As I flew out of London Heathrow T5 this week, I noticed the remnants of vandalism from last week’s eco-terrorist climate activists. What can be done to deter these thugs from their infantile and injurious behavior?
London Heathrow Vandalism: What To Do With The Climate Thugs
I have utter disdain for climate activists who betray their cause by creating more waste and environmental degradation through childish and illegal actions. Every time I see a climate activist glue themselves to an airport tarmac or graffiti an airport or airplane, I hope for more runways, fewer overnight curfews, new terminals, and far more flights. That’s not “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” but a reasonable response to a growing population, a more inter-connected world, and a realization that the key to overcoming the downsides of a changing climate is through innovation, not cutbacks (but if that is your thing, you go first…).
In case you missed it, this is an example of what climate protestors did:
And the question becomes how can civilized society with respect for the rule of law and aversion to cruel and unusual punishment deal with this?
In 2016, a pair of climate activists were hit with a £2,640 (combined) fine and no prison time for similar action. No wonder this sort of tomfoolery continues…
A five-year prison sentence may cause others to think twice before engaging in similar action, but the taxpayer cost to incarcerate someone for five years is very expensive. It’s like punishing taxpayers for punishing taxpayers…
While cutting off hands would be a powerful deterrent, the punishment is incommensurate with the crime, at least for the first or second offense.
I think the solution is community service. I love London and the UK, but just like my home of Los Angeles, there’s a lot of work to be done. Sentence those who do this to 10 years of community service and watch them break their backs working to create better neighborhoods in Belfast or Cardiff or picking trash off the M25…
One of the vandals told a magistrate court in London this week:
“Sending peaceful protestors like me to prison isn’t going to prevent us from resisting. You’re upholding an abysmal system. And you’re doing that to maintain business as usual. You won’t be protected from the climate emergency.
“I was arrested for the first time in April 2022 and have been arrested several times since. I spent a short time on remand in prison after climbing an M25 gantry in November 2022. I will continue to act on my conscience to protect life and to challenge the greed, corruption and cowardice that are killing people right now. I refuse to die for fossil fuels.”
What kind of foolish system gives these people a slap on the wrist after a slap on the wrist?
Give her hard labor. Put a tracking bracelet on her and force her to work for 10 hours a day, seven days a week. For the environment. Picking up trash, planting trees, gardening…we could use her help.
Behavior like this should be intolerable to a free society. Speech should be protected, but not actions pursuant to that speech…like vandalism. Such action must be harshly punished. These miscreants don’t fight for a noble cause: they are ignorant and foolish narcissists. And it’s time to finally hold them accountable.
I like the idea. I suggest the following. Sentence them to jail, say 12 months. Suspend the jail time on the condition of completing X hours of community service (and volunteering for their group isn’t an option) over the next two years. If they commit any crime in that period, they jail time comes back. Charge them for cleanup. The nice thing is the 12-month sentence means a number of countries will deny them entry.
The West is reaping what they have sowed. Our society now raises children to believe that their emotions are the most important thing in the world, and if they are acting “authentically,” then literally anything is defensible. Couple this with the climate death cult that runs our university system, and you get 20-year-old narcissists who have replaced religion with zealous “climate action” to find significance in their lives. You are correct that harsh punishment is warranted, but we must also look at the root causes or it will not stop.
+1. You are spot on. Wondering why these thugs don’t do this in places like Saudi Arabia for example. They do in places where they know there won’t be any consequences.
@Santastico … now … now … these are Not “thugs” .
What interests me is why you would not see this in Singapore (hint: caning) or why mothers leave babies in strollers outside cafes or stores in Copenhagen. Why do I feel perfectly safe leaving my child outside in Japan?
There is indeed a cultural rot that has set in marked the gross extension of personal autonomy.
This is why airports need bag searches and scanners at the Entrance to airport grounds , at the Front gate . Israel does not have this problem .
So you would came your kids. Interesting.
“What kind of foolish system gives these people a slap on the wrist after a slap on the wrist?”
It’s not so much the system as it is the people running it and handing down judgement. Clearly the punishment isn’t suffice to cause this human debris to learn a lesson, and show them the greater society is not going to tolerate this behavior.
Do exactly what they did but on a significantly bigger scale in return. Sit outside their home in the hundreds.
That’s not fair to their parents.
The prosecutors in the large cities, and not just in the US, are openly on the side of these protesters. They will never get more than a public slap on the wrist (and a private hi-five). Same thing is quietly happening as all of the charges for the violent anti Israel protesters are being dropped and their colleges are readmitting them without any penalty. Your ideas are good, but they are just a fantasy at this point.
death penalty would be a fine detterent.
I disagree that meaningful jail time isn’t a deterrent (though what you propose is creative). Whether it’s climate activists, BLM, Antifa, whatever, cosplaying as “principled resistance against capitalist oppression” is fun when you know there won’t be any consequences. If a few of these climate clowns end up locked up for 5 years, though? I think you’ll see a large number pick up their toys and go home.
Bottom line, though, is that what you propose won’t have an effect, because the prosecutors and judges in the jurisdictions where this shenanigans occurs have no intention of meting out meaningful punishment. Many are overtly sympathetic to their causes. If climate clowns decide to shut down the 10 tomorrow, you seriously think Gascon will pursue charges, let alone allow his ADAs to seek hard labor, even for repeat offenders?
Hey man, any thoughts on what the punishment should be for the right wing mobs in the UK currently setting hotels on fire? Or do you think those crimes pale in comparison to these “thugs” throwing around some paint?
Give them petrol, bottles and matches.
You can’t be serious! Saying stuff like this is part of the problem. No, disliking the climate protests doesn’t automatically mean someone supports right-wing mobs. I believe I speak on behalf of most, if not all, normal people when I say we are against *any* type of mob mentality such as vandalism, rioting, hate speech, and civil disruption. Left or right wing, these tactics are bad and only stir resentment and rage. However, Matthew isn’t covering the right-wing mobs as this is an aviation blog. The climate protests pertain to aviation, the right-wing riots don’t.
@Sco: shoot them.
Well, I look forward to your post explaining that
Why should I? No one of any intellect is supporting these right-wing terrorists but far too many folks who consider themselves intelligent are supporting these climate terrorists. It’s apples and oranges. I am not in the game of false equivalences.
I don’t know about that. Incarcerated Steve Bannon’s British buddies seem to have found some useful idiots in Asia and Eastern Europe to systematically amplify their messages and run up support for the thuggery. Also, Elon Musk has literally been egging things on and seems to love playing the part of the proverbial Nero. I am pretty sure Musk’s brain is drug-damaged at this point, but a lot of people still seem to think he’s intelligent. That said, he’s got a reason to want to be clickbait master since he needs all the advertising money and subscription revenue he can get after overpaying for Twitter.
Didn’t potential VP J.D. Vance raise money for January 6 rioters who tried to overthrow our government? I’d dearly love it if only a few fringe idiots supported the attempted overthrow but that’s just not the case.
A preferable punishment would be to ignore them and leave them, glued to the floor, without food, water or the ability to use the can, just like the Porsche museum in Germany.
If the eventually free themselves, have them arrested for trespassing and held without bond then sentanced to clean up bodily fluids from seats in aircraft.
There are thousands if not millions of scientists, engineers, activists, and other people who are currently devoting their time and careers to solve this very serious crisis. However, these “protesters” are undermining all of their work, and threatens the entire movement. Instead of people seeing all the good and important parts of the movement, they see this tomfoolery. The big problem is that these protests don’t antagonize the “big, bad” corporations like Shell and BP that are actively contributing to the crisis, but instead they are antagonizing every day people going about their day to day lives. Blocking roadways, delaying flights, etc. For every person (if any) they get to “ponder” the environmental crisis, they’re going to get so so so so many more thinking “what a bunch of a**holes screwing up my day.” You need to get people to not just be aware of the movement, but empower them to *care* about it too, and these attacks only stir resentment among citizens, fuel right-wing anti-environment rhetoric, and make the entire movement look like a joke. You’re not some “vigilante savior standing up to the evil capitalists”, you’re a bunch of clowns.
Can I also add that repeated coverage of these protests isn’t helping? These people are of the “no such thing as bad press” crowd (which is not true at all in this case), and continuing to cover their vandalism is only encouraging them to do it more. I know that the tabloids will always be tabloids, and these protesters generate rage-clicks, but the repeated attention isn’t helping.
Send them to the front lines of Ukraine. Better yet. To Russia with love.
No. Jail is the answer. But first, while they are glued/chained there beat the hell out of them. Guaranteed this changes their outlook on a few things.
Vandalism. This demonstration is just that and deserves ( painful punishment )? Most likely they are idiots that might not understand exactly what they are there for, other than acting stupidly for the group think . I agree with making them work on projects ( weekends ) while insisting on gainful employment to repay for damages. Also remove all privileges ( driving, travel, etc) until the restitution is fulfilled.
Due to all the “austerity” measures of the British government with pressured finances, there seems to be both a severe shortage of prison spaces and a more thinly stretched and underfunded police force across the country. And it’s been an issue this month with the EDL types running around burning hotels, attacking mosques and hunting “Asian”-owned stores over a mentally-deranged British-born Christian kid of African descent stabbing a group of much younger kids at dance lessons. Not many spaces available to park the racist thugs and other hoodlums.
A lot of people underestimate how right-wing the UK is even in many parts where Labor won recent elections. Trump fan Nigel Farage and his gang cost the Conservative Party a lot of seats in Parliament by splitting the voters that were previously voting for the Conservatives. But then a lot of those Conservatives are themselves the children of former Labor voters who ironically got bridged over to the Conservatives by Tony Blair who was basically a stealth Conservative in Labor.
I like your premise. After all, aren’t these people saying that these deranged stunts are to make the world a better place? Well, they can spend several years of physical labor helping their country be a better place as a start. I do agree with @Dave W that they should be convicted of a crime first to make international travel difficult.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: summary execution.