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Originally Posted by willravel
I'd call that apples and oranges. They had no weapons. Their intent was clear: stop the ship and vandalize it. Being a pansy green liberal myself, I can say with reasonable certainty they wouldn't have gotten violent.
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You didn't answer the question but it can be skipped, its just to get people thinking what 'violent' is.
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If he was pushed, then it would be violent. If he fell because he slipped, he's clumsy and it's natural selection. Unfortunate, but to blame the protesters is like blaming the owner of the refrigerator that started the fire a fireman died in. Circumstance would have been to blame.
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If you start a malicious fire on purpose and a fireman dies I think you are guilty of manslaughter. I've heard of arsonists charged with murder for that sort of thing before. Likewise you put these men in danger by your own illegal actions. As a direct result they were put in the same danger. Had one died it was your illegal action which resulted in their death. Law and fire officers put their lives in danger every day because of people doing stupid stuff, but to do something stupid on purpose raises it from 'job hazard' to 'willfull endangerment'
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You don't need to be a lawyer to understand that no theft occurred. The Greenpeace people didn't walk away with that which was lost by the company, so there was no theft. Had Greenpeace taken the coal off the ship, then there would have been a theft, and thus piracy.
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It would be easy to argue that they 'captured' the vessel since it was unable to go about its business due to their illegal actions. As such it would be larceny (they deprived the owner of their property) and I'd call it piracy as well. Just because they didn't go into port to sell their prize doesn't mean the ship wasn't in effect commandeered.
What you see as a peaceful protest I see as the capture of a ship at sea. Do you think the crew had any right to stop them from doing what they did? Say subdue them and put them in a makeshift brig? What about shooting them as they tried to board?