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.
+100
A criminal conviction with a two-year suspended sentence would exclude them from even more countries, and be a greater deterrent.
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 .
A rather bad idea to have backed up security screening bottlenecks leading up to an airport terminal building — from both a security and economic perspective — in an open society where being as open for business as possible makes the economy buzz as much as possible sooner than later and where apartheid type practices don’t fly for whatever reason.
Behave like a third world country and the country’s economic growth pays a price for it. And not everyone has a rich foreign uncle bailing them out.
Plenty of airports around the world have bag search on entering the terminal, not just TLV: ADD, CMN and SUB come immediately to mind and I’m sure that there are many, many more.
So you would came your kids. Interesting.
The word is cane and the answer is yes. Not for disobeying daddy, but if they vandalized the property of another person, then by all means.
Copenhagen as an example is an interesting one. Although I don’t know how it lands in the same category as Singapore given the big cultural differences in parenting, schooling and in policing. Also, quite different approaches to illegal drugs even as both cities seem to have a rather open market approach to prostitution.
Physically spanking or slapping a kid in Copenhagen is a criminal offense and classified in much the same way as domestic violence against a spouse or other cohabitant in Denmark since something like 1997. A parent caning or belting their child in Denmark will result at the parent being at risk for being hauled into the police station for investigation of domestic violence and the child being relocated into someone else’s care while the investigation from one or two authorities is pending. And the someone else for the child in the meantime isn’t typically going to be the other parent if the parents live together with the child. Then comes the prosecution in the courts. And the Scandinavian prosecutors and female judges in particular don’t take kindly to foreign parents in particular slapping a kid in their jurisdiction.
The Scandinavian authorities take this stuff very seriously when they get evidence of such or even unconfirmed reports of such from a mandatory reporter equivalent.
Scandinavia tends to be much softer toward misbehaving kids. And the Scandinavian authorities tend to be much softer toward young adults than the US when it comes to property crimes such as that done by the airport vandals.
The idea of shooting unarmed protesters for vandalism in Copenhagen? As a couple of the Danish police in my social circle would remind me, their Danish fathers and grandfathers were against the Nazi ways of dealing with Danish vandals and other protesters when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis and they won’t be like those Nazi monsters who trampled on the Danes, threw them onto train tracks and would have rounded up the Jews in Denmark for extermination if not for the resistance.
Now that you know it’s a criminal offense in Copenhagen and the rest of Scandinavia, shouldn’t we all have the utmost confidence that you wouldn’t cane your own kids in Copenhagen or anywhere else in Scandinavia despite the urge to give them an ear full and then some if they were to even think about coloring Copenhagen city hall or the Copenhagen train/metro station displays with colorful graffiti? 😀
Children in the developed world are more extensively monitored, recorded and subject to coercion than ever before in our lifetime. And with that change, children’s room to develop — including by testing boundaries and dealing with consequences — is much more restrictive and permanently punitive today than it was 50-150 years ago.
I wouldn’t trade my life as a kid back in the days to be a kid today in this era of smartphone cameras everywhere, online social media and more laws and ordinances that can be potentially violated than ever before. And I say that as someone from the old school of being squeaky clean — and, yes, while I know some of you also keep hearing that a bunch of the FlyerTalk Mods think I am one bad dude, I will say they have various twisted ideas about me.
“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.
Vigilantism is the order of the day? What’s next, a Guy Fawkes mask and a more contemporary equivalent of the gunpowder plot? None of that is a solution regardless of who owns the residence of a vandal.
Best to have fair courts be the ones doing the punishing. Pitchfork mobs are a prescription worse than the disease.
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.
How extensively do you interact with prosecutors inside and outside of the country? I have a lot of friends and acquaintances in various countries who are prosecutors or have done their stints as prosecutors or in support of such at Justice/Home and such. They tend to be anything but “think about the perp’s childhood” or the very forgiving types.
The worst prosecutors tend to be outside the major cities and tend to be the ones that are all too cozy with the local judges and local law enforcement and thus deliver a two-tier approach to law enforcement and justice: one for those coming from and related to the privileged on the right side of the tracks and a different one for those coming from the wrong side of the tracks. It’s a more extreme problem when the prosecutors are too close (or closer) to the judges and to the police and when the judges are too close (or closer) to the police.
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.
every legitimate European should be supporting this “mobs” it’s a long time coming and the real British are finally rising up.
What’s a legitimate European and what’s an illegitimate European? Do the airport’s
“save the climate” vandals get classified as legitimate based on how they look, or do they get classified as legitimate or illegitimate based on how fully obedient to the law they are (not) regardless of how they look and where and what kind of religious services their ancestors attended?
Given how you advertise yourself, would it be accurate to say that you are concerned with the British Prime Minister’s wife having Jewish roots? Do you think of her as being a legitimate European or as an illegitimate European?
+1 it would also help if they got real jobs, moved out of their mother’s basement and got a taste of the real world.
@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.
They are doing nothing wrong.
They are a justified resistance.
Jan 6th protesters were mostly peaceful and are now political prisoners in the US.
That are doing good work.
They are patriots
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.
For whatever reason I don’t think the “think of the climate” vandals at the airports are as likely to want to crack the bones of, and make bleed, my friends and family as those who are on board with the messaging from the likes of Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson.
FWIW, I avoided flying to the UK this week because of some of the same kind of concerns that Rowley had in recent days. I certainly was not avoiding LHR because of “think of the climate” airport vandals.
Now soon off to Vienna to take advantage of some of that unfortunately excess award space on flights in the aftermath of the cancellation of the Taylor Swift concert due to a terrorist threat concern involving a group of male teenagers who definitely aren’t traditional Swifties.
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.
Most countries don’t verify criminal background history of foreign visitors seeking entry on passports that ordinarily allow for visa-free or visa-on-arrival entries. Even those countries which may have a question about criminal history on visa applications often don’t verify the declaration since they often have neither the resources, nor opportunity, nor interest do so quickly and easily.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: summary execution.
Sentencing vandals to environmental clean-up and janitorial services for vandalizing the environment supposedly on behalf of the environment is a good approach. The Brits are basically out of prison space, so that’s a good approach since the expensive prison space is needed for people who have been a violent threat to people and other serious criminals. But a direct financial penalty is needed too so that they have to internalize the cost economically too.
The key to understanding people like this is that they subscribe to a cult or false religion. They won’t back down from breaking the law or creating problems for people because they have made climate change and related theories into their form of religion much like people do with politics in some cases. It’s not based on logic and they believe it to be accurate or scientific in that they “must” do something or die.
I like the method the Robert DeNiro character used in “Casino” when they caught the guy cheating at blackjack. Casino manager DeNiro put the fellow’s hand on a table and beat the hell out of it with a hammer. Effective deterrent.
Surprised no one has mentioned this punishment yet: Ban them from Heathrow.
In case you’re wondering, Heathrow can impose a ban.
https://www.heathrow.com/content/dam/heathrow/web/common/documents/contact-us/HAL-Byelaws-2014.pdf
Section 3.15 – “Prohibited persons”: “No person shall enter the Airport whilst having been prohibited in writing from entering by the Airport Company.”
If only these people who care the same about the white replacement going in the UK by thrid world invaders.
Just once, I’d like to see a bystander grab the tank and douse these idiots from head to toe in their own paint.
Your article was spot on! Bravo!!!
How to deal with them? Very easy. If you see one, punch them hard in the face.
What Antonio suggests could invite assault charges and a criminal prosecution for assault. Not advisable. And LHR has so many security cameras, that the risks of being caught are very high.