It’s my hope that George Monbiot’s piece (Today’s climate activist ‘criminals’ are tomorrow’s heroes: silencing them in court is immoral, 22 February) will fuel deeper interrogation of the criminal justice system and who or what it serves to protect in its treatment of protesters. I was part of a group of scientists prosecuted for a protest action last year; our days in court, coupled with what we have learned about the experiences of many others, have left me with uncomfortable questions.
Many people who have seen the inside of a court building will testify to the inefficiencies and inequalities that play out there. So when courts are as stretched as they seem to be, with a backlog of hundreds of thousands of trials, is it really in the public interest to prosecute peaceful protesters at all? Is it ever justifiable for non-violent defendants to be held in prison – some for many months – before their cases even make it to court? What is the cost of all of this, from the public money being spent on trials and imprisonment to the huge toll that incarceration and prosecution take on alleged criminals?
Can we imagine an alternative where the resources being used to suppress protest movements were instead leveraged against a very different brand of offender: those in a powerful minority who exploit and deceive to profit from exacerbating the very crises that activists are being restricted from even mentioning in their defence?
Dr Abi Perrin
York
• Six weeks ago, aged 59, I became a convicted criminal. My crime? I helped blockade a printing plant to stop the nation’s billionaire-owned newspapers reaching the shops, to protest against their 30-year campaign of disinformation to delay action on the accelerating climate crisis.
It was an action I never wanted to take. At 10, I published a weekly newspaper from my garden shed and dreamed of writing for the real thing. As an adult, I spent 20 years writing for the very newspapers I was protesting against. But like every other climate activist who finds themselves in front of this country’s courts, I was listening to my conscience and acting on it.
As George Monbiot pointed out, the worst nightmares of the powerful are coming true: judges and juries are accepting that people like me don’t damage property or block roads in some kind of anarchist frenzy. We do it in love and desperation as the only effective avenue left to demand government acts to save billions of lives.
The government’s response so far – supported by Keir Starmer’s Labour – is to grant itself terrifying new powers to shoot the messengers. But politicians are like the little boy with his finger in the crumbling dyke – because the message is cutting through. Thousands more are joining movements like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion every week.
I wonder how many people are staring at supermarket shelves empty of fruit and vegetables due to “adverse weather conditions” this week, joining the dots and resolving to do something about it?
It’s time for politicians and the media to ask themselves whether they want to ride the wave of fear and anger that’s coming – or be broken by it.
Steve Tooze
London
• We hosted one of these “criminals”, who stayed with us for one week in early February during her trial alongside David Nixon, whose case was discussed by George Monbiot. They were all told quite clearly by the judge that they could offer no defence or they would be held in contempt of court – which, of course, David was when he could no longer tolerate the gagging rule.
What kind of a court is this where the defendants cannot state the motives for their actions? Their defence would have involved language about beliefs and climate that were all forbidden. So why waste so much time, resources and energy on these trials involving a new jury week after week if they are all to be found guilty – as this is the inevitable outcome?
How many months will they go on in this farcical way, prosecuting committed climate activists who will not be swayed from their dedication to exposing our climate emergency? Surely the matter could be dealt with more efficiently in a magistrates court instead of this total waste of people’s time and taxpayers’ money. The emergency is really what matters, not trying to silence protest in show trials. Our government needs to address this matter with the kind of dedication these activists show.
Sue Davies
London
