Dutch Judge Gives Light Sentence To Eco Painting Vandals
Two Belgian climate change activists who last week targeted the famous Johannes Vermeer painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” have been sentenced to two months in prison by the Dutch court, of which one month was suspended.
To highlight how seeing artwork destroyed evokes a similar feeling to seeing the planet destroyed, one activist glued his head to glass covering the world-famous painting at a museum in The Hague, though the artwork was not damaged, gallery staff said.
“An artwork hanging there for all, for all of us, to enjoy, has been smeared by defendants who felt their message took precedence over everything else,” the prosecutor said
The public prosecutor had asked for four months of which two were suspended, but the judge said she did not want her sentence to discourage other people to demonstrate.
The two men went to trial through a fast-track judgment on charges of destruction and open violence against the painting.
A third activist, who did not agree with the trial being fast-tracked, will appear in court on Friday.
All three are part of the climate group Just Stop Oil Belgium, which is not affiliated with Just Stop Oil in Britain. Just Stop Oil Belgium said the verdict was “ironic”.
“Isn’t it ironic that climate activists who nonviolently oppose the mass slaughter of life on Earth are being condemned?” the group said in an email.
See more here climatechangedispatch
Editor’s note: There is indeed a mass slaughter taking place, but it has nothing to do with the weather. As for the judge’s disgraceful comment about not wanting to discourage protest, she is effectively endorsing further acts of vandalism.
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Greg Alberta
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These clowns should be “enticed” into revealing who is paying them. I don’t for a second believe that all of a sudden there are scores of eco-terrorists gluing themselves to priceless art, critical infrastructure and well used thoroughfares on their own time and their own dime.
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Andy Rowlands
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Many of them are I believe, being funded by the Climate Emergency Fund, which just had a massive donation from Alison Getty.
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Tom O
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I agree with the editor’s note. This is not “peaceful protest” when you attempt to disrupt other peoples lives. It isn’t any different then holding them hostage at gunpoint. The concept of “demonstration against authority or whatever,” like every other value in our society, is being destroyed for the benefit of “those that would rule the world.” The more they can turn us against each other, the happier they are, and people like these “useful idiots” need to pay a significant price for bastardizing protest. We need to get back to sane grounds. We are sinking in a sea of arrogance and ignorance.
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Andy Rowlands
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Well said, and thanks Tom 🙂
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John Thomas Bakkila
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Who judges the judges?
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