Very good summation.
I joined his supporters outside the court on Thursday. Couldn’t make it Friday.
The judge’s words were pretty heavy, I think they could hand down 2-3 years. They don’t mean him to come out alive/with any capacity.
I grew up in the UK. It sickens me. What is insulting is this facade of “protecting victims and maintaining the integrity of trials” by making the trials secret. I’m unaware of any other western nation that does this.
The subjective speech laws that are subjectively applied to those the State doesn’t want to hear from is NOT justice. How on earth do you split hairs to determine whom is guilty of “aggressively filming”? ...whatever the hell that means. Who do they think they’re convincing? It’s so transparently absurd.
I have a cousin that is a police officer in the UK. I asked about some of the speech laws, pointing out that they’re draconian. His response was that “nobody really does jail time for breaking them”. Ah, I see, they’re there to mainly intimidate people to shut up if the police come knocking, got it. That he didn’t seem to understand this was the intent was a bit shocking. It all violates the heart of what ‘free speech’ is all about.
The only question left, has ANYONE, EVER, been imprisoned before like this for these actions? Even if you can, by the letter of the (pathetically written) law, show that something was violated, can anyone honestly look at the video of that day in Leeds and argue that it warrants jail time? The names were already public, so how egregious can it really be to ask one of them about their verdict (not on court premises)? That’s insane.
Thanks for being able to have ‘boots on the ground’ - I tried to align a business trip with one of his MEP rallies, but didn’t work out. Something has to give though...this can’t continue - it’s tyranny.