Outrage after Greta Thunberg arrested at London oil summit protest
Outrage after Greta Thunberg arrested at London oil summit protest
Hundreds of protesters gathered at a five-star hotel in London, the InterContinental on Park Lane, the venue for the Energy Intelligence Forum (EIF), which brings together fossil fuel executives and government ministers.
Jo Maugham, Director of the Good Law Project, posted on X: “What a brave, democratic, free speech loving, nation we have become under the so-called Conservative Party.”
The most pertinent part for me. The Tories have legalised suppression.
Tbh her being arrested just helps raise awareness. If the police hadn't arrested her and just some nobodies instead, it wouldn't be in the news.
I mean, that's part of the point of the protests. You protest, you get arrested, you bring both attention and legal scrutiny to the issue. The kid went in knowing it was very likely. If a protest issue disruptive enough to get you arrested, it isn't a protest, it's a circle jerk
Edit: Too many responses with the same basic gist to make individual replies useful.
The point I was making is that a good protest plans for arrests. It's part of the point going in. It isn't a matter of whether or not someone should be arrested or not. It's the fact that the arrest itself is a chance for both media and legal attention to the protested thing.
You want to get arrested because it means you're directly threatening the status quo. It means she was successful.
Now, whether or not her right to protest was violated by the arrest is a separate issue. But, again, that gives her and her legal team a chance to challenge that very thing. It highlights the problem in the public eye as well. Again, it makes the protest successful.
A protest where everyone protesting finishes up and goes home feeling all warm and fuzzy isn't a fucking protest, it's a party. It means nobody that matters paid any attention at all. Might as well just stay at fucking home. You don't even have to be arrested for protesting, it can be for obstructing traffic, or noise ordinances, or littering. This still gives the chance to effect change on some scale that simply is not there without disruption and arrest.
Do people really not remember the civil rights movement and how they used the combination of peaceful protest and legal activity? It's one of the most successful strategies for change in human history. It fucking worked.
So, this kid being the face of the protest is definitely on purpose, and I guarantee that the arrest was predicted, if not hoped for. I strongly suspect that it was actually a goal of the protest.
Again, a protest that doesn't disrupt isn't a protest, it's a fucking circlejerk. And nothing shows significant disruption like cops trying to break it up.
You should not be arrested for protesting. This is a direct contravention of article 11 of the human rights act.
Thunberg and other protestors blocked entrances at the hotel, trying to prevent delegates from entering.
I think it's that blocking that might've caused the arrest, not protesting itself. As the link says
Are there any restrictions to this right?
There are some situations where a public authority can restrict your rights to freedom of assembly and association.
This is only the case where the authority can show that its action is lawful, necessary and proportionate in order to:
protect national security or public safety
prevent disorder or crime
protect health or morals, or
protect the rights and freedoms of other people.
Probably falls under the last point
FYI she's 20 now, no longer a minor. I know some people will still call a person a "kid" at that age, hell I probably would refer to a random 20-year-old as a kid. But, I call this out since some people insist on infantalizing her so they can more easily ignore her- and her message. I'm not saying that's what you're doing, but depending on the message you intend to send you might choose a different way to describe her in the future.
Yeah, once you start looking 50 in the old brown eye, anyone under thirty is a kid
Permanently Deleted
Hell I'm pretty sure you can be arrested at this point for just being near a protest and looking at it, the Tories are desperate to turn this country into a dictatorship. I have no idea why they can't just calm the fuck down.
They looked at Vladimir Putin in Russia and went oh, that's great idea.
Reminder that Labour has not said they'd remove any of the anti protest stuff, instead they'll focus on other things if they win the next GE
If I was part of a protest in my own country and she showed up, I'd be likely to punch her myself.
Her appearence and subsequent stunts to get arrested would just divert what little news coverage there might have been to center around her. Completely negating the purpose of the event.
Yikes, violence against those you disagree with. You're a cool protester
Nah, just hyperbole.
Funny ... I only know about the protest because she was there and arrested.
Funny ... you're bothering to promote her acts by commenting on social media about it.
Go sit in the corner rude boy.
Sounds more like maybe you just aren't that interested in all the environment stuff.
So are you joking about assaulting her, or are you actually saying you'd do it?
At best, that's a fairly toxic comment which doesn't belong here
Hyperbole isn't joking. It's exaggeration.