The environmental pressure group, Extinction Rebellion, imitated the Hong Kong protests this week and attempted to shutdown London City Airport.
This protest action included one activist being filmed disrupting the departure of on an Aer Lingus (Ireland’s flag carrier) flight, requiring security to come on board and arrest him.
Just about to take from London city airport. Our flight was infiltrated by a climate change protestor. #londoncityairport #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/eWBeeUiGHM
— Warren Swalbe (@wazzas) October 10, 2019
According to The Guardian, about 1,100 activists have been arrested in London this week. 50 of these were arrested at London City Airport.
In addition to the man who was taken off the flight, partially-sighted Paralympian James Brown, climbed on top of a British Airways plane as part of this group’s protest action.
An Extinction Rebellion activist has climbed on top of a British Airways plane at London City Airport.
The climate change group say he is James Brown – a former Paralympic who won bronze at the London 2012 games. pic.twitter.com/ArU1Wx5Lk1
— Gareth Davies (@GD10) October 10, 2019
Extinction Rebellion explain that that they are ‘an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse.’ They explain that these kind of big public stunts are at the core of their protest strategy
‘We are promoting mass “above the ground” civil disobedience – in full public view. This means economic disruption to shake the current political system and civil disruption to raise awareness. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience that this causes,’ the group’s website said.
