A disproportionate, political “deterrent sentence”
Edward Woollard is a stupid, irreponsible idiot. Or at least, he behaved like one on the 10th November student demo when he threw a fire extinguisher from the roof of the Tories’ Millbank HQ, endangering the safety and even (possibly) the lives of those below, including other demonstrators.
Earlier this week he was sentenced to 32 months in jail – a punishment that the judge, Geoffrey Rivlin QC described as a “deterrent sentence.” Rivlin might as well have said, “pour encourager les autres.” While this blatantly political sentence may succeed in its objective of discouraging some people from attending demos in future, Deborah Orr argues (entirely convincingly, I think) in todays Graun, “It will inspire some less cautious souls to be a lot more careful about hiding their identity when they attend protests. It will make protest more militant and less broadly representative…”
It is also worth remembering that for all his reckless stupidity, all the evidence is that Woollard acted without pre-planning (he wore no mask) in one of those proverbial moments of madness. And, in the event, no-one was hurt.
Contrast that with the actions of the police on another student demo a month later, who bludgeoned Alfie Meadows so severerly that he had to have emergency surgery to save his life. And, of course, no-one has been charged over that incident.
I fear that poor, foolish Edward Woollard is going to be spending at the very least the next 16 months of his life behind bars. I just hope it doesn’t do him any lasting damage. If there is any kind of campaign in his support I’ll be sure to let you know. In the meanwhile, we all need to defend the democratic right to protest.
Invictus_88 said,
January 13, 2011 at 9:44 pm
i really don’t see why it would discourage anyone from attending demos.
It will simply discourage people from life-threatening acts of violence or stupidity, and – consequently – may even encourage a more representative sample of people to attend.
The Judge said,
January 13, 2011 at 11:11 pm
For once, Jim, we have what I believe is known as a “shared perspective”:
http://www.thejudge.me.uk/Rants/Rants.htm#12_01_11
maxdunbar said,
January 14, 2011 at 6:39 am
This guy could have killed someone. The sentence is justified.
That said, of course there’s a political motive here. When I used to go on demos police used to truncheon the legs of middle class girls, in an attempt to discourage respectable people from going on them, and make it a ruck between cops and hardcore protestors.
baldric said,
January 15, 2011 at 1:45 am
Moment of madness,who said, that it only took the actions of one to turn a crowd into a mob,Fucking anarchists.Like to see how they treat Dave Gilmour!s son,who was baiting the police, caught on video.