'The peaceful protest was aimed at challenging the financial district to take responsibility for its role in the climate emergency.' Photo: courtesy Christian Climate Action
Quaker found ‘not guilty’ for DLR action
Extinction Rebellion (XR) co-founder Ian Bray from Huddersfield Meeting said ‘I am trying to do what love requires of me.’
A Quaker was among five people on trial this month for action on the DLR railway in April 2019.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) co-founder Ian Bray from Huddersfield Meeting (pictured) was found not guilty along with Ruth Jarman, an Anglican; Phil Kingston, a Catholic; Nick Cooper, another Christian; and Richard Barnard. The five were joined by a sixth defendant, Diana Warner, at Inner Court in London where they faced charges of obstructing trains or carriages on the railway by an unlawful act.
Ian Bray told the Friend that the jury took less than an hour to reach a unanimous decision. ‘They had to decide whether our action was proportional or not. It was in the agreed facts of the case that millions will be displaced [because of climate breakdown]. Is it proportional to block a train for two hours? That was the proposal in front of the jury.’
The five stood on the roof of a DLR train in 2019 while Diana glued herself to the side of the train. The peaceful protest was aimed at challenging the financial district to take responsibility for its role in the climate emergency. After two hours they voluntarily got down from the roof and were arrested.
Ian Bray said before the trial, which started on 6 December: ‘I am trying to do what love requires of me.’
Huddersfield Friends tweeted that they were holding them all in the Light as the trial began.
Comments
Howard Zinn On Civil Disobedience:
https://www.howardzinn.org/state-of-nature-zinn-civil-disobedience/
HZ: People submit to injustice for two reasons: one is that they do not recognize it as injustice. A young person submits to the exhortation to join the military without recognizing that he or she may go to a war which cannot be morally justified. The media and the educational system may not educate them about historical examples of resistance to injustice. Or people will submit to an injustice because they feel they have no alternative, that if they refuse they will be punished, perhaps by loss of a job, perhaps by being sent to prison. They may submit because people they have been taught to respect and trust – the President, their minister, even their family – may tell them they must submit to injustice because they owe something to their government, or their church or their family (as Plato had Socrates saying in The Crito, he couldn’t escape from his death sentence because he owed something to his government).
By Rajan on 23rd December 2021 - 11:35
Please login to add a comment
