Essay by Eric Worrall
Portuguese motorists losing patience with climate protestors.
This isn’t the first time motorists have lost it with climate protestors.
Climate protestors haven’t tried to stop train commuters lately.
What can I say? If climate protestors held up a few banners by the side of the road, and respected the rights of others, by doing their best not to inflict unlawful disruption on ordinary people, I would fully uphold and defend their right to protest. And of course, I would uphold the right of passers by to ignore them.
But these protestors are going way beyond presenting their message to the public, they are forcing people to stop and pay attention.
if I was stuck in a traffic jam because a bunch of losers decided to deprive me of my choice to ignore them, I find it difficult to imagine myself sitting still while my rights were being trampled.
Obviously WUWT would prefer these confrontations don’t occur. WUWT certainly does not condone or encourage unlawful violence.
Well done ! 😀
I noticed that the media coverage in the posting only showed people saying “They have the right message, but wrong method”. There were none who questioned the whole climate alarmist’s narrative. But, perhaps there weren’t enough present, to have been chosen out of a random selection of people.
You have the right to free speech, even when what you say is wrong.
But you don’t have a right to dictate when and where you get to say it. By the same token you do not have a right to be heard. Speak all you want, however I should not be forced to alter my life to placate you childish notions. I have rights as well.
Free speech isn’t sitting in the middle of the road obstructing the lawful progress of other peoples lives.
Free speech is articulating your opinions by word of mouth. That’s why it’s called Speech, unless they talk out their arse I guess?
jdunfee12 wasn’t questioning their right to say it.
She or he was pointing out that their message is wrong (as in a lie/incorrect). He or she was disgusted that no one questioned the content of that bunch of propaganda but, instead, labeled it: “the right message.”
But not in a manner that interferes with other people’s right to go on living their lives their own way. I hope the police everywhere get nowhere if they try to stop these counter-protests.
It’s about time! I’m surprised about three things with these protests …. 1. None of the ‘protestors’ have been given a bloody nose. 2. The police don’t ticket the protestors for blocking traffic. 3. The protestors haven’t been sued yet.
Strange, that… If they’d blocked the traffic with a vehicle they’d have got a ticket!
A whiff of pepper spray will stop them….
RE: pepper spray. I’ve been wondering if pepper spray is legal in the U.K. Would be tempted to use it on the protesters if it were legal and I lived in London.
In UK legislation, pepper spray is classified as a Section 5 weapon under the Firearms Act 1968.This classification is typically associated with firearms and other serious weapons. While UK police are permitted to use pepper spray in aggressive situations, it is illegal for you, as a member of the general public, to own, carry, or use this substance.
https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/ask-the-police/question/Q589
There’s another substance that can be sprayed that, AFAIK, has no bans against it. Skunk essence – you can cut it with water, put it in a spray bottle and blast away! The only possible way it could hurt someone is if they took a hit right in the eyes.
And you wouldn’t even have to spray it on anyone either….just spay it on the road where they are sitting. Eventually they will get it on them.
Worse yet, as many are aware of with regards to pets being sprayed by skunks, the stench is devilishly hard to get rid of.
XR clowns who have come into contact with it will, at some point, have to go back home. If they take a train they may well be ejected for stinking so bad. If they go home in a car (like their own or one of their buddy’s) any contaminated part of their body or clothes will rub off the stench onto the car’s interior – and then the car in question will reek for a very long time!
In other words, skunk spray is great for this purpose because it isn’t harmful but will contaminate all sorts of stuff and is very hard to get rid of. It will cause these XR clowns all sorts of aggravation long after the protest has ended!
Using pepper spray is much better than shooting someone if you really don’t want to kill the person but you want to protect yourself. Here in the US guns are readily available.
In Portugal, pepper spray and the such is an illegal weapon. Almost anything is an illegal weapon, even a short club, eventually a screwdriver (depending….)
Bovine pi** !
To match their Bovine sh**
Nr.4. They haven’t been Gaoled/Jailed.
The right to free speech is not universally recognized. The US was once an advocate for free speech and the American left was once very protective of the right to voice one’s opinion, particularly dissenting opinion.
That’s all changed. We now longer have rights to say or write anything that disagrees with the progressive zeitgeist. Disagree and you’re a hater. Words are violence and physically assaulting someone who disagrees with you is not only justified but is the moral thing to do.
A good fraction of the American left has never been tolerant of dissent from their views, the difference is that the fraction that tolerate dissent from their views is much smaller now than it was 60 years ago. One other problem is that most colleges and universities have become political monocultures.
Yep.
Just recently Hillary said something to the effect that “deplorables” should be put in “deprograming” camps.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/survived-mao-hillary-clinton-call-deprogramming-trump-supporters-no-joke-alarming
I’m looking forward to the Republican House investigating Bill and Hillary’s “Clinton Foundation”.
Hillary started all the chaos centered around the lie that Russia and Trump were colluding to swing the election for Trump.
Hillary ought to be the first of the radical Democrats to go to jail for attempting to undermine the U.S. Constitution by using the power of the federal government to attack her political oppositon.
Hillary initiated this attack on the U.S. Constitution with her Russia collusion lies, and Obama and Biden implemented the attacks and are continuing the attacks.
All of them are traitors to their country. Let’s hope they get just what they deserve.
Trump got billions in loans from the Russians.
Hillary hired a British spy who worked with Russian spies to fabricate a fake dossier
It seems to me that “Equal right to have and express an opinion” is often confused with equality of opinion. The difference is immense.
In the 80’s, the left would routinely attend speeches by anyone right of center with the sole intention of shouting and making so much noise that nobody in the audience could hear the speaker.
The sad thing was that the administrators at these schools, would usually defend the protesters proclaiming that they were just exercising their freedom of speech.
the American left was once very protective of the right to voice one’s opinion, particularly dissenting opinion.
Only when they were the ones with dissenting opinions.
I completely condone whatever happens to these terrorists.
Blocking emergency vehicles is violence. Attempted murder at the very least; in a couple of instances, it has been actual murder.
Now, I would prefer LAWFUL violence against them – handcuffs, incarceration, etc. – but when the LAWFUL AUTHORITIES refuse to use their delegated right to commit violence, the people that delegated that right must exercise it themselves.
Those cheap plastic ties.
Keep a few in the glove box. Useful for re-securing loose rubber pipes on the engine cooling system.
Then they’ll have to walk home without using any of the fossil fuels they undoubtedly used to get there.
Some heavy duty trash bags might come in useful too.
“Obviously WUWT would prefer these confrontations don’t occur. WUWT certainly does not condone or encourage unlawful violence.”
That’s the right stance for the articles presented on this site.
It is illegal in most states in the US to desert your vehicle on a highway, so if someone is blocking the road for other than emergency or road maintenance conditions, they are stealing a part of your life. You are blocked in by protesters in front, and other innocent traffic from behind. If you were going to a time sensitive event (meeting, job, appointment, etc.) you will likely experience considerable stress. You could run out of fuel, risking exposure to heat or cold. If there are 200 people stuck in this traffic for an hour, that it over one people-week of life stolen. That scales up quickly as most protests are not cleared that soon.
Further, this is a physical holding. Hostages who respond with minor violence should not be charged, as such responders are attempting to free not only themselves but other hostages as well.
That is why we Nevadans cheered when Indian Reservation Police forcibly cleared the highway to Burning Man. None of the perpetrators were hurt by their actions, but some of their tools were destroyed and will no longer be available to them for future kidnappings.
As a commenter, I do prefer these confrontations occur. The police are not always doing their job, and merely stand by while these criminals conduct their activities. Something needs to be done.
https://youtu.be/A1D78Y60gvo
Barney vs Gomer
You reap what you sow helicopter parents. Your children are undisciplined brats and a menace to society.
They should try living without oil like much of sub Saharan Africa, the stupid, favoured , rich, middle class, ignorant, arts graduate, virtue signalling, selfish, self regarding, brainwashed idiots
Living in nice warm houses because it is so cold outside.
Well done the people! I applaud them. The Bladerunners destroying ULEZ cameras get great support from the normal public.
Implying, correctly, that those not opposing those destroying ULEZ cameras are sub-normal!
I simply don’t think you can make that judgement from what was stated. Perhaps abnormal (as in not the same as normal) or different, even deviant (as in simply deviating from the norm). But to call them ‘sub-normal’ implies a conscious judgement that is entirely missing from the post.
I think…. Mr. Bratby meant (and I agree) that those OPPOSING the destroying of the Big Brother cameras are in the wrong/”sub-normal.”
I would blame the local prosecutors for tolerating these disruptions. The scary thing about the old Klan was that it had impunity, and knew it. I do believe some of the local politicians are using these yahoos as special action squads, deniably carrying out their own policies.
Eventually this is going to get much more violent. Not a good thing. Block the street? Get drug off. Come back? Get your head stomped. Glue your hand to the road? Remove it with a 5lb sledge hammer.
The authorities need to deal with these idiots before they get themselves seriously hurt or worse.
These are not protestors, these are professional, paid activists. Vince Dale, who runs a renewables business, funds JSO with millions of pounds of cash.
I would hazard a guess that it’s a money laundering scheme as Dale will get tax concessions for funding a ‘charity’.
When David Cameron became PM in the UK about 13 years ago he held a ‘bonfire of the quango’s’. In other words the defunding of a huge number of unelected NGO’s that were affecting the lives of taxpayers.
One might consider that a good thing, only he redirected the cash wasted on them to charities that couldn’t survive without government funding, which would act as ‘ethical’ lobbying bodies for particular policies the government wanted to push through parliament. I mean, who can resist a charity, they are all such good and selfless people.
Now we have monster sized charities with CEO’s getting high six figure sum salaries and staff paid like productive workers.
It’d be interesting if “face recognition” were allowed to be used to see how many of the same people show up for these “protest” yet for different causes.
I believe that Dale has recently distanced himself from JSO and has stopped his funding, or at least publicly announced that he’s doing this.
I took an oath to defend the US constitution. However, you do not have the right to interfere with my rights while exercising your right of free speech.
If you think you have the fight to talk loud in a restaurant, you might be surprised when I come over to your table and exercise my right to tell you to take across the street.
By the front door of my motor home is a fire extinguisher, wasp spray, a tire thumbper, and duct tape among other useful tools.
To my knowledge, no one has ever been arrested for assault with a deadly fire extinguisher.
My point is it is good to have a plan to deal with bad people without using deadly force.
Yep.
Most decent, peace loving people, can’t imagine that there are a few out there that aren’t decent or peace loving.
Moms that kill their own kids. People that would murder a kid for his Nikes?
Such people are out there.
Don’t vote for them.
Be “wise as serpents but harmless as doves”.
This is just yet another example of radical types thinking that their cause is so important that the ends just the means. Most of these stop oil types have some degree of mental illness or personality defect.
I just hope this attitude spreads to enough people that see our governments have been hijacked by totalitarians that think the same way; the ends justify the means. In the United States our voting system has been totally subverted by corrupt radicals in government that think the ends justify the means and are not above lining their pockets while they creat a one party system.
Please don’t take my countrypeople too seriously… they have just elected one trans so-called and self-called “woman” as miss Portugal… This post refers to an event concocted and attended by half a dozen nuts and the handful of those who reacted are not representative of the rest of the population… sadly, I have to make this clarification. The government narratives are here believed and adopted by a very large majority of the people.
In other words “ don’t get our hopes up”
So sad to hear this Joao, most of the Portuguese I’ve met have been strong minded people.
Most certainly you are not contacting the common people. Nonetheless, I was astonished with the acceptance by higher educated (i.e., university professors and other professionals in this degree of studies) of the superstitious “anti-C19” measures implemented by the government. Not only acceptance: active defense and “justification”; adding to that astonishment, the fact that this was almost unanimous, accompanied by the suggestion that the very few (half a dozen? one dozen?) rational public voices should be cancelled or even criminally prosecuted. That tendency was not new in 2020, it only aggravated strongly: for years before that the publicized opinions re “climate change” are also almost monolithic and superstitious. As everywhere, the public opinion cannot be found in newspapers or TV information or debate programs: those who participate in those publicizing channels are a tiny (though very influential) minority: those “public opinators” are the ones that influence, drive and condition the general trends of the population. Of course, those illustrious people are now condemning the “undemocratic” action of the drivers who broke the blockage of traffic…
I am so tired of trying to figure out if the “trans” person in a story was born a guy or a girl.
When I was a kid, even before puberty hit, I knew the difference.
Girls had cooties, Boys didn’t.
Enter early puberty.
“I think I’d like to get cooties! Maybe? But I don’t know why.”
A few years later that dilemma was cleared up.
A few minutes ago: Portugal 24, Fiji 23. That should cheer you up!
https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2023/match/pool-c-fiji-portugal
Do the protesters want to stop the manufacturing of orange vests – from oil of course – or their artificial rubber-soled sneakers, or their bras, or their oil-made protest signs, or the oil-made ink they use to write their protests or, or, or….. Why not start by stopping their use of oil?
So rip off all their clothes & only return the ones with no oil content (remembering that even pure cotton & silk have oil content in manufacture & transport ).
“Why not start by stopping their use of oil?”
That’s the best idea.
The alarmists should make a rule that you cannot be a climate change alarmist activist if you use fossil fuels. They should put their money where their mouth is.
Coal is just super-compressed wood.
The trend seems clear. The JSO protesters will have a lot less enthusiasm for blocking roads if the police are less than enthusiastic about filing assault charges against motorists who punch, kick or drag protesters off the road. A group of infuriated motorists will break a blockade swiftly. They are only prevented from doing so by the protesters being protected by the police.
As a child in the 1950s, war games were were common. I have a souvenir of this time in the form of an imitation hand grenade (Mills bomb). I keep it in the boot (trunk) of my car in anticipation of meeting a ‘Just Stop Oil’ protest.
When I do I will sit down next to one of the protestors who have superglued their backsides (fannys?) to the road and explain to them that oil provides 99% of the the feedstock to the pharmaceutical industry and that I, with many medical conditions, rely on pharmaceuticals to keep me alive. I will make it clear that, as my life expectancy will be pretty much zero if they have their way, I may as well end it now.
With that I will remove the pin from the imitation grenade (it’s quite realistic, the lever flies off once released) and drop it into his/her lap.
This will at least determine if excrement can dissolve superglue.
I think you are overestimating the intelligence of the average just stop oil protestor. Remember, these are the guys who attend anti-oil protests dressed in fossil fuel derived fabrics. They would probably look at the mock grenade and wonder what it was.
By the way I don’t encourage anyone to do this, these days police have no sense of humour when it comes to bomb pranks – especially in the wake of the horrible news from Israel.
“When I do I will sit down next to one of the protestors who have superglued their backsides (fannys?) to the road and explain to them that oil provides 99% of the feedstock to the pharmaceutical industry and that I, with many medical conditions, rely on pharmaceuticals to keep me alive.”
I suspect that these protesters actually do not realize what will happen if they get their way and crude oil gets phased out over the next 2-3 years along with all other fossil fuels. Their ignorance should be the bane of all of society, but they appear to have the sympathy of the leftist media and politicians who are equally illiterate on the subject of fossil fuels.
The collapse of western civilization which will follow the phase-out and outlawing of fossil fuels leaves the climate alarmist believers with no hope for survival. They can die from what they believe is a climate catastrophe or from the collapse of civilization devoid of adequate energy to keep it going. In other words, a doomsday cult.
If they realized this, the only thing left for them to do would be to end it all and check out from life rather than wait for climate doomsday to get to them. If I lived in London or Berlin or New York or Washington where many of these protester blockades are happening, I would waste little time explaining this to them at one of their blockades. Their reaction would be interesting to watch.
…..and supergluing their fannies to the road sounds like a great idea. Once the glue dries, it would be very interesting to see what happens when the protesters try to get up.
Most them have bought into the lie that wind and solar can easily replace fossil fuels.
Doing the math to prove this is beyond most of them, so they just believe what their handlers tell them to believe.
Looks like they’ve been trained to “shriek” at the slightest attempts to remove them from the road.
Pavlov’s dogs gone climate.
Do they really think that that such insanity will draw support to “The Cause”?
One women shrieked when touched, but in several others the police had them in a wrist lock that could be quite painful. Maybe these cops were applying a subtle editorial comment to the protesters!
The right to protest is very important and should be defended. There is nothing wrong with exercising your right to protest their protest. Keep driving, don’t let a nut job climate protester stop you.
Yes! While I wouldn’t strike a person at speed with my vehicle, I would have NO PROBLEM with shoving them slowly, but, firmly out of the way if that opportunity presented itself. And as SOON as there was the slimmest opportunity to drive on, I would accelerate sharply and GO!
That was really infuriating to me — those stalwart citizens who made the effort to clear the highway of those terrorists were rewarded for their efforts with timid, hesitant, drivers. Arrrrgh! GOOOOO! If a person leaps back into the road and strikes/lands on your vehicle from the side, it is not your fault. Keep going!
After the George Floyd riots occurred, where on occasion protestors blocked roads and highways, surrounding cars and harrassing the drivers and worse, the Oklahoma legislature passed a law saying a driver could legally drive through a crowd of protestors if that driver thought his life was in danger.
That probably wouldn’t apply to these climate protestors since there are usually just a few of them stretched across the road. But who knows, a person transporting a very sick person to the hospital might think the passenger’s life is in danger from the roadblock. We’ll let the courts decide.
Remember those riot trucks from Solyent Green with the big scoops on front?
There is no shortage of nuts in the world. We have plenty of them!
Yep: but never enough nutcrackers!
Way too many.
It’s going to get worse if politicians and law enforcement don’t do their job. I don’t much care what happens to these criminals.
Has the legality of the public using force in removing the people, who are forcefully blocking the road, been challenged in courts yet? I would think that if they are illegally blocking my liberty, that I had the right to use an appropriate level of force to remove them.
I know that there has been considerable debate, and legislation proposed, in the U.S. to spell out some clear protection for motorists who drove through protestors. Though, there is already pretty clear protection when the driver is legitimately concerned for their safety. Note that I am not talking about situations where drivers, who were not being obstructed, drove into protestors.
The use of the vehicle is a special case, since it can be considered a deadly weapon. But, using force with your own body is not something I’ve seen in the legal debate. Obviously, dragging someone off the road is a very limited use of force, and of limited effectiveness, since they can simply walk back onto the road. So, obviously, providing a more aggressive deterrent would be more effective.
Anyone aware of how the victims of the protestors have been handled by the legal system?
Well I do not know if we can count some of the woke hijacked courts in some jurisdictions to not side with the woke nut job protesters. We have really seen a break down in the last three years here in the US. One only has to observe what is happening to President Trump as confirmation that a serious and consequential break down is possible in weaponizing the court system.. What this could lead to ultimately is catastrophic.
“Obviously, dragging someone off the road is a very limited use of force, and of limited effectiveness,
since they can simply walk back onto the road.”
Not if they are zip tied to a fence or lamppost !!!
Good. Good.
I would suggest packing earplugs for the commuter strategy of car horn in your face strategy.
Ship them off to the trenches in eastern Ukraine for reality lessons.
Also pack a baseball bat as a regular commuting item.
I prefer lawful violence myself, like what the Israelis are currently ramping up