Parking a truck on Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge, unfurling banners, allegedly setting off flares, and causing extensive gridlock across most of the city has led to a 21-day jail sentence for two Extinction Rebellion protesters.
Deanna “Violet” Coco, 33, from New South Wales (NSW), and Bradley Homewood, 51, from Melbourne, pleaded guilty to two counts of public nuisance by obstructing motorists and obstructing police and emergency service workers on March 5.
Both were sentenced to 21 days imprisonment.
Joseph Zammit, 68, from Melbourne, also pled guilty to the same charges.
Banners and Flares Used
The three environmental protesters from Extinction Rebellion parked a truck on the at about 7.45 a.m. on March 5 and then climbed on it, unfurling banners which read “declare a climate emergency” and “climate breakdown has begun.”Police alleged they also set off flares while on top of the truck.
The protest blocked three lanes of the bridge, causing traffic gridlock and delays stretching about 30 kilometres (18.64 miles).
Police used a cherry picker to arrest and lower the trio safely at 9.45 a.m. after they refused to get down. Significant traffic delays persisted after the lanes were reopened.
A police prosecutor told the court: “The ramifications of their actions caused massive catastrophic inconvenience and delay to thousands of members of the public,” but Mr. Zammit defended the trio’s actions, calling it a “service to the community.”
State of Despair
Mr. Homewood said he felt forced to act after being driven to a state of despair over the existential crisis faced in a climate breakdown.“I feel like I have no choice left,” he said. “I’ve tried all the conventional methods of campaigning and nothing has worked. We view what we do as a proportional response to the inaction from governments of the world.”
He claimed non-violent protests were vilified at the time, but activists ended up vindicated in the future.
However, Magistrate Andrew McKenna disagreed, saying the actions are hard to justify.
“It’s not about anarchy. It’s about an ordered society—the proper democratic way,” he said. “Whether someone has a worthy cause or not, you’ve got to work within the law to promote it and if you don’t, you’re liable to be punished.”
He pointed out that the protesters would have produced the opposite reaction they desired among most of the community.
Ms. Coco has had previous encounters with police in Victoria, NSW, and Western Australia for her activism. She was jailed for 13 days after blocking a lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during morning peak hour in 2022.
As he jailed her, Magistrate McKenna said she was completely uncaring about the victims of her actions.
“She basically put her own interests and her own cause ahead of the interests of others in the community—many more people than just she and two others,” he said.
