The Evening Standard are hardly known for their love of progressive politics and anti-government demonstrators. Nevertheless, their columnist Richard Godwin recently wrote a sympathetic piece regarding recent protester sentencing and in defense of protesting:
‘Those with legitimate complaints about tax avoidance and the assault on universities are now written off as a band of extremist agitators. The Daily Express chose to frame this admission of police deception and wastefulness as “Toff yobs walk free over £5m Fortnum & Mason riot”.
It contributes to a wider picture of a justice system with skewed priorities. A 20-year-old student, Francis Fernie, has been jailed for a year for throwing sticks at the same protest. The judge told him: “Not only must I take into account your actions but the general day” - in other words, I am making you a scapegoat, young man.
Last week, Charlie Gilmour got 16 months: kind of a disproportionate sentence for being an over-privileged nincompoop.
It is hard to see this as justice. In fact, it looks suspiciously like political policing, designed to make examples of an already disenfranchised youth and quash future protests.
Far from being buried, this spectre may rise up, zombie-like, to haunt our beleaguered Establishment.’
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