Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Dr. Willie Soon; A sabotage technique which in my opinion creates a lethal risk for drivers. The eco-terrorists hide small hard objects under the tire valve cap, like a dry lentil, which subtly presses on the valve and slowly bleeds the air out. But this surely leads to a window of time after the attack, during which a driver might not notice their vehicle has been sabotaged.
Tyre Extinguishers ā deflating SUV tyres as a form of climate action
UK activists fighting climate heating and pollution say public response more welcoming than expected
Damien Gayle@damiengayle Fri 18 Mar 2022 18.00 AEDT
The activists who took āclimate actionā against sports utility vehicles by flattening their tyres in the last two weeks have been receiving solidarity and calls for information from around the world.
Tyre Extinguishers provides instructions on how to deflate SUV tyres, offers guidance on who to target and collates reports of actions across the country. They have gauged the campaignās reach by angry emails from SUV owners.
The group registered a website and started a Twitter account in July 2021. The first reports of actions came at the beginning of March. But in just the past week, activists have ādisarmedā SUVs in Chiswick, Maida Vale, Wood Green and Muswell Hill in London, Brighton and Hove and Manchester.
Acting autonomously and, usually, under the cover of darkness, the activists have used lentils to deflate tyres by placing one inside the tyre valve, holding it open and slowly bleeding air until the tyre is flat. The group calculates theyāve deflated the tyres on at least a thousand vehicles in two weeks.
The response from the public has been much more welcoming than they expected. āWe are getting loads of emails from SUV drivers in parts of the country where nobody has actually told us they are doing the action, so thereās probably a lot going on we donāt know about,ā the group told the Guardian in an email.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/18/tyre-extinguishers-deflating-suv-tyres-as-a-form-of-climate-action
Britain’s roads are heavily congested, and there is some resentment towards people who drive large vehicles. So I believe the terrorists when they claim they have received some support. When I lived in Britain, I personally heard people complaining about SUVs taking more than their share of space on the roads, or producing large amounts of diesel pollution, in already polluted urban areas.
But do “supporters” of Tyre Extinguishers actually want to kill SUV drivers? Because people will die if this eco-terrorism continues. What if a SUV driver leaving early for a long trip, shortly after an attack on their tyres, loses control on the road? What if other people die in the resulting accident? Did those other people also deserve to die, for the “crime” of one person whom they never met before owning a SUV?
The terrorists allegedly leave a note – but notes can blow away if they are not secured properly, or they can disintegrate into mush if there is rain. Or they might simply not be noticed, if the driver is in a hurry.
Owning a SUV while living in London is not a crime. The eco-terrorists have no idea why the people they target own a SUV.
And there are plenty of legitimate reasons to own a SUV, even if you live in London.
For example, British road maintenance is a joke. There are plenty of times I wished I was driving a SUV, even when driving in London. A SUV can smooth out the bumps, from all the unfilled pot holes, and is far less likely to be seriously damaged when the road gets really bad – benefits which might matter, especially to say someone nursing a back injury, or other painful condition.
Perhaps someone runs a home business which requires them to move goods or people. A van might be too specialised – but a SUV might give them the capacity and flexibility they require.
In my opinion these eco-terrorists should be seen for what in my opinion they are – murderous lunatics, who likely don’t care if their attacks cause deaths. We have already seen this kind of callous disregard for human life from British eco-terrorists, with Insulate Now’s outrageous excuse that people who die when they block roads are “collateral damage”, like those who died during WW2 to protect the secret of the Bletchley Park Enigma code breakers.
Let us hope “supporters” wake up, and realise the people they think they support don’t genuinely represent their values, before someone comes to real harm.
I suspect that this campaign will not last because it involves too much physical labor on the part of the saboteurs.
I suspect if they get caught there could be a tyre deflator in need of medical assistance.
I hope so.
Gotta love those “Self Deflating EGO Terrorists”
I suspect if they get caught there could be a tyre deflator in need of medical assistance
It’s like dĆ©jĆ vu all over again
Should’ve been ancient SUVs.
No tyre pressure sensor?
I suspect that in any CONSERVATIVE DA district they should be arrested and charged with attempted murd@r.
I bet many of the eco-terrorists themselves drive SUVs. Such people are major hypocrites.
I like the idea of following the eco-terrorists to their home or apartment and turning off their electricity and using a lock to secure their electrical panel, tit for tat style.
Hypothetically, don’t forget to remove the breaker. It’s too easy to break the lock and flip the switch, not that I’d ever recommend anyone trying that.
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Good idea and the used breaker market on Ebay could be lucrative.
Given that these people need instruction on how to deflate a tire, I don’t think you have to worry about them figuring out how to break a lock and flip a breaker.
You do have a point there, Jeff.
Yeah, but snatching a breaker passing current is gonna draw a serious arc.
Don’t forget the gas!
Starting with Schwarzenegger.
I’m going to start filling my tyres with CO2.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! First chuckle of my day (-:
A lot of tyre fitting companies offer Nitrogen filled tyres as it doesn’t degrade the rubber as Oxygen in air does.
James Bull
N2 tire filling is a scam. Oxygen on the outside will still degrade the rubber – but it takes many years. Tire tread wears out long before the effects of O2 inside the tire could be significant.
My understanding is that is is about HEAT. Pure nitrogen does not cause the same variations in pressure as “air” does. Nitrogen also does not “leak” as fast as air.
I bought a 5th wheel. The tires were placed on it in January of 2019. They were nitrogen filled. I picked it up in September of 2019, and a couple of the tires were a little low. The dealer was going to fill the tires with compressed air, I stopped that. I am a Costco member. Costco has Nitrogen. I went to a Costco and got them to bring the air up to 100 PSI.
Since that time I have only needed to top off the tires one time. I have about 24,000 miles on those tires.
Being trailer tires, it is probably time to change them at 3 years old. I will try to get the new ones installed at a location that uses nitrogen at no additional charge.
“air” is 79% Nitrogen. The remaining is mostly Oxygen. Oxygen permeates through tire rubber at about 3x the rate of Nitrogen. This is based on the way O2 molecules interact with each other, not the physical size of the molecule.
sorry this is all ignorant bollox.
The reason for filling with nitrogen came of course from motor sport, where everyone scrambles for a competitive advantage.
filling with an inert gas means the tyre contains much less water vapour.
It’s the water content of air from a typical air compressor that creates the variations of pressure in the tyre over a given heat range-
ie. the pressure goes right up as it gets hot, leading to reduced traction and more heating until the positive feedback gets out of control.
What we try to do in motor sport which may have to use road – type tyres is to make them not “go off” or overheat under the pressure of racing.
If you have ever done any serious F-Ford or other ultra competitive formula any advantage that can be gained in lap times is to be had.
Having said that, if I found anyone letting down my tyres they would get lynched.
A long stay in hospital for one of them with 2 broken legs and several smashed ribs would make a few of them think twice.
Let’s hope it happens to one of them, and see how they explain it to the medics (who often drive SUVs too).
I bet they would say serve you bl…dy well right!
Leave a note or not, it will endanger drivers. Besides that deflating a tire 30% or more below it’s designed minimum operating pressure while under load damages the tire, decreases it’s service life, and makes it more likely to blow out.
At the company I drive for conventional trailer tires are designed to have a 90 psi operating pressure cold. If the trailer is found to have a tire that is at 60 psi or below, it is company policy to change it, no matter if it is a recap or new tire and no matter if it has not been driven at that pressure or not.
So it is vandalism any way you cut it.
Oh and just in case someone wants to know about the tires on the tractor. The drives are all super singles now at our company. They operate at 110 PSI. Steer tires are all new, never recaps, and on the Freightliner I drive operate at 90 psi but on the Volvo tractors they operate at 100 psi.
“…deflating a tire 30% or more below itās designed minimum operating pressure while under load damages the tire, decreases itās service life, and makes it more likely to blow out.”
It also causes more road friction making the vehicle less fuel efficient.
We’ve been told that by keeping your tires inflated, you are saving the world.
Clearly these terrorists want to increase green house gasses and cause catastrophic glow ball warming! They’re going to take us past the tipping point with this one.
No one has accused ideological ecoterrorists of being smart.
I remember back in college, around the time of the first Earth Day, I was walking across campus and came upon the building housing the Environmental Studies Department. Sitting outside on the pavement were a number of young women crushing aluminum (aluminium for our friends across the pond) cans with large rocks. Except for their dresses, they could have passed for cave women grinding wild grain or smashing bones to get the marrow out. Any good engineering major afflicted with the eco-disease would have built a device to do the job more expeditiously.
When I went to uni the Engineering students were the only civic minded students. They ran two courses a year called Fluids One and Fluids Two. They centered around all the beer you could drink for the princely sum of one dollar.
A major advantage of taking engineering courses was they all had distinctive names. I took Statics, Dynamics, Fluid Flow (usually shortened to Fluids), Heat transfer (always shortened to Heat), Vibes (that’s short for Vibrations), Materials, Thermo (short for Thermodynamics, there was a I & II), Mechanics, etc… Some people on the same floor of the dorm were Business majors. They took BANA 101, 102, 203, 204, Accounting 101, … Finance 101,… (every place I put … there were at least 3 more in sequence, more or less). I never knew what they were talking about, and frequently I suspected they didn’t either!
“And there are plenty of legitimate reasons to own a SUV, even if you live in London.”
No need to excuse owning and operating a legal transportation vehicle.
ļ»æ
I wonder if they will go after these types of camper vans.
https://www.rvt.com/Winnebago-Revel-44E-2022-Stanton-TX-ID10482505-UX354365
Legal for how much longer? The REAL terrorists are your āgreenā MPās who will soon be BANNING all ICE vehicles.
Banning them for us. They of course will be allowed exemptions.
The essence of being a free person is being able to do what you want without asking government permission or otherwise justifying doing something that does not break any laws.
The reason I own a 3/4 ton pickup truck? Because I want one. And I paid for it.
This is extremely dangerous vandalism. I’ll be reporting them to the UK police this afternoon.
I live in London and I don’t own a car. I cycle everywhere, and the last thing I want to happen to me is to end up under the wheels of an SUV that has lost control because some eco-terrorist has let the tires down.
People should be free to own and drive an SUV (it’s perfectly legal) and not have to worry about being involved in a fatal accident.
We should take heed from history’s lessons. “First they came for the SUV tires and I did nothing because I didn’t own an SUV…”
These nuts are anti-human. They’ll eventually come after bicycle tires.
Regression is progress. You’ve progressed to the windmill and now you can ride…..
The boneshaker.
The boneshaker. What an amazing invention.
They WILL come after the bicycle tires because they are made from runner which comes from rubber trees which are grown in tropical countries that must first cut down a forest. Bad Rubber.
Then they will realise that by ruining a tire the bicycle owner has to purchase another one (broken window fallacy) leading to more forests being cut to plant ever more rubber trees and more ships passing back and forth to bring them to the coal-powered factories in China and Malaysia that make the tires.
They someone will point out that tires are black not because rubber is black, but that they are actually a carbon-filled rubber matrix and that the black carbon is made from natural gas! Remember that sooty black city in Romania called Carbon? It works like this:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920586104006170
And the compressed air that has to be put back in to the tires (assuming they are not ruined) will be pressurized by an electric device that is not more than 45% efficient. Deflating tires wastes energy and contributes to climate change.
Perhaps this energy could be recouped by placing the “activists” for a few months in a confined environment with an round “exercise machine” with a horizontal axis on which they will spend 8 productive hours a day climbing a stair-like set of treads, milling wheat or some other useful enterprise.
It might be truly productive, Crispin, if they were sent to a place where they have to set up their own shelters, find a way to heat those shelters and cook, and grow their own food, provide their own means of sanitation and disposal of trash, and make their own clothes. This would, of course, start in the Fall, when the harvest of grains is underway. They’d have to get out with the scythes and sickles and learn how to tie wheat and other grains in bundles, as well as do gleaning. (See “The Gleaners” painting for a reference.) No electronics, either, just face-to-face stuff. And hand washing all laundry in a tub with a scrubbing board.
I’d give them about 10 days of bad weather before they caved in and wanted their comfort zones returned to them.
More like 10 minutes. Of sunshine. While they’re trying to scythe wheat.
No tire has been made from a tree (not one recently alive, anyway) in close to 80 years now. Thank petroleum, that’s another product from petroleum that’s not just burned for fuel is some form or another. Much like most of the products at North Face. *tee-hee*
If there is an accident the SUV will win over a cyclist or people in a small car. Size matters.
Now here is a true conservative. I ride a bicycle. You may ride whatever you choose. End of debate.
Exactly.
This is a stupid and childish thing to do, but that’s the Green Blob at work.
The Guardian references such vandalism occurring in northern Colorado, but I haven’t been able to find any corroboration of that.
This campaign will last only in SadIQās disarmed cities. The Common Law elements of the defense of self-defense are four; be innocent of instigation, be in reasonable fear of bodily harm, use sufficient force only to deliver oneself from evil, and attempt to withdraw.
Numerous U.S. jurisdictions have removed the requirement “attempt to withdraw.”
Doug,
It’s a bit more complex than that, and there are subtle differences from jurisdiction to jurisdiction that can make the difference between going to jail or not. For people in the US, I would highly suggest reading Andrew Branca’s books and articles. Massad Ayoob also has some good stuff. Every citizen should know their rights and the (most common) laws under which they are subject. It’s amazing how many people are ignorant of the most basic legal concepts. Another good book that I think everyone in the US should read is “The Right to Be Innocent”, because even being completely innocent may not be enough to keep you out of jail. It’s cheap and an easy read, although prepare to be surprised at how shockingly easy it is to be wrongfully convicted of a serious crime and put in prison for years. /soapbox
Paul, remember that Common Law does not vary from one place to another. Be mindful of the distinction between Common Law (the law of the land) and Admiralty Law (the law of the sea). All acts and statutes passed by corporations doing business as governments fall under the framework of Admiralty Law, and should be ignored by free sovereign human beings living on the land. (Even “legal” is an admiralty-law concept, so be careful when using that term. “Lawful” is better and more accurate when discussing common law.) Staying out of jail is easy when you are innocent, know the Common Law better than the police and judges do, and stand your ground. Learn the tricks they use to try to get you to consent to playing their game, which is definitely stacked against you. Do not play it. If you do not consent, they cannot force you – not lawfully. (Among other tricks, courtrooms are classified as ships, so that they can use admiralty law in them. Do not enter one unless you know what you are doing. I only wish I was making this up… and it gets way worse…)
I marked you neither up nor down, but I did want to point out, “Legal” and “Right” can sometimes stand at odds. That’s when you need to have principles.
Worrall,
You are far too polite and reserved.
If I catch somebody doing that, the perpetrator will have deep regrets over the course of their actions.
Itās not ecology, itās a CLASS THING
Absolutely, most of these people are jealous that they can’t afford to drive an expensive vehicle so they attack those that can.
They are absolute idiots who are attacking EVs and putting sick children’s lives at risk:
“One woman affected posted a photograph of her electric Mercedes-Benz EQC on Twitter as she urged the group to “think before you act”.
She wrote: “You let down my tyres and I didn’t notice until I started driving with my three children in my car. My car is fully electric.”
“We also had a child that required to be at the hospital for an appointment in the city. Thankfully we had a second car”
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/environment/activist-group-deflating-tyres-of-suvs-across-edinburgh-3602146
I bet the second car wasn’t an EV!
I was reading a missive the other day from a firefighter who has seen upwards of 4000 gallons of water needing to be used to extinguish an EV fire. Typical ICE vehicles need less that 750 gallons. Personally, I’ve done an mg block VW microbus with about a 1000.
It is hardly novel for authoritarians to not care about the human consequences of their delusions. So sure are they of the rightness of their cause that all other priorities are rescinded.
What is important is the morally ‘justified’ position. Unintended consequences be damned!
The ends justify the means. So sayeth the socialist mass-murderers of history.
Dave,
And even after implementing their murderous means, they never achieve the ends they claim to be aspiring. Instead, they bring hell on earth. I know that individual freedom can be scary because it requires people to be responsible for themselves, and you can’t ever be sure what other free people are going to do that may negatively affect you; but the all the alternatives to freedom are far, far scarier.
Yup, reminds me of this:
āOf all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baronās cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated: but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. . . . This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ācuredā against oneās will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.ā āC.S. Lewis
Don’t most newer vehicles have low tire pressure sensors that trigger warning signals on the dashboard display and audio beeping?
Mine does. It displays a warning on the dash
My wife ignores her low tire warning light as It goes off when the tires are down only a couple of pounds. Low pressure warnings would be more useful if they had a yellow light indicating an efficiency loss and a red level with an alarm indicating a safety problem. Unfortunately, regulators are often too stupid to think things through.
Mine go off every time a cold front comes through.
Mine has only warned me once. Good tyres!
My car has that many beeps, yellow exclamation marks, flashing thingys, etc etc, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them was to let me know my lotto entry form was late.
While it’s good to have the warning if the vandals let down more than one tire, your stuck having to drive on an under inflated tire unless you happen to have a compressor handy. I could take considerable time and expense to get someone to come to you to reinflate. Sadly, law enforcement will never never take this seriously unless there’s a serious accident and they can track down the perpetrator.
My SUV has plenty of storage capacity, so I keep an electric inflator in the vehicle all the time.
Wife and I have a SUV, and there is one in that. Son and one daughter have smaller cars – but they do, too.
Just looked up when I bought them, they were $40USD. (Maybe as much as $60 now… Joe did that!)
Nice things to have these days; you don’t even have to dig into the glove compartment, or, worse, try to read the sidewall in the dark. They all have electronics that you set the pressure once, and it remembers it. Cuts off when the setpoint is reached, too, no trying to watch a jiggly gauge.
The country (UK) is now such a train-wreck that it is actually the driver of the vehicle who will be at fault if there’s a crash because of this.
The Legal Law says that, as the driver, you are supposed to check all these sorts of things before even start the engine.
And that they didn’t check will probably invalidate their insurance to boot.
sad but true
The Biggest Hazard presented by SUVs is in carparks – especially supermarket parks where folks always drive into the space so its easy to load the boot/trunk with their shopping.
If you find yourself parked next to one of these tanks ## you are forced into reversing out, blind, into the paths of moving vehicles and trails of people pushing trollies – often womenfolk talking on their mobiles and with kids in tow.
Made vastly worse as now in the UK, jaywalking is not only legal but positively encouraged
## With ‘ordinary’ cars you can see through them. SUVs blind you completely and they stick out into the line of the traffic.
Amazingly, every car / SUV I’ve owned has a spare tire, a tire iron and a jack. Takes about 10 minutes to change a tire.
That’s why they will sabotage more than one tire on your SUV. Better to invest in a 12V compressor and keep it in the vehicle as suggested upthread.
The last time I developed a low/flat tire while driving, the damn light did me no damn good. I was getting onto a limited access freeway, in the rain, in a construction zone, so there were not only no shoulders, but there were temporary K-walls right at the edge of the lane, and despite the construction and the rain, people were still driving at 70-80 mph (hell, I intended to when I was getting on there). I heard something rattle under the car, and knew immediately it was not good. I continued driving, there was no place to pull off. In about 15 seconds the low tire light came on, still no place to pull over. I turned on the hazard lights, still no place to pull over. By the time I could come to a stop without fear of getting run over, I had run on the flat over 2 miles, it was in shreds and no possible chance to patch it and save it. At no point did the tire pressure monitor inform me of anything of which I was not already aware. And furthermore, I still had to change it in the rain.
Mr.
Many of the TPS systems only measure pressure every 30 seconds, or even less frequently. Then the average multiple readings to arrive at the “current” pressure. This can mean multiple minutes can pass after the vehicle is started before the system alerts the driver. This time lag could be deadly in the case we are discussing.
Yes, so does ours. However, it’s registered low tire pressure only once. Now, it indicates a problem after we’ve been driving a while, the tires have heated up and the pressure has consequently increased. Really reliable electronics. The fault is probably on the software.
One constant with leftists world over is their belief in their own self righteousness, which in turns justifies anything they decide to do.
Other people simply have no right to do anything a leftist disagrees with and has earned anything that happens to them.
link
Reckless overconfidence is a sign of an ablated right brain hemisphere. Our modern education system is very effective at crippling the right hemisphere. Defund the universities.
The problem is a misunderstanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy (BT). Teachers like to think they are teaching their students to think at a higher level on BT. They miss the point that the foundation of the taxonomy is knowledge. I have often heard that you don’t need to teach number facts because students can use a calculator. Similarly, there is the diatribe against ‘rote learning’ because students can look things up on the internet.
The result is that students learn to make up ever more sophisticated BS from whole cloth. They have only facts and logic and have no clue about context. The result is a concoction that can be seen through by any half educated idiot but which is wholly convincing to the average PhD.
Have I already said: Defund the universities. (It’s a rhetorical question and doesn’t need a question mark.)
On the other hand, even Einstein famously said that he didn’t bother to memorize things that he could easily look up in a reference book.
Einstein didn’t look up relativity in a reference book. Memorization should not be conflated with learning the basics of science, mathematics and economics.
Fact memorization can also provide a handy tool for top-level evaluation of a scenario, because you already know some element that’s relevant. Looking at the wiring on a receptacle, if the white is on the brass screw, you know you’ve got a problem, because you memorized the proper color it should be on.
I believe the original intent of a University education was to teach people how to think, simply filling a person’s head with knowledge was supposed to have occurred in the first 5 years of so of schooling. Now-a-days, it’s even worse than having been filled with noting but knowledge and never taught how to use it. Most university educations today consist solely of the indoctrination (all the latest woke-think), and all else is just collateral, matters not if the student mastered thinking, or even if the student memorized a fact or two, at least not one that might actually help them land a job.
Yup. I made an off hand comment to a liberal that if the media hadn’t covered for Joe Biden on Hunter’s laptop, Trump would still be POTUS. The reaction was “then it’s a good thing the media covered it up.” The ends always justify the means with these idiots.
Indeed.
I have just finished listening to Needle Points for about the third time. (it’s 3 hours 19 minutes 16 seconds long, so that’s 10 hours of my time) It’s a reading of Dr. Norman Doidge’s essay of the same name and was written prior to Omicron. It presents the evidence that causes vaccine hesitancy. Both Doidge and I are fully vaccinated. In my case it is because the alternatives were denied to me.
The media (including facebook, twitter, etc.) stifling of anything contrary to the approved narrative that vaccines, masks and social distancing were the only solution, has resulted in huge corporate profits and many many needless deaths.
We are faced with the waning effectiveness of the vaccines, and the effectiveness of each extra shot wanes faster than the previous ones. If not for Omicron, the vaccine we weren’t able to make, we would be in deep doggie doo.
Anyone who thinks it’s a good thing that the media covers things up is just another useful idiot.
Rick, your “liberal” isn’t; She/He/IT is a Leftist. True liberals believe in a fully informed electorate. Modern media is not designed to inform but, rather, to convince people of a particular idea, belief & etc.
Well, attacking their property becomes fair game, for starters…
Unfortunately, the UK police management, as Mark Steyn points out, police everything except crime.
Were you to find one of these morons tampering with your tyres and kick their backside, I have no doubt who would get arrested.
You can shoplift up to Ā£200 worth of stuff and they won’t bother.
In the High Court this morning, Mr Justice Julian Knowles ruled that the police had been disproportionate in the action they took against Harry Miller, a former police officer and a shareholder in a plant and machinery company in Lincolnshire, when they recorded as a ānon crime hate incidentā a series of disobliging comments he had tweeted about transgender issues.
…
I then asked PC Gul why he was wasting my time. PC Gul said āI need to check your thinkingā. I replied: āSo, let me get this straight, Iāve committed no crime. Youāre a police officer. And you need to check my thinking ?ā PC Gul answered: āYesā. I said, āHave you any idea what that makes you ? āNineteen Eighty-Fourā is a dystopian novel, not a police training manual.āā
https://www.melaniephillips.com/need-check-thinking-english-police-officer/
They police thought.
Being offensive to somebody is a human trait; its not hate thought.
I believe the non-crime involved the re-tweet of a limerick, so it was not even Mr Miller’s own thoughts that were being policed, but Mr Millers exposure to some unknown originators thoughts that were a non-crime hate incident. Truly dystopian.
Yep, nothing like stand your ground laws in the UK, every encounter where a home invader dies at the hands of the homeowner ends up with the homeowner being arrested, though not necessarily convicted.
Unless of course you are a royal or well connected with the establishment, in which case it looks like you can get away with anything, even being publicly outed as a pedophile, without being prosecuted.
In which case, you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. Make a thorough job of it.
Something like, a dead witness cant’ testify against you? I agree, everyone should be allowed to defend themselves, but I don’t want the entire culture to become The Mafia, either. I think I would point out, I believe in everyone’s ability to defend themselves, but if the police and courts would do their jobs, the citizens wouldn’t have to defend themselves.
Terrorists, period !
The picture looks more like a VW camper van wheel?
Public support? Not a chance outside their own small eco bubble. I wonder if they have heard of an old bit of tech called a footpump?
“there are plenty of legitimate reasons to own a SUV, even if you live in London.”
You don’t really need one in London, they’re too big for most roads. That’s why we call them Chelsea tractors.
-2
A badge of realistic honour . I thank’ee
Shame you cannot articulate your thoughts into explaining why you disagree.
If the vehicles meet the official standards for use of the type of roadway they occupy you have no reason to bitch.
I can do exactly as I please.
The vehicles are a wee bit too large for many roads in London. That is a fact. It’s about practicality. You know, getting around
I never said they cannot own one, I did say they don’t really need one in London.
” you have no reason to bitch.”
Spoken like a true non-Englishman
The question is: Do they meet the legal limit? Your opinion means nothing.
Gee, in a free country, it doesn’t matter if a person needs a thing, said person can have it if they want it. As to narrow streets, I was once on a motor coach (a bit wide for most London streets) and we came upon a trash-collection truck traveling in the other direction. Took both drivers about 5 minutes to carefully pass each other. Very good driving, and perfectly legal vehicles.
It’s not up to you, or anyone else, to decide what I “need” or do not “need”. That’s my choice. If you decide you don’t need an SUV, then fine, don’t buy one. That’s your choice and I’d never presume to tell you differently.
Why are they too big for most roads? An estate is the same length if not longer than a range rover, most suv’s are not as big as a range rover. An suv may be taller but does not necessarily occupy more tarmac than an ordinary saloon. My Honda crv takes up roughly the same amount of tarmac as my neighbours Ford focus. When it snows I park on my drive, my neighbour parks at the bottom of the hill and walks the rest of the way. I live in Rossendale not London but regardless of where I live I have the right to own a car that best suits my needs or my desires without criticism from people who have no idea about my lifestyle or reasons for choosing a particular type of car, and so does everyone else.
Here in the States, a Range Rover is an SUV.
I always considered the Range Rover the original SUV.
Fret,
They are not ‘needed’ in most places & time frames.
But, a lot of people don’t want to have three or four different cars for the specific needs satisfied by each car. The SUV is the best fit overall for some people.
A SUV may be absolutely needed at a different time or place, but since the owner only has one car, and they need to drive into the London area, then they do need the SUV in London.
I am assuming you can understand this concept. Anyone that is so blind that they cannot understand this concept isn’t worth wasting time on … they are beyond help.
No one, other than me, can make the decision for me of what kind of a ______ I need!
Those old enough remember when the eco terrorists “Greens” started in Germany leaving death and destruction in their wake and continuing today.
Here in Texas, that would be an unwise activity.
Especially after dark.
I always carry a club or a ball bat with me. If I see anything un tor going on I put a quick stop to it. Make them more afraid of us than we are of them.
If you carry a bat in your vehicle, also carry a mitt. Your lawyer will thank you.
My mother always carried a tire iron. Next to her driver’s seat. (Never used it, but it would have been epic, I am sure – she drove an International TravelAll, and then a Scout II – both requiring quite a bit of right arm strength to shift.)
Clearly pretenders that haven’t taken the NEE-
Press Release: Pollution From Tyre Wear 1,000 Times Worse Than Exhaust Emissions ā Emissions Analytics
Running a tire partially deflated eventually leads to catastrophic sidewall failure. If it happens on a front tire there is likely to be a loss of control and good chance of a loss of life.
In theory tire deflation could result in a charge of manslaughter or worse. There is a reasonable expectation that such action could result in a loss of life.
For example. Removing all the lug nuts except 1 on the front wheel of a car. How is that any different.
Some TV news magazine, might have been 60 Minutes when they still occasionally approached a subject without having formed their conclusions in advance, studied the problem of accidents with high narrow vehicles (such as the ’90s model Jeeps), and I think they included panel vans and the like. Their conclusion… the vehicles meet all the applicable laws and regulations, but you must never get a flat tire while operating at speed (meaning anything over 60 mph). The vehicle would roll, almost without fail, and despite the skill of the driver.
I suspect that this campaign will not last because it involves too much physical labor on the part of the saboteurs.
And requires that they be up after bedtime.
…but these types typically have no job anyway, they can keep any hours they like, and likely have shifted their circadian rhythms to the point of sleeping all day and staying awake all night. What will put a stop to it is when this “protest” begins to conflict with their all-night on-line role-playing or Mortal Combat games.
The Tyre Extinguishers are deflating all SUV tyres. Not just ICE powered vehicles…
– – – – – – – – –
New eco-vigilantes who let down SUV tyres have been targeting ELECTRIC 4x4s and leaving notes lecturing their owners about climate change
EXCLUSIVE: Electric car owners tell MailOnline they were targeted by eco mob
A group calling themselves The Tyre Extinguishers launched anti-SUV campaign
Eco mob claim they targeted hundreds of SUVs and let the air out of their tyres
They brand SUVs as a ‘climate disaster’ and say they create ‘racist air pollution’
Three police forces confirmed they are investigating criminal damage offences
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10589245/New-vigilante-eco-group-targets-SUVs-UK-deflates-HUNDREDS-tyres.html
“ āracist air pollutionā”
Do non white people have inferior lungs?
Yes! Everybody knows CO2 pollution causes all kinds of health issues. (sarc)
– – – – – – – – –
Sadiq Khan: āClimate crisis is a racial justice issueā as black and Asian Londoners most affected
Exclusive: āThe climate crisis should be a wake-up call to people of colour in London to understand that this is also a matter of racial injustice,ā Sadiq Khan tells The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/sadiq-khan-climate-crisis-racism-london-b2038056.html
If everything is about race, then nothing is.
And don’t people of colour own SUVs?
Maybe someone should give this another try? From 2005
A County Durham man plagued by car vandals wired his Ā£1,800 Ford Mondeo to the mains.But Peter Bayles, from Bishop Auckland, found himself in court after a neighbour spotted electric cables leading from the car to his house.
Teesside Crown Court heard Bayles, 28, wanted to give vandals and potential thieves a “short, sharp shock”.
He was given community service and fined after pleading guilty to attempted actual bodily harm.
The Crown accepted a not guilty plea to charges of intending to destroy human life and attempted grievous bodily harm.
The court was told that for two fraught months the doorstep vandals had wrecked a succession of four cars that Bayles bought to use for work.
They smashed windscreens, headlights, bumpers and stole the number plates.
So he resorted to electrifying the vehicle between 2200 BST and 0600 BST as it stood at the back of his terraced house.
He installed a circuit breaker to give them just a “short, sharp shock”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4474185.stm
As far as I know the vandals were never caught.
I understand his frustration, but in the US it’s the same as setting a spring gun, one rigged to fire when anyone opens a door. Since there is no discrimination regarding who might come in contact with the trap, the law doesn’t allow such devices. Unless you are on the premises, but that wouldn’t count for something outside the house.
I believe I agree. He could, however, mount an all-night vigil, with a rifle or any weapon, and upon detecting intruders and confirming they are in fact messing with his car, then shoot them dead. This is another law that varies, at least in its application, from state to state. There was a case in a Houston suburb, a man got tired of vandalism to his home, so he either waited all night, or got up early, and when an intruder approached he shot them dead. Turned out it was the paper boy, just trying to deliver his morning paper, but the man was not charged. And likewise, I don’t think the actual vandals were ever caught. But the shooting of the paperboy was headline news, so whomever it was, I bet they stopped!
āstarted a Twitter account in July 2021ā
And they have not been cancelled / suspended from Twitter? That is as big a story here as a few lunatics out to destroy and kill by malicious sabotage. Again, we see the hypocrisy of Big Tech on display.
“And they have not been cancelled / suspended from Twitter”?
They’re on narrative.
Would Twitter allow an account called “EV-Extingishers” to let tires down on evil EVs that do not pay for their share of road costs through fuel consumption like SUVs do?
Everyone I know that insists that strict action is required to prevent dangerous runaway global warming has not yet installed any solar on their roofs or purchased an electric vehicle. They claim it’s still too expensive, but they all have $1000 IPhones with unlimited data plans and take vacations in Hawaii.
Priorities, Doonman, priorities.
Why do I drive an SUV? It’s the UTILITY.
Here in the USA, most vehicles tires are equipped with valves that sense the tire pressure. If the pressure falls below a certain set point (usually about 5-10 psi) below where it should be, a warning light will come on alerting you to the fact, so you can take action before the tire gets too soft or goes flat. If your vehicle is not so equipped, I suggest you just remove the cap from the valve stem. I seem to have lost half of mine as it is.
The cap keeps dirt out of the valve.
Regardless, I know half are missing on my mini-van.
I canāt say what I think should happen to them when they are caught, clearly fines and jail time mean nothing to them. A more meaningful form of punishment is called for.
Neo Marxism is about getting useful idiots to believe every issue has a victim and perpetrator.
In this case the useful idiots have convinced even dumber F wits that owners of SUVs are to blame for every natural disaster and must be punished.
They are eating their own. The green elites pushing the “climate change” nonsense are the ones with the private jets and SUVs. These people deflating SUV tyres don’t understand that they have been hoodwinked by hypocrites. But the fact that they are primarily attacking those hypocrites is really rather nice – but only in concept. The reality that it is life-threatening is more important. I expect that the hypocrites will stop them, but it will be interesting to see how they do it without revealing the hypocrisy.
Exploding tire would be fun. I once saw a tire blow on a guy who was changing/patching it (I forget, 3rd world country). It knocked him back five feet and he could not hear anything. Was stunned like hit with a board. Smallish tire too.
Truck tyres are especially dangerous: https://www.tirereview.com/boy-killed-by-exploding-tire/
Places that service truck tires have cages that go around the tire/wheel assembly before inflation begins, in case it doesn’t stay together at 160 psi.
U.K. Terrorism Act 2000
āTerrorism: interpretation.
(1)
In this Act āterrorismā means the use or threat of action whereā
(a)
the action falls within subsection (2),
(b)
the use or threat is designed to influence the government [F1or an international governmental organisation] or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and
(c)
the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious [F2, racial] or ideological cause.
(2)
Action falls within this subsection if itā
(a)
involves serious violence against a person,
(b)
involves serious damage to property,
(c)
endangers a personās life, other than that of the person committing the action,
(d)
creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public, or
(e)
is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic systemā
This action meets requirements of subsection 2, specifically paragraphs (c) and (d).
In doing so Subsection 1 paragraph (a) is met.
Subsection 1 paragraph (b) is met as it is aimed at intimidating a section of the public.
Subsection 1 (c) is met as it is made for the purpose of advancing an ideological cause.
Therefore, in my humble opinion as a non-lawyer and as a potential passenger on the Clapham omnibus (the definition of a common man used by a former Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning), this constitutes an act of terrorism.
I understand the plugs at public EV chargers contain quite a bit of sellable metals. They have recently started to be targeted by thieves. Who just cut them off. Leaving the charger useless. Perhaps they aren’t thieves, but rather fed up SUV owners wanting payback?
Pure vandalism and another attack on the right to own property and have protection against such criminal thugs.
So what’s the overall aim here? Do they honestly think that SUV drivers will get flat tyres and think, “Oh golly gosh, I suppose I’d better buy a small car, or even an EV.”
So whatās the overall aim here?
Not to change minds or convince people of anything. It’s simply to punish those who dare to think differently.
Catch one and have them charged with attempted murder, which could be the result of this practice.
Needs to start being real penalties for these sociopaths
And this is exactly what was behind the Ford Explorer roll over controversy years ago
Under inflated tires.
Criminal
It’s sort of amusing that they use Lentils to carry out these attacks as for years econuts have been seen as having a diet of Lentils.
As a motor mechanic of many years I can testify to how dangerous this is, a huge number of accidents can be traced back to incorrect tyre pressures as under inflation reduces grip and increases flex in the tyre causing overheating (on longer journeys) uneven tyre pressures upsets handling particularly on more modern vehicles.
Anyone caught doing this should be prosecuted for attempted murder. Where do these nutters get off on putting peoples lives at risk and as you say not just the vehicle user other road users and pedestrians. A friend drives a SUV for their job not because they wants to but because it’s needed for the job they do, the vehicle is kept clean to reflect well on his employer but anyone walking past their home would think it was theirs not a company vehicle.
Fortunately most modern vehicles now come with tyre pressure sensors systems so a drop in pressure would be noticed but behaving in this way is criminal and unlike the loons who climbed a power station shouldn’t be able to use the defense of saving the planet.
I like the line from the Tom MacDonald song that says about leaving a decent planet for our children where we aught to be leaving decent children for the planet.
James Bull
SUVs not only take up more space on the roads; they also take up more space in car parks. Often I have seen a SUV parked in such a way that they exclude the possibility of another car being parked in the adjoining bay. Some SUV drivers seem to think that they are entitled to two bays in a car park. Mind you, other car drivers can be equally inconsiderate.
None of which justify this latest example of eco-terrorism. This latest example of eco-terrorism is just one more example of the prevailing morality that the end justifies the means. As in, a woman has the right to kill the baby in her womb if the woman finds the birth of the child to be inconvenient in some way.
Okay, just a question on my part: does anyone besides me think that this anathematic attitude towards SUVs is toward petroleum-powered vehicles in general?
Would these “earnest people” who are endangering the drivers’ health and welfare, never mind lives, prefer the rather slow and unheated winter transportation of horse/mule-drawn vehicles instead? I’m perfectly willing to take up the reins of a double-hitch curricle to go get groceries, but since winter can be quite nasty in my AO, it would not be a whole lot of fun.
I get the impression that all of the nutballs I frequently refer to as ecohippies and greenbeaners want a return to the days of yore when transportation was either on foot or by horse or mule-drawn transport (and sometimes teams of oxen, too), and that is far more polluting than today’s vehicles have ever been. And frankly, I’m not sure they’d manage to survive even one bad winter, because they things they despise are what keep them alive and they’d have to give up all of that stuff.
But there could be a sunny side to it: perhaps these earnest souls could find useful employment as the street cleaners who shovel horse manure and dispose of it. That might be worth seeing.
I happen to like the smaller SUVs (not the big ones) because they have space for things that otherwise end up on the back seat or the floor, and if you’re going some place distant, the trunks of standard cars don’t hold much these days. I really don’t like putting my groceries in the back seat, so an SUV is a better deal for me.
at the cost of a ruined tyre being rather large usually meaning having to replace 2 if you cant get a matching one.
Id be hunting the sods down for a hiding
hmm removing caps would solve the issue a little? theyre relying on the cap pressing the lentil in. im having to pump up a tyre every day..slow leak getting faster n n funds to buy 2 cant find any used ones damned annoying n limits me to 2km down the rd etc trips. if someone did this on purpose and I found em….murder in the camp as my mum used to say
At one point in my life, I guess I had bought my first 3/4 ton truck, but more importantly, that was the first truck that the owner’s manual advised a different tire pressure than the one in my passenger car. I think I bought the truck with passenger tires on it. When those wore out in 3 months, I put light truck tires on it, but the cheapest ones I could get. Those needed replaced in about 5 months. I was sick of so much time at the tire store, so I bought Michelins with the top priority being tread-life. I didn’t have to buy tires again for about 2Ā½ years. When it was time to replace those, I started working backwards, and found my cost per mile with that set of tires was only sightly more than half the cost per mile of the “cheap” truck tires. So, when you replace them, go big.
“provides instructions on how to deflate SUV tyres,”
The fact that these soy bois need instruction on how to deflate tires shows how out of touch these people are. And lets remember, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Tesla tires can be deflated just as easily.
And, what modern vehicle doesn’t have a tire pressure sensor? It has been mandatory in Canada for over 15 years.
These people are stupid!
In one sentence he has lined every one of them up for not just malicious damage but far more serious charges. ANY lawyer trying to prosecute one of these criminals who does NOT quote that sentence should lose his licence to practice.
He has just admitted they KNOW they risk not just damage to property but injury, trauma and death but they donāt care.
As far as I know, any action with a probability of leading to injury or death is prosecutable as a felony, even if the injury or death did not occur.
(copied from my post on jaoannenova.com.au – I can quote myself… right?)
I note they also remain ‘leaderless’ – I guess these hate-spewing terrorists holding humans at gunpoint have learned the antifa & burn loot murder lesson – if you pretend nobody is leading they fail to fall under conspiracy or other group laws and the leaders can abscond with all donations and buy themselves mansions in nice places.
Furthermore, if this becomes a problem, it won’t be long until there are locking valve-stem caps. End of problem.