Naomi Leake: This Feels a Lot Like Hope

October 13, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Naomi Leake, 54, an artist who runs a nature reserve in South London, delivered this statement at her plea hearing on 4th October. This past week, she has been back on the streets helping to hold Trafalgar Square. “I hold my hands up and I plead guilty as charged but for once I don’t feel guilty. For over 40 years of my law-abiding days I was guilty of inaction in the face of ecological collapse and biodiverse suffering and death. I was guilty of feeling powerless against the powerful and greedy. I was guilty of silently giving my consent.

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Legal Briefing: Learn About Arrest

October 08, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Extinction Rebellion’s Legal Team has produced this guide to being arrested, from how to prepare for arrest to what the consequences might be if you are. As well as the handy graphic, you’ll also find links to tons of useful resources. As a mutually supporting network we are all responsible for ourselves, and while we support each other as best we can, your actions are your own. It’s important to prepare yourself for all eventualities before attending an action (it isn’t possible to predict whether you will be arrested or not). Remember, this document is an overview intended…

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Our April Arrestees in Numbers

October 05, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

For several weeks during the summer, a pair of reporters from Tortoise Media came to our regular Friday plea hearings. Last week they published their report, an in-depth look at how we’re taking out truth to the courts. As well as featuring a few of our defendants, they also produced some fascinating data visualisations that demonstrate the breadth of the movement. Reproduced with kind permission below. How many were arrested and at what cost to the Met? How old are the arrested rebels? Where are they from? What has happened to them so…

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Video: My World was Blown Apart and Brought Together at The Same Time

October 05, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Ele Waters, 46, from Liskeard Cornwall runs a natural burial site and is building her own off-grid home in a permaculture community. She is pleading not guilty after being arrested in April. “I’ve been a permaculturist now for 26 years, and we’ve planted 21,000 trees, we set up a natural burial site, we live off-grid, built our own house. Feeling really good about it. But then the IPCC report came out and I realised that what we were doing was great, but it was not enough to make the change needed in the time we have left. So I…

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Cecily Bedner: This Was An Act of Self Defence

October 05, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Cecily Bedner, 20, a film and digital arts student from Plymouth, told the court she broke the law for her sister, aged five. This is the mitigation statement she read out in court. “I’m not here to tell you that I wasn’t there or I didn’t break the law. What I will tell you is that I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t find it fun or exciting or empowering especially. And I know that my actions contributed to inconveniencing many other valid, important lives, and for that I am truly sorry. But the reason I had to be there was,…

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Janet Young: How Could I Stand By and Do Nothing

October 05, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Janet Young, a 72-year old retired social worker and grandmother from Devon read out this statement at her plea hearing in August. She was arrested on Waterloo Bridge on the first Tuesday, 16 April. “I am pleading guilty for financial and emotional reasons. I accept that I did not comply with a regulation, imposed in order to control and limit climate change action. But morally and ethically I am guilty of nothing. Having heard the scientific evidence and seen the terrible devastation already occurring in Africa and Asia and knowing that many species are already extinct, I felt there was…

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Andrew Peel: I Told the Truth and Acted As Though the Truth is Real

October 05, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Andrew Peel, 59, a delivery driver from Norwich, read out this statement at his plea hearing on Friday. His tipping point, he says, was watching the action on the London bridges in November and seeing a banner that said “For My Children”. “Following a serious health issue in 2014 in which I almost lost my life, I looked deeply into myself and asked the most important question i have ever asked…where is love?My answer was simple. I love my children, I love our earth and all her beings.I won’t go over the ground with a long statement about the sixth…

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Video: Phil Kingston, the 83-Year Old Rebel

October 04, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Yesterday, 83-year old grandfather Phil Kingston was part of the group that used a fire engine to spray fake blood over the Treasury Building. In April he was arrested for climbing on top of a Docklands Light Railway train: he’ll be on trial in Crown Court next year. This beautiful film profiles Phil from his early involvement in activism to his first arrest with Extinction Rebellion and his growing sense of urgency as time is running out, he says, for both him and the planet.

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Mark Øvland: What my Heart Was Asking of Me

October 03, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

This morning, Mark Øvland (pictured far right) was one of six activists who used a fire engine to spray fake blood over the front of the Treasury Building in London. Mark is already awaiting a Crown Court trial for an action on the Docklands Light Railway during the April Rebellion. Last week, after appearing in Magistrates Court on yet another charge, for a protest in February against International Petroleum Week, Mark wrote this post on his Facebook page. “Hello friends, I have a funny feeling this will be my last post for a while.

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Video: Ruth Jarman’s Day in Court

October 02, 2019 By Zoe Blackler

Ruth Jarman, 56, a mother of three from Hampshire who works for a small Christian charity, was found guilty last week after standing trial at Hendon Magistrates Court. She was given a 12 months conditional discharge and a total of £640 costs. Film-maker Peter Armstrong recorded this video of Ruth’s day in court. The mitigation statement she delivered before Deputy Chief Magistrate Judge Ikram is published below. You can also read Ruth’s own account of the trial here. “I am a Christian and a mother. My faith requires me to ‘serve and preserve’ the earth; it requires…

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