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

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

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    41 Comments

    1. Fox_9810 on

      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. NuPNua on

      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. Apprehensiv3Eye on

      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.

    5. LazyScribePhil on

      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. ExtraGherkin on

      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 🤦

    8. PM-ME-YOUR-DIGIMON on

      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. no-shells on

      Fun game to play on Reddit:

      Find the people who support coming down like a ton of bricks on just stop oil and go see what they thought about the race riots last summer. It’s really fun because they largely think those people were treated harshly for their role in the, yknow, racist riots which tried to burn down a hotel with people in it.

      Edit: god it’s so easy to make some people go mask off lmao

    10. jamogram on

      Courts asking people what dates to avoid when scheduling a hearing is completely mundane, normal business. People saying “courts are busy” are not wrong, which is exactly why they’ve not unnecessarily scheduled the trial during exam season. They won’t be short of other things to do in the meantime. What would be the point of doing otherwise?

    11. SunflowerMoonwalk on

      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.

    12. SuperrVillain85 on

      >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.

    13. mustardmontinator on

      I swear there’s some conspiracy that oil companies send people onto social media to convince private school bellends like this to vandalise beloved sites so we all turn against just stop oil.

      Either way, doing this stuff is the _least_ effective way of raising awareness. It’s just upsetting to most, like the oil industry.

    14. joc95 on

      I’m not sure if the Just Stop Oil guys are stupid or secretly a psy-op created by big oil companies to make environmentalists look stupid

    15. Robynsxx on

      Who gives a fuck. I have no sympathy for someone wanting to damage a historical monument like this. 

    16. GettingTherapissed on

      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.

    18. bagsofsmoke on

      The dildo of consequence rarely arrives lubed. A massive shame the judge didn’t set a date to disrupt her exams. Hopefully she’ll be found guilty.

    19. blackleydynamo on

      Just goes to show that “clever enough to get into Oxford” is not the same as “intelligent”.

      Both JSO and Extinction Rebellion are dim witted, and their antics don’t “raise awareness” or “make government pay attention”. They just piss people off, and alienate them from an otherwise righteous cause. The idea that people aren’t “aware” of climate change is bollocks. The question is whether they believe it, and some Tarquin spraying orange paint in an art gallery won’t make a gnat-sized difference to that metric.

      All that happens is that the phrase “climate change protester” becomes synonymous with “vandal” in the public consciousness, and allows those who don’t give a shit about climate change to deflect proper debate of the matter with yet another flurry of shameless whataboutery.

      Oil (and fossil fuel in general) is a surprisingly easy issue to tackle with the hard right when you make it about patriotism and national security. We don’t produce enough here, so we have to buy it from the Arabs, Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia and the yanks, and when they decide they need a new golden palace they stick the price up and we all shiver in the dark. And if we ever fall out with any of them and the supply gets cut off, the price goes up and we all shiver in the dark. Or we could produce our own wind, solar, hydroelectric and tidal power, for pretty much fuck all, and stick two fingers up to Johnny Foreigner. That cuts a lot more ice than painting Stonehenge orange.

    20. R3dd1tAdm1nzRCucks on

      Oh no, the consequences of my actions. Kid is stupid enough to do this. They probably wouldn’t pass their exams anyway.

    21. asolutesmedge on

      Change the court date, then on the morning of the exam, stand in front of her fucking car so she can’t get there

    22. chance1829 on

      The society is deaf to an important message this kid wanted to convey. These are valuable people. The whole charge against her is frivolous use of justice system. Go prosecute shoplifters – 50,000 incidents a day across the country and no prosecution!

    23. Dry_Yogurtcloset1962 on

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

    24. TobyChan on

      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?

    26. Background_Ad8814 on

      Really, just like everybody else asks these people not to pointlessly disrupt traffic and spoil visitor attractions?
      Shame. Maybe an important lesson in cause and effect is needed

    27. TheWorstRowan on

      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.

    28. Mail-Malone on

      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.

    29. Jizzmeista on

      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.

    30. KaiserDamz on

      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.

    31. _tchom on

      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

    32. mrkinkybilly on

      Sorry, you should have thought about that before being extremely stupid and breaking the law. They knew what they were doing

    33. missingpieces82 on

      Innocent until proven guilty… oh… what’s that you say, there’s a video of you doing it?

    34. TheCalebGuy on

      Maybe try not defacing a historical site? Probably would have to worry about what your court date is.

    35. gibberishnope on

      It’s unlikely to be some poor kid from an estate going to Oxford. ( Feel free to look at the statistics. )
      If you fuck around with your future this is what happens ,It’s called consequences . I doubt the’ll suffer much ,maybe a fine and probation . Any other student from a non oxbridge college would just get screwed over

    38. feetpolice911 on

      These just stop oil protesters don’t consider anyone else trying to get places when they’re blocking the roads so why should considerations be mate for her?

    39. Cersei-Lannisterr on

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

    40. znidz on

      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.