Extinction Rebellion protesters attempting to bring the London Underground subway system to a halt by climbing on top of trains got a sense of how much support they enjoy among ordinary members of the public when angry commuters pelted them with rubbish and physically dragged them back to the platform.
Climate alarmist protesters have staged three separate pre-planned disruption events as Canning Town, Shadwell, and Stratford on London’s famous “Tube” network, according to the British Transport Police (BTP), but at least one of them appears to have been brought to an early end by commuters very much unimpressed by their efforts to “save the planet”.
Video footage which has gone viral on social media shows two men in their twenties or thirties, one bald and bearded and the other balding and sporting a ponytail, being barracked by an angry crowd as they pace the roof of a London Underground train at Canning Town.
Matters come to a head when the bearded protester aims a nasty kick at the head of a would-be passenger who attempts to climb up himself to remonstrate with them, only for his intended victim to seize his leg and drag him on to the platform, where he is handled roughly by the crowd. Extinction Rebellion makes much of being a non-violent movement, but the violent response the train-climbing protestor gives to a member of the public trying to interfere with his moment of fame may go some way to damaging that claim.
Shortly thereafter another commuter mounts the train and engages the remaining protester in a slow-motion chase, which ends when the latter sits down to try and anchor himself in place, resulting in the crowd on the platform catching his leg, too, and dragging him down.
The British Transport Police have indicated that four arrests have been made at the Canning Town and Stratford incidents — although they have not responded to a request from Breitbart London on whether it is only protesters who have been arrested, and not have-a-go-hero members of the public who brought their illegal protest to an end as well — while attempts to remove a further four protesters at Shadwell by specialist teams are ongoing.
The BTP had asked Extinction Rebellion not to go ahead with the “dangerous” pre-planned protests the day before on October 16th, warning that they “could create a dangerous scenario where some trains are stuck within tunnels with hundreds of passengers on board.”
They added that “The Tube and rail networks are one of the greenest transport methods in London, any action goes against what they campaign for and will only cause misery for London’s commuters” — but to no avail.
Even London’s left-wing mayor Sadiq Khan, who has otherwise been rather sympathetic to Extinction Rebellion, condemned their actions on the Tube, saying it was “extremely dangeorus, counterproductive and is causing unacceptable disruption to Londoners who use public transport to get to work.”
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