Climate Activists Arrested After Disturbing Behaviors

A demonstrator from Just Stop Oil sprays orange paint on the Jack Barclay Bentley store in Berkeley Square, in London, on Oct. 26, 2022. The protest group has organized a wave of similar actions across London in recent weeks. Photo by Isabel Infantes/Getty Images

Just Stop Oil climate activists recently sprayed paint across windows of luxury car showrooms in Berkeley Square, London, before police arrested them.

“Protestors have sprayed paint at the Ferrari and Bentley garages in Berkley Square at 08:39hrs,” stated the Metropolitan Police. “Met officers were rapidly on scene, and at 08:46hrs, arrested two people for criminal damage. They have been taken into custody to a central London police station.”

The two climate activists began spraying paint from a fire extinguisher over Ferrari and Bentley dealership premises around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, as month-long protests in different parts of the region have caused disruptions in everyday lives of people. The activists are demanding that the British government end all new fossil fuel licenses.

Since the beginning of the month, authorities have arrested more than 585 individuals in connection with disruptions, said the group.

“In what world is it ok to buy and sell luxury cars when people can’t afford to eat or heat their homes, or when people all over the world are suffering and dying from the climate crisis ... Inequality is what’s driving the climate crisis,” claimed the group in a Twitter thread.

“Why are millions of children in poverty in this country while people are buying SUVs from @BentleyMotors ... It’s obscene. I’m surprised this stuff isn’t happening more. There is a reason we are so poor, and it’s because there are more and more rich people getting richer.”

Blocking Roads

Hours later, Just Stop Oil activists were involved in blocking roads in the busy London junction of Piccadilly Circus. Three protesters even glued themselves to the ground.

The ensuing lunchtime chaos resulted in expletive-ridden clashes with drivers who had to drag the protestors off the roadway to resume traffic.

“I’ve got to feed my family, I ain’t got time for this,” said one of the motorists.

“At 12:55, Met police arrested and removed 11 protesters obstructing the junction at Piccadilly/ Dover Street,” said the Met Police. The activists were arrested for “willful obstruction of the highway,” and the road was opened around 1 p.m.

The Piccadilly incident happened just days after Just Stop Oil protesters threw a chocolate cake on a King Charles waxwork in Madame Tussauds, and splashed tomato soup over Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting at the National Gallery (the painting was, fortunately, protected by glass).

“This is an act of resistance against a criminal government and their genocidal death project. Our supporters will be returning—today, tomorrow, and the next day—and the next day after that—and every day until our demand is met: no new oil and gas in the UK,” said a spokesman for Just Stop Oil, according to The Mirror.

Extremism in Climate Activism

Many organizations supporting the climate change agenda are resorting to extreme methods to get their points across. According to analysts, the environmental narrative has evolved into a political movement.

In an email obtained by The Epoch Times, Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, said: “Greenpeace was ‘hijacked’ by the political left when they realized there was money and power in the environmental movement. Political activists in North America and Europe changed Greenpeace from a science-based organization to a political fundraising organization.”

Moore left Greenpeace in 1986, 15 years after he co-founded the organization.

“The ‘environmental’ movement has become more of a political movement than an environmental movement,” he said. “They are primarily focused on creating narratives, stories, that are designed to instill fear and guilt into the public so the public will send them money.”

He said they mainly operate behind closed doors with other political operatives at the United Nations, World Economic Forum, and so on, all of which are primarily political in nature.

Lee Yun-Jeong contributed to the report.