If They Lose, Can We Double It?

Sixteen environmental activists jailed in the past year will appear at the high court on Wednesday to ask England’s most senior judge to quash their “unduly harsh” sentences.

The verdict is expected Thursday, so I'm scheduling this for Friday, when I hope the Court of Appeal has told them where to go.... 

A host of celebrities are expected to join hundreds of protesters outside, while Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are lending their legal expertise in court to support what they describe as a “crucial legal test over the right to protest”.

No-one's taking away 'the right to protest' by charging these morons, just ensuring that the public's right to go about their lawful business is protected. 

Supporters say the appellants’ sentences, ranging from 20 months to five years for a range of nonviolent civil disobedience protests, are excessive and disproportionate, and the result of a politicised crackdown that is stifling to democratic rights.

Supporters have nicknamed the group the “Lord Walney 16”, pointing out that their long sentences all came after the crossbench peer Lord Walney, who was appointed the previous government’s adviser on political violence, published a report calling for groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion to be relabelled “extreme protest groups” and subjected to stringent restrictions like those applied to terrorist organisations.

Which the idiot we have as a Home Sec promptly ignored.  

As well as arguing that the sentences are excessive, the groups say they breach human rights legislation, which requires that sentencing must be proportionate where fundamental rights, such as the right to protest, are involved. “Locking up peaceful protesters has no place in a tolerant society,” said Katie de Kauwe, a senior lawyer at Friends of the Earth.

They weren't 'peaceful' though. They were affecting people's ability to travel, visit museums, take their children to school, and go about their lives without hinderance. Isn't that also a human right? 

The Dark Side Of ‘Freedom Of The Land’ Types

Members of a “cult” who believed they could overrule the judicial system have been jailed after storming a court armed with a pair of handcuffs in a failed attempt to kidnap and falsely imprison a senior coroner.

What a bunch of nutters! How could they possibly do more damage to our legal system than the activist judges and incompetent CPS are already doing? 

Lincoln Brookes, the senior coroner for Essex and target of the four-strong group’s botched kidnap attempt, told Chelmsford crown court that he regularly had nightmares about the incident.

Why? Their actions were comically ineffective and doomed to fail... 

The judge Justice Goss said all four were members of a group called the Federal Postal Court, or the Court for the People, which had “self-conferred” powers. In July, the prosecutor Allister Walker had called the group an “anti-establishment protest, cult or conspiracy theory”.

Well, given how often conspiracy theorists are proved absolutely correct these day, maybe they were a genuine threat after all. 

Mark Christopher, 59, was described as the “self-appointed leader” who went by the title of Chief Judge of England and All Dominions. Matthew Martin, 47, was a sheriff and coroner, Sean Harper, 38, was a sheriff, and his wife, Shiza Harper, 45, was a postal inspector for the group, the judge said, with all three “qualified by” Christopher. The judge said Christopher “lay at the very heart of these offences” as he jailed him for seven years. He said Martin and the Harpers “were prepared to commit offences while doing his bidding” and jailed them for 30 months each.

Any more indications they were all bonkers? Glad you asked, Reader: 

Martin, who represented himself, said he was “here to save younglings” and that “we find younglings tied up in places like underneath Asda supermarkets”.

Nah, mate, got to check the Jedi Temples for those. 

Just Obey The Rules Like Everyone Else Has To!

A barrister, who asked not to be named, told The Mail on Sunday that security guards at the court behave like 'night club bouncers'. Another barrister added: 'Some are thinking of a boycott here.'

Like you'd ever pass up money. Just bloody do as you're told, you're not special.  

Defence solicitor Dele Johnson said guards wrestled him to the ground after he refused to take off his shoes in a security search. Mr Johnson, 37, said it was like the ordeal of George Floyd, whose murder by Minneapolis police, as he protested 'I can't breathe', sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

'I never thought I'd also be saying 'I can't breathe',' said Mr Johnson. 'I was just trying to do my job.'

What do you think the security guards were trying to do then? When someone tries to circumvent security?  

Mr Johnson's identification card was checked when he arrived as a duty youth court solicitor last Wednesday. After leaving the building to have a cigarette, he agreed to a pat-down search when he returned but refused to take off his shoes, which he said resulted in four guards forcibly removing him.

With a defendant waiting for him, he re-entered the building via a side door but was blocked from entering a court and allegedly grabbed by 'four or five' guards.

'I started swinging, I felt I was fighting for my life against five men to stop them grabbing me,' he said.

You deliberately evaded security and started fighting with them when they tried to stop you. I guess standards have fallen further than anyone thought if someone like you can be a solicitor.