Having been born into this beautiful and hospitable world, I believe it is my duty to take only what the world can sustainably give me, to leave only what the world can accept, and to make sure that when the time comes, I can die in a world just as beautiful and hospitable as when I was born. That is why I am an Extinction Rebel. On the streets of London these last two weeks, it was easy to feel that we have been opponents: Extinction Rebellion against the police. This is not the case. I am writing this letter because it is vitally important that we all remember that this is not the case. We do not sacrifice our time, expend the huge effort that our rebellion has taken, risk arrest, and drape our emotions across the city, because we have anything against the police. Nor is it in your interest or your duty to prevent us from achieving our goals. I know that many of you know that. Please, read my reminder, and consider that we all are working towards a better world.
Dear S. You may not remember my name, but you did remember me. My April rebellion started and ended with you. The day before our actions began, I joined ten or so rebels at Reformers’ Tree. Nobody had a flag, so I stuck mine in the ground. That is how my rebellion began. You were there, perhaps the very first policeman on the scene of XR’s April actions. You showed us respect, gave us your personal support, and allowed us to assemble in Hyde Park. At the end, when there were just a few stragglers left, and everything but the Banksy had been scrubbed clean at Marble Arch, you shook my hand. Support for us goes all the way to the top. But I must ask you for more.
I have so much love for the respect that you have shown us, while so tirelessly doing your jobs. We have not made your lives easy. We have been in nonviolent warfare with you, a game of attrition that we did not let you win without testing your resolve and resources. Still you protected us from the occasional violence of the public, and worked with us to help ensure that our actions did not harm anybody. For that, I cannot say how grateful I am.
So many of you worked such long hours. You from Starbucks, with the red shoulder patches - you who refused to give me a statement for my Facebook post, but who chatted to me off-record. You’d worked seventeen hours, and then had just three of sleep. Still you supported us. For your kids, I think you said. You spoke kindly, gratefully to me, if I did not misread you.
You have done your jobs with such dignity and humanity. And yet, to do your job of suppressing us: that is inhuman. No moral, thinking person could do what you have been doing without questioning it.
You have a particular duty to be moral. The purpose of a government in the society that our ancestors have built for us, is to shepherd their people away from scarcity, towards plenty; away from destruction, towards peace and sustainability; away from injustice and inequality, towards a world that offers fair possibility to everyone. Fair possibility of a good life, whatever that should mean. Surely this is self-evident. But the government is clearly failing in this duty. We have been brought up to respect science, for it is the domain of science to search for truth without judgement or prejudice. To predict the future of our planet, and to give us the tools required to steer our course. That scientists overwhelmingly show us the failures of our government, and that the government ignores science, is a cause for extreme concern. When scientific consensus and government disagree about the truth, it is the government who have failed. When science tells us that we must act, and the government do not act, they have failed their people.
That is why I stand with Extinction Rebellion. We are here to force the government to do the job that they are duty-bound to their citizens to do - the job that is their most crucial purpose. You, the police, are the enforcement wing of the government. But to enforce the malevolent actions of the government, or their destructive lack of action, is to enforce their failure. It is immoral to do so knowingly, and you have a duty to know the consequences of our society’s path. You have no excuses while the science is so clear.
You have shown us that you know us, you understand us, often you support us. So how can you do your jobs?
We set out, two weeks ago, to make the government accept our demands and hence to safeguard the future of our planet, the lives of your children, against an environmental catastrophe. They have not done so, and yet we are gone from the streets. It is partly through your tireless work that we are gone, and the government can ignore us. We have not succeeded, or this would not be the case. We will be back, until we succeed, or until our hope dies. But we do not have much time. If you were to refuse to do what the government requires of you, the consequence would be a better world. Instead, help us make the government do what the people of this country, this planet, require of it. The government acts immorally, and to defend it is immoral. We are not trying to harm our society through these disruptive actions, but to fix it, to make it sustainable for our futures and future generations.
You with the lovely accent, who walked with us through Hyde Park, as we carried our drums to Parliament Square to bring our letters, our voices, and our music to the government. I asked you if you’d lose your job for helping me to fix my flag. You told me that something would be seriously wrong if that were the case. You fixed my flag for me, and I am so grateful. But something is already seriously wrong. The future will be kind to us rebels for what we are doing. I hope the future will never be harsh on the police for doing your jobs, but for doing so you are on the wrong side of history. Will you protect your government, your employer? Or is your duty not ultimately to the people of your country, the people who your government, hence you, should be working for? Something is already seriously wrong. We should not have to be rebelling like this.
You, the policeman from Tuesday of week two, when it felt like the police had been ordered not to speak with us except to intimidate us into leaving, you showed me with your humour that you are human. While you patrolled the candlelit streets of Marble Arch, to the sound of our piano music… You overheard two rebel drummers talking about the stress-relieving effect of a hug longer than twenty seconds. As they hugged, you counted down the seconds for them. You bridged the gap between me and you, showed me that you, the police, are still human. You all live on this planet with the rest of us. Please, act like it. Please, help us to protect our home.
With love, Arthur, Extinction Rebel.