Greta Thunberg Arrested in London
Polarizing climate activist Greta Thunberg was detained by police officers during a protest outside of an oil and gas conference in London on Tuesday.
According to Reuters, this latest incident caps off a whirlwind year for Thunberg, as she’s been detained by police at events in Norway, Sweden, Germany and, now, England.
The latest incident stems from the standard sort of stunt one has come to expect from Time magazine’s 2019 “Person of the Year” in 2023.
Complaining outside the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel in Mayfair — where the Energy Intelligence Forum was hosting a conference for various industry leaders — Thunberg spoke about what she often does: climate change and humanity’s purported responsibility to fixing it.
🚨 Greta Thunberg has been speaking at a Fossil Free London press conference by Hyde Park
She says “The elites have no intention of transition. We have to take direct action. We have to reclaim the power and that is what we are doing today. We have to kick oily money out”@LBC pic.twitter.com/0dxgWTH3dz
— Henry Riley (@HenryRiley1) October 17, 2023
“It is not a coincidence that we are speeding in the wrong direction,” she said. “The people in power are knowingly leading us to the end of the precipice.”
The 20-year-old Swede then accused those “people in power” of “squeezing out profits from a dying planet.”
“The elite of the oil and money conference, they have no intention of transition,” she said. “Their plan is to continue this destructive search of profits.”
“We cannot let this continue,” Thunberg declared.
Ironically, that appears to be the same sentiment shared by local law enforcement, which soon showed up to move the protest away to a less-crowded area.
Metropolitan Police mentioned the incident in a post on the X social media platform, saying 20 people had been arrested.
Statement following further arrests made at a protest outside a hotel in Park Lane today. pic.twitter.com/PucxUpFVXR
— Metropolitan Police Events (@MetPoliceEvents) October 17, 2023
It’s not clear whether Thunberg was one of those 20 people, but video quickly surfaced of the young protester being detained in the back of a police vehicle — smiles and all.
🇬🇧#BREAKING: Greta Thunberg
has just been arrested protesting in London#ClimateAction #ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/tZRMSZDKmq— Attentive Media (@AttentiveCEE) October 17, 2023
For many of Thunberg’s critics, this is just the latest in a long line of seemingly performative “arrests” or “detainments” that are meant to do little more than rile up her base.
In fact, despite numerous run-ins with the law — and all manner of speculation about what could happen to her — she has largely avoided any real legal ramifications from her protesting.
Given that documented history, it seems unlikely that this arrest or detainment will have any lasting impact on her.
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