Britain's outrageous two-tier justice system

Why have non-violent political protesters been hammered with harsher prison sentences than the violent extreme-right rioters who have been terrorising our communities?

Last month the environmental protester Roger Hallam was jailed for five years for participating in a Zoom call in which Just Stop Oil activists planned a non-violent protest which involved climbing gantries on the M25 to stop the traffic.

Four other environmental campaigners were jailed for four years apiece for participating in this Zoom call.

The harshness of these sentences was criticised at the time, with commentators pointing out that five years is the longest ever prison term imposed on a British act of peaceful protest.

The sentences that are being handed out to participants in the violent extreme-right riots that have swept the nation in early August have really put these excessive sentences into perspective.

So far none of the violent rioters have received a sentence as long as the four years handed out to Hallam’s compatriots, let alone the five years he received.

The longest sentence so far for any of these extreme-right thugs is just three years, given to Derek Drummond for punching a police officer in the face, as well as numerous other acts of criminality during the terrifying Southport riot last week.

These extreme-right fanatics have attacked mosques; assaulted citizens, police officers, and emergency workers; burned down a Citizens Advice Bureau, a library, and numerous private businesses; set up racist road blocks; hurled rocks at NHS nurses; smashed up affordable housing; attacked and invaded private residences; caused £millions in damage to public and private property; burned cars and police vehicles; chanted racist slogans; looted shops; and attempted to burn down two hotels full of people …

And yet, we’re expected to believe that merely planning a non-violent protest to temporarily block a motorway is the bigger crime?

Apologists for the extreme-right rioters have their excuse ready prepared. The Just Stop Oil Protesters are apparently "repeat offenders" who have planned and participated in various other non-violent protest before, therefore they deserved to have the book thrown at them, despite the lack of violence in their actions.

However, there would be a major problem with this "repeat offender" narrative if any of the extreme-right rioters were habitual criminals with numerous prior convictions, wouldn’t there?

Anyhow, Derek Drummond has a whopping 14 previous convictions, including various violent offences, before he decided to go out rioting and assaulting police, and he got a lesser sentence than any of the environmental campaigners who have never been convicted of a violent crime between them.

In Britain, people who protest peacefully to highlight the ongoing destruction of the environment are now in danger of receiving significantly harsher sentences than habitual criminals who commit appalling acts of violence during racist extreme-right riots!

It’s absolutely clear that Britain now has an outrageous two-tier justice system that favours mindless extreme-right violence, and punishes considered non-violent protest more harshly.

This disparity has got to leave us asking why.

It’s as if the British establishment order are terrified of non-violent political protests because they’re afraid that they could actually be effective in disrupting capitalist profiteering, while they treat violent rioters with kid gloves because they’re actually quite relaxed about racist thugs smashing up working class communities, being nice and safe themselves, living miles away in leafy suburbia, gated communities, or countryside manors.

If anyone in the media had any courage, they’d be demanding that the Home Secretary explain why non-violent protesters are being subjected to significantly harsher punishments than violent extreme-right rioters; whether she agrees that merely planning a non-violent protest is a worse crime than literally punching a police officer in the face during an extreme-right riot; and if Labour has any plans to modify or retract the Tories’ obscene Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which results in bigger sentences for peaceful protest than acts of violent extreme-right thuggery.

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