue on my peaceful way to wherever it is I’m going.
The United States Constitution tells the Government how to behave, not the citizens.
Likewise the European Convention on Human Rights encapsulated in the Human Rights Act here in the U.K. It is illegal in the U.K. to trespass on the railway, the DLR, the London tube (subway) or flight side of an international airport, these are specific laws. Obstructing the Highway is also illegal. If a person feels threatened by the actions of another then that’s breach of the peace
Taking it another step:
– How does driving up to a no parking zone in a converted fire pumper and spraying red liquid over everything and everyone fit into the definition of “peaceably”?
– In the US, the 1st Amendment gives us the right to peaceably “assemble”, not to block bridges, highways and mass transportation.
In the “Death of Common Sense”, Phillip Howard argues that the proliferation in our laws of detailed regulations (versus a simple document like the US Constitution) has removed simple judgement from those adjudicating our laws. In other words wouldn’t it be great if we left it up to a random group of 12 people to decide if a “reasonable person” would consider whether those acts of assembly were conducted “peaceably”.
You would probably enjoy Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s response to Amnesty Canada a month or so ago. It was an epic letter.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/read-the-full-text-jason-kenney-responds-to-amnesty-internationals-criticism-of-his-fight-back-strategy
I would be happy to contribute to a crowd funding operation for a Class Action against the organisers of Extinction Rebellion. Needs careful thought and preparation though.
As a foreign national minor who has not completed high school, she does not know what she is talking about. The reality is that the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. So any actions that mankind might will have no effect on global climate. If she knows so much she needs to tell is exactly what the climate sensitivity of CO2 is and what evidence supports her answer. That has been the most important parameter for the IPCC to determine yet they still do not know what it is and they publish only a range of guesses. But maybe Greta knows better.
I’m not sure Greta COULD graduate high school! Even more reason to call out her handlers for child abuse, perhaps even kidnapping!
>>>Greta Thunberg Urges Extinction Rebellion to Break the Law<<<<
Always easy to urge others to do something.
The facists are coming out of the closet!
Greta has Time Magazine’s Person of the Year sewn up. For this award all you have to do is be famous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year
Well, they already gave one to Hitler, after all.
And Joe Stalin and Bill Clinton (twice) so clearly their standards aren’t very high even if, on rare occasions, they do actually pick deserving recipients.