The Protest Thread.

[Rich B]

then more will go to jail.

[ZedLeg]

There's that sneer

[Rich B]

It’s not as though the law isn’t clear. if sneering is not having sympathy with people intentionally breaking the law knowing they’ll go to jail, then i guess i’m cyril sneer.

[ZedLeg]

It's not a case of sympathy imo, prison in this instance is a big expensive waste of time all round. Would be much better to have them doing something productive.

[Rich B]

It's not a case of sympathy imo, prison in this instance is a big expensive waste of time all round. Would be much better to have them doing something productive.

like what? they openly break the law knowing the consequences. Any other “punishment” will just be abused for getting attention too.

[ZedLeg]

So? As long as they're doing the thing who cares. The thing could be cleaning graffiti or whatever. The stuff that people on community orders usually do.

If they aren't breaking the law to get attention for their cause what's the problem?

[Simon]

It's a stretch to say frames are part of the artwork. Painters rarely sell their work framed. Also they didn't deliberately damage them.

Read the sentencing remarks linked above - the judge made a good point about the frame.

And I'd argue they definitely did deliberately damage the frame - they threw the soup not knowing if the picture was even protected by glass (see judges comments again) so clearly and damage is deliberate.

[dinny_g]

Section s.57 of the Sentencing Code lists five purposes of sentencing:

Number 1 and 2 are as follows:

• To punish the offender – this can include going to prison, doing unpaid work in the community, obeying a curfew or paying a fine.

• To reduce crime – by preventing the offender from committing more crime, and putting others off from committing similar offences.

A community service order may achieve number 1 but it would NOT achieve number 2 - that's why this sentence has not been used in this case

[ZedLeg]

I was just saying what I would prefer.

Using prisons as warehouses for thousands of petty criminals doesn't seem to be working out that well for us.

[Rich B]

Nothing will stop protestors from protesting though.

prison seems to do the job pretty well.

[ZedLeg]

I forget how much liberals love prisons sometimes tbh

[ZedLeg]

Worth bearing in mind that 2 years is more than the guy we're discussing in the youtube thread got.

[Rich B]

if you deliberately choose to publicly do a crime with prison time in its sentencing guidelines, don’t be surprised if you get sentenced to prison time.

Find a better way to protest.

[ZedLeg]

No one is surprised Rich, they're arguing that the length of sentences aren't representative of the crime.

I personally don't think they should have gone to prison but who the fuck cares what I think.

[mik]

Worth bearing in mind that 2 years is more than the guy we're discussing in the youtube thread got.

Funnily enough TSB posted this yesterday too (previous poster not making reference to Mr Pollitt obviously)

[Rich B]

No one is surprised Rich, they're arguing that the length of sentences aren't representative of the crime.

I personally don't think they should have gone to prison but who the fuck cares what I think.

What else could the judges do? if they go lenient, there’ll be hoards of people blocking the M25 and vandalising every priceless artwork by dinner time. All of them citing the cases of how the last people only got community service.

they’ve forced the hand of the authorities - they have to get the most the crimes can get or it’ll just be a green light for more. the M25 guys said in court that they’ll just do it again when released…

[dinny_g]

but who the fuck cares what I think.

I care what you think because there seems to be a hell of a lot of people who think they way that you do. We all have to try see all sides of a problem or debate or difference because otherwise, we just end up being entrenched.

[ZedLeg]

Aye, my thing is that warehousing thousands of petty non violent criminals can't be helping this prison crisis we keep hearing about. We just gave a load of prisoners early release to make space.

[ZedLeg]

No one is surprised Rich, they're arguing that the length of sentences aren't representative of the crime.

I personally don't think they should have gone to prison but who the fuck cares what I think.

What else could the judges do? if they go lenient, there’ll be hoards of people blocking the M25 and vandalising every priceless artwork by dinner time. All of them citing the cases of how the last people only got community service.

they’ve forced the hand of the authorities - they have to get the most the crimes can get or it’ll just be a green light for more. the M25 guys said in court that they’ll just do it again when released…

That's my point though, everyone knows that the sentences aren't going to stop the protests, give them work that makes a difference in the community so at least they're giving something back in between wasting folk's time.

[Rich B]

No one is surprised Rich, they're arguing that the length of sentences aren't representative of the crime.

I personally don't think they should have gone to prison but who the fuck cares what I think.

What else could the judges do? if they go lenient, there’ll be hoards of people blocking the M25 and vandalising every priceless artwork by dinner time. All of them citing the cases of how the last people only got community service.

they’ve forced the hand of the authorities - they have to get the most the crimes can get or it’ll just be a green light for more. the M25 guys said in court that they’ll just do it again when released…

That's my point though, everyone knows that the sentences aren't going to stop the protests, give them work that makes a difference in the community so at least they're giving something back in between wasting folk's time.

they just won’t do it. They’ll not turn up - the authorities will waste thousands trying to enforce them to do it and they’ll turn it into another twitter photo opportunity.

how are they going to paint fences when they’re chained to a motorway gantry?