On the 27th of September, Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were jailed for two years and twenty months respectively after throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in October 2022.
The moment went viral online and sparked outrage, both in relation to the risk posed to the priceless artwork and its significance for freedom of expression.
At the sentencing, Judge Hehir stated that the activists’ “offending is so serious that only custodial sentences are appropriate,” and the “foreseeable harm” of the action was “incalculable”. Whilst Plummer and Holland’s actions endangered a culturally significant piece of art and caused £10,000 in damages, this sentencing perhaps represents a greater threat to freedom of expression.
Plummer addressed the judge saying that “non-violent civil resistance is the best, if not the only, tool that people have…to bring about…change.” As such, if this “tool” is too heavily regulated we are at risk of losing the voice of the people altogether.
However, hours after Plummer and Holland’s sentencing, fellow Just Stop Oil protesters again threw soup at Van Gogh paintings, this time in dispute of the ruling. This begs the question of whether persecuting activists for non-violent demonstrations leads to greater social divisions.
Tim Daw
On July 18th, five Just Stop Oil protestors were handed between four and five years for their involvement in the blocking of the M25 in November 2022, causing an estimated fifty thousand cumulative hours of vehicle delays. A similar story is the two protestors (Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland) belonging to the same organisation, who were recently sentenced in September to two years and twenty months, respectively, for the infamous dousing of van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ painting in 2022.
To clarify, the painting wasn’t damaged, as a protective glass screen resided on top to prevent the priceless work of art from being ruined. These sentences are unprecedented, with the previously mentioned five years (received by the co-founder of Just Stop Oil) being the longest sentence given for a non-violent peaceful protest in modern British history.
The Public Order Act, introduced in 2023, is responsible for these new, harsher verdicts for protestors, especially those that target key national infrastructure. Critics, including a body of independent UN human rights experts known as the Special Rapporteur, have criticised these new measures arguing that the disproportionate punishments given sets a dangerous precedent for peaceful assembly.
These sentences contrast wildly with the racially motivated riots that started in Stockport on the 30th of July. For example, Thomas Rogers, who was convicted of hurling a vacuum cleaner through someone’s front room window and threatening a police officer, proclaiming he hoped their “children get raped” was sentenced to just 26 months. Another example, Cole Stewart who was arrested for chucking rocks at police officers was sentenced to 18 months. The list goes on.
To be frank, the fact that these two groups of protestors haven’t received equitable judicial treatment is disgusting. For one, the motivations of Just Stop Oil are by and large altruistic in intention, despite how distasteful you may perceive their means of conveying that message. Their core desire is to instigate a social and governmental revaluation of the climate crisis, to enact change to curtail this ever growing existential threat.
This is in direct contrast to the Stockport rioters, who co-opted the tragic murder of hapless young children in order to justify their vilification and harassment of immigrant communities. Their means of articulating their point is also pertinent to the imbalance. Violence in our society is a completely unacceptable means of communicating your discontent, no matter how strongly you feel.
I cannot understand in any respect how the criminalisation of peaceful protests, a core foundation of a free, democratic society is beneficial to our nation in any respect. The fact that violent, bigoted riots are being judicially equated to invasive, yet peaceful protests is perplexing to say the least and I believe a significant infringement of our civil liberties.