“Your harm is at category 1, which means extreme harm to society … The action you took was … criminally idiotic given the risks involved…”
– Judge Christopher Hehir, Southwark Crown Court, while sentencing the heads of Shell and ExxonMobil to 2 years in prison on Friday for their role in exacerbating the climate crisis.
Oh, I’m sorry, I meant while sentencing two climate activists for throwing soup on a painting to draw attention to the climate crisis.
juststopoil.org/2024/09/27/sen…
Sent down for throwing soup? Judge Hehir turns state repression into an art form – Just Stop Oil
Two Just Stop Oil supporters who threw tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 2 years by Judge Christopher Hehir at Southwark Crown Court today.Bertie (Just Stop Oil)
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Aral Balkan
Unknown parent • • •Sara Joy
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •seeing as it immediately got souped again as they were sentenced, I hope it continues. They sentence the newest soupslinger, and then another one does it. Then another.
Sentencing soupslingers will keep damaging artworks. Every time they prosecute, a new soupy-shoot.
In time it becomes clear that to keep the artworks soup free, you have to stop funding oil.
I get that it upsets people, but better a soupy still life of flowers than no real life flowers at all.
Jennifer Moore 😷
in reply to Sara Joy • • •I'm not sure they even _did_ damage the artwork. I could be wrong!
As far as I know, the claim of damage referred to either the antique frame or the clean-up in general, while the painting remained unharmed. Same with Stonehenge: the way I heard it, their orange colouring was designed to wash off in the next rain.
(They have done more drastic bits of orange painting as well - on windows & walls of buildings.)
@aral
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jennifer Moore 😷 • • •jonpaul
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to jonpaul • • •@jonpaul Be that as it may, @Aral Balkan's point stands.
The oil industry execs deserve it much more. The harm these protestors could have done was a joke in comparison.
silverwizard
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • •econads
Unknown parent • • •I would suggest that protest is first and foremost about getting publicity and into the news and then conveying a clear message. There is no way you can protest effectively without inconveniencing someone, and I've a feeling "look at these wasters protesting wrongly" has been used to shut down discussion since the first person stood on a street corner and shouted. Oil companies also have much bigger PR machines.
Just to be clear, I'm not calling you a shill or anything
econads
Unknown parent • • •@rogue_corq
Well if you check, they are actually doing those kind of things too, but somehow that never makes the news. So what are you going to do?
I think that might be an exaggeration, activists in the past have done worse (I think I read about a suffragette actually slashing an oil painting) and yet we still have art galleries.