She was sentenced, as much as I recall, for causing mild inconvenience to the masses.
Didn’t burn anything down, didn’t blow anything up, didn’t attack anyone, just conspired to obstruct traffic - and maybe actually obstructed some traffic.
That’s some great big criminal offense, IMHO. And having laws like that on book - allows any government to crack down on any demonstration planned in secret - because “look, a conspiracy to cause public nuisance”.
As much as I recall, conspiring was the big deal, and they dragged out some law intended for the mafia, which was quite ridiculous. Conspiring to do anything - even conspiring to ruin the climate for future generations by recklessly burning lots of fuel - sure seemed to be a great big criminal offense under that law, but I could be absent-minded because fuel company bosses aren’t in prison.
Side note: in China, they have a similar crime - a crime that you can stick to almost anyone, named “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. [1] In my opinion, even from a boring old statist viewpoint, having a legal system with stick-to-anyone crimes is a bad idea.
Back when it happened, I think I commented something to the tune of -> if a cunning protester had overturned a truck and trailer on the same stretch of road - strictly outside the presence of other cars - pretending to be a hapless trucker who lost control - the road would have been twice as closed, and the stealth protester would have walked home in the evening, with only high insurance bills waiting in the future.
(This is not intended as legal or tactical advise, and overturning a car without extensive practise can have permanent negative health impacts. It might be safer to stop a “damaged” tractor and pretend to be a hapless farmer whose trailer with a load of bullcrap almost broke off the vehicle, or maybe the bullcrap hatch accidentally opened and it’s on the road now. Strictly by accident.)
I think I also estimated that if someone had cut power to a big intersection’s traffic lights without saying a word, obstruction would have been just as great, but chances of getting caught really small. (This is not intended as advise either.)
She was sentenced, as much as I recall, for causing mild inconvenience to the masses.
Didn’t burn anything down, didn’t blow anything up, didn’t attack anyone, just conspired to obstruct traffic - and maybe actually obstructed some traffic.
That’s some great big criminal offense, IMHO. And having laws like that on book - allows any government to crack down on any demonstration planned in secret - because “look, a conspiracy to cause public nuisance”.
As much as I recall, conspiring was the big deal, and they dragged out some law intended for the mafia, which was quite ridiculous. Conspiring to do anything - even conspiring to ruin the climate for future generations by recklessly burning lots of fuel - sure seemed to be a great big criminal offense under that law, but I could be absent-minded because fuel company bosses aren’t in prison.
Side note: in China, they have a similar crime - a crime that you can stick to almost anyone, named “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. [1] In my opinion, even from a boring old statist viewpoint, having a legal system with stick-to-anyone crimes is a bad idea.
Back when it happened, I think I commented something to the tune of -> if a cunning protester had overturned a truck and trailer on the same stretch of road - strictly outside the presence of other cars - pretending to be a hapless trucker who lost control - the road would have been twice as closed, and the stealth protester would have walked home in the evening, with only high insurance bills waiting in the future.
(This is not intended as legal or tactical advise, and overturning a car without extensive practise can have permanent negative health impacts. It might be safer to stop a “damaged” tractor and pretend to be a hapless farmer whose trailer with a load of bullcrap almost broke off the vehicle, or maybe the bullcrap hatch accidentally opened and it’s on the road now. Strictly by accident.)
I think I also estimated that if someone had cut power to a big intersection’s traffic lights without saying a word, obstruction would have been just as great, but chances of getting caught really small. (This is not intended as advise either.)