Just Stop Oil activist accused of defacing Stonehenge asks judge not to hold trial during her exams

27 comments

1. As a lecturer I get the importance of exams. However, I can’t help but feel like if this person wasn’t at Oxford, they wouldn’t have got the trial date they wanted…

   That said, there’s no indication the judge set October as the trial date because of them – the court could just be busy

2. These people are so entitled, like the one who complained she had to miss her brother’s wedding.

   If you want to LARP as a revolutionary, that means you take the bad parts as well as the bit that makes you feel important.

3. She looks exactly how I would expect a privileged Oxford student arrested for causing a public nuisance and then requesting that the justice system work around her schedule would look. Harry Potter glasses, £300 jacket, massive sense of entitlement, it’s almost a caricature.

4. Can’t let her future as part of the Oxford alumni elite be put at risk.

5. It’s a reasonable request. The article uses language like pleading out of context (tbf the headline doesn’t) when it’s just a formality as part of the not guilty plea to state any requests around future dates. We’re a civilised country and this is a fairly petty crime; it’s not unreasonable to ask.

6. Hardly an unreasonable request.

   Can’t help but question if the main source of annoyance is insecurity. Don’t like the idea that there are people out there putting their own circumstances at risk in attempt to better the world while they themselves sit on their arse.

   So they’re entitled, selfish and terrible actually 🤦

7. [removed]

8. What has stonehenge got to do with gross over consumption/climate change/oil? Makes sense when they target banks and stuff but this is just stupid.

   Edit – guys I don’t need the concept of protesting repeatedly explained to me nor do I need to be repeatedly told ‘well nobody heard about them damaging buildings so they did this instead’ because that’s just not true.

9. [removed]

10. Jesus, most of the comments here are insane. She sprayed biodegradable paint on a rock to highlight an existential threat to humanity. That’s clearly a hangable offence to the average r/UnitedKingdom user.

11. >During proceedings to determine a trial date

    This is an example of a complete non-story being used as rage-bait.

    The whole point of having a hearing to determine a trial date is to find one that works.

    This is entirely normal, despite who the Defendant happens to be in this case.

12. Fun Fact; JSO uses tactics developed by successful protest movements of the past, primarily the Suffragettes. They too vandalised artwork and national monuments, disrupted sporting events, blocked roads etc etc.The Suffragettes actually went further in many cases, e.g. JSO uses washable paint (so the pile of rocks you haven’t thought about since school is totally fine), whereas the suffragettes used to slash paintings with knives.

    If you’re the kind of person who thinks their methods of protest are too extreme to justify the cause, then you should have a pretty serious think about whether you would have supported women getting the vote.

    Unless of course you don’t believe in climate change, in which case you’re just a fucking idiot.

13. If it is worth disrupting other people’s lives, surely she can take a bit of disruption to her own..

14. Whilst part of me wants the judge to decline any such request from anyone associated with JSO so that their lives are as disrupted as the myriad of people missing important stuff in their lives as a result of JSO activity, the court should look at any such request with an impartial mindset and treat the request as it would/should for any other case… I just don’t know if missing a bird exam counts as decent reason to delay proceedings?

15. I wouldn’t have done anything around Stone Henge, but the fact remains that she hasn’t been found guilty yet and our legal system should be there to protect. The date hasn’t actually been set and the current proceedings are to determine are to decide when is best.

    I’ll not be surprised if she is found guilty, but innocent people do go to court and I’d rather they are inconvenienced as little as possible. Trials are part of society and we don’t need being called to one to be unnecessarily punishing; punishment should come from the sentence itself.

16. Not a problem at all, she can just take the exam next year. Let’s face it delaying people going about their lives is a small price to pay to save the planet, or so they tell us.

17. Whilst the just stop oil protestors have garnered hate from pretty much everyone online, I think some self reflection is in order.

    Yes our days have been held up by stupid protests, yes some washable orange paint was splattered on various landmarks. But history has proven time and time again that the only people who drive change are the people who protest and cause a nuisance.

    I am not saying I support the cause or the method. But our right to protest was almost removed by the last government and after the last 14 years of nonsense we all put up with, division between ourselves is not something we should be involved in.

    Also a lot of these comments have been “She looks exactly how I thought she would”. Imagine the situations where you would’ve expected her to be someone from a different demographic. It wouldn’t be said would it.

    Asking for a court date change around her exams shows she gives a toss about her education and future. It’s not an unreasonable request and guess what, the courts don’t need to honour it anyway.

18. That’s fairly normal to be honest. I was a witness and court date got moved because I was on holiday during the initial date. I had it booked well before the incident let alone the court date being set.

    They just moved it a month back, they didn’t even ask for proof of the holiday.

19. Its so sad that we now have to live in a world where stone henge is orange now. The druids that built it would not have wanted it to be orange. We probably have another two or three generations of people left and they’ll see the monument grey like it was intended

20. Oh thank god she did this. All of the oil mining that the druids did… Stonehenge must be stopped before the world ends!!!

21. We’re being manipulated into hating any resistance to the collapse of our natural environment.
    It’s because resisting climate change is at direct odds to maximising profit.
    You can snipe and make sarcastic comments all you like but ultimately you’re cheerleading extinction. It’s really nothing to be proud of, doing your master’s bidding.

22. Every time I see JSO referenced I feel like I’d be fascinated to see what they feel like they’ve achieved. Feels like they’ve been around for about a decade & yet I couldn’t point to a single thing even within their own aims it feels like they’ve had a marked positive impact on.

    All I ever see them doing is targeting beloved institutions that were essentially bystanders to their opponent, big oil companies and governments, and then insisting that what they’re doing is in fact very important, somehow. Do they just have very bad PR or are they genuinely just sloppy?

23. JSO need disrupt the Oxford exams because people need to know how important putting people off climate action is.

24. Doesn’t make sense for climate activists to desecrate nature…

25. Oh dear. Oh no.

    Would that inconvenience you? Oh. How sad.

    But don’t you care about the planet? Don’t you accept that if your protest breaks the law and you face trial, that your life might be inconvenienced in some way?

    Surely if you criticise the result of your protest being an inconvenience to your life, that just means you don’t care about the planet, right?

    That’s what we hear any time someone criticises JSO pissing off everyday people, most of whom will agree we need to do more on manmade climate change.

    Why is she any different? She makes a point by breaking the law. Inconvenience to her life thereafter is the price she must pay for standing up against inaction on climate change. You’re a climate denier if you think otherwise.

26. My first reaction was well get fucked, fuck around and find out.

    But people are innocent until proven guilty. Education is important, and we shouldn’t be needlessly cruel when someone is being regarded as innocent. If there’s a low risk of offence before, then deferring the trials until after the exams is fine.

    If it was for a violence against a person offence it should be as soon as possible

27. Hey Just Stop oil, please could you avoid holding protests when people have important things to do, like get to school for an exam…

    The hypocrisy here is insane. Happy to disrupt people travelling to hospital / maybe even a court hearing or, trial themselves, but when it happens to them, complain about the inconvenience.

Comments are closed.