Friend raises climate protest concerns at probationers event
‘We are failing to protect nature and so failing to protect young people and all future generations. This is the biggest safeguarding issue ever.’
A Cornwall Quaker has prompted probation workers to consider the issue of climate protestors being imprisoned.
Deborah Mitchell, from Falmouth Meeting, presented a motion at the October AGM of NAPO, the trade union representing people working in probation and family courts. It highlighted ‘the unjust way that peaceful protestors are being treated in court, when they are acting in the public interest by attending to climate justice’. A retired NAPO member, Deborah said: ‘The motion attracted a “yes” vote of 89 per cent, creating a way forward for a continuing dialogue.’
‘Having been encouraged and upheld at Lighthouse Epilogue Meeting, I did mention historic Quakers in the text of my speech,’ she added.
Deborah also discussed ‘the injustice of discrediting and punishing peaceful protestors acting in the public interest’. Describing the climate emergency as ‘an international emergency greater than Covid’, she said, ‘We are failing to protect nature and so failing to protect young people and all future generations. This is the biggest safeguarding issue ever.’
Referencing the government’s 100 new oil and gas licences, and predictions on land loss and food instability, the Quaker also mentioned Trudi Warner, who was imprisoned for holding a notice outside the Old Bailey saying: ‘Juries have the right to give their verdict according to their conscience.’
The speech also said that ‘we are living in a culture of denial – probation staff work with denial as response to harm and wrongdoing…And this is where we are, with judges dictating that juries must not hear of protestors’ motivations… In a London Crown Court defendants expressly forbidden [to use] the specific words “climate change” and “fuel poverty”. After they have sworn to “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.’
Many have been intimidated, she went on, asking those ‘shocked’ by what they’d heard to support the motion.
Comments
Is Trudi Warner actually in prison? I thought she was waiting for a hearing. Surely she has not been remanded in custody?
It would be good if Friends could keep us updated through The Friend about imprisoned Friends, where they are and what their situation is. It is so easy to email them through emailaprisoner.com/ but we need some up-to-date context.
By Anne & Rob Wade on 7th December 2023 - 15:57
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