Edward Woollard gets 32 months in Prison

What he did was totally out of line; it could've injured fellow protestors never mind the police. Even then, I still can't believe they've given such a long sentence.

I'm sure the right-wing media will crowing over this and will use it as another opportunity to tar all protestors with the same brush.

It's long for a more normal situation like I dunno, a drunken night out or something, but not if you're making an example of "violent radicals."

The question of whether 2 years is excessive in some absolute sense, is normative. But relatively, it's not out of keeping with other sentencing. For the Poll Tax the average for Section 2 POA (violent disorder) was 2 years and Section 1 (riot) was 3 years (unless you were black, in which case you got 4 - I kid you not, without exception). Sentences for Bradford 2001 riot averaged more like 7 years for all charges, which was a major step up from the Poll Tax tariffs, but there has been a generalised tariff escalation over the last 20 years. Also virtually all the Bradford defendants were young working class Asian men.

For a violent disorder charge (that could have easily been bumped up to something equivalent to reckless endangerment - my UK law's a little rusty) in a serious Public Order event, 2 years in this day and age is on the lower end of what you might expect. Good thing yer lad's not an unemployed muslim youth from Bradford or he'd be looking at much more.

32 months that a long time. In Nova Scotia, some just received 4 months for cross burning, a much more socially destructive act in my opinion. The world is fuckered.

We need to keep supporting him by sending letters etc. His really stupid act was going to a lawyer when his mugshot appeared in the press as they are 'duty bound' to tell to hand yourself in. Never go to a lawyer before being arrested unless they are a mate.

From the pov of a seasoned activist who knows a thing or two about this sort of thing, yes, but it's pretty understandable from his perspective (whereas the business with the fire extinguisher was extremely retarded by any standards, though I guess it's easy to do stupid shit in the heat of the moment).

Well to be fair his mum was urging him to hand himself in after she saw his face on the news . Frankly a desk would have been better as it wouldn't have missed any. Still I guess it would have killed 'public support' too.

I can't help but feel sorry for the guy, it was a stupid thing to do but I think he just got swept away with the moment - it was probably his first riot and he had just stormed the enemy base.

No absolutely. The combined effects of adrenaline and the hyperstimulating immediacy of the experience of collective overturning of the controlling order that you experience in successful (in our terms) public order events, is very intoxicating, especially if it's your first time, and that intoxication can have disinhibitory effects on judgement etc.

This is yet again another strong argument for the use of affinity groups and the buddy system, not simply for your own safety and increased offensive capability, but also to keep a more sober assessment of the tactical situation at the front of your minds through peer checking.

Having said that, it's not as if the movement does not do a fair amount to promote team play in tactical situations, but it's always the moments of expansion of struggles that bring new people into the situations who don't know any of this, and they tend disproportionately to be the ones that get nicked for daft stuff.

But yeah, people should definitely write to him as he's going to be feeling pretty alone right now and needs some validation.

How/where can we write to him?

The tricky bit is getting his prison number and finding out which nick he's in. Brighton ABC might be able to help.

never do what your mum tells you to do

Article I read said he told his mum and she made him confess. Fucking Idiot.
Just needed to get rid of that stupid haircut and keep his mouth shut. None of the pictures I've seen from the roof were clear enough to identify him, they might have had others from lower down, but I doubt it.

I don't think he's a "fucking idiot" Jef and, after a moment of stupidity when he got carried away, did what he and his family thought best. My sympathies to them.

Jon Snow on Channel 4 news last night characterised it as "a loaded fire-extinguisher"!

Sentencing him, the judge said words to the effect that violence would not be tolerated on protests. But it's a pound to a pinch of shit that we won't be seeing any trials anytime soon - or indeed any charges - of the police goons with their licence to inflict injury.

US law is much harsher than UK law in this kind of situation. People are routinely charged with 'assault with a deadly weapon' for throwing anything from cell phones to drinking glasses at someone you had an argument with.

Such as this case where a guy threw a mug at another patron after calling him a queer (which turned it into a Hate Crime enhancement along with Aw/DW)

Here's a forum thread about unusual 'assault with a deadly weapon' cases

Includes: pumpkin, inhaler, snake, etc.

2 years is a long stretch, but not compared to similar riot/protest cases as noted above. This was probably the most sober way of dealing with him- not to turn him into a martyr by handing out a really harsh sentence, but not letting him off with a slap on the wrist.

I was referring to his mother. Still, turning yourself in is at least as stupid as chucking an extinguisher.l