Far Left Minimises Palestine Action Sledgehammer Attack That Fractured Policewoman’s Spine
Far-left groups have come out in support of a Palestine Action activist who was jailed after he hit a policewoman with a sledgehammer during a raid on an Israeli-linked defence firm.
Last week, Samuel Corner, 23, was sentenced to seven years in prison after Sgt Kate Evans suffered a fractured spine during the August 2024 attack at an Elbit Systems site near Bristol.
The incident happened during a break-in by activists wearing red boiler suits. The site was vandalised, with damage reportedly estimated at around £1.2 million.
Giving evidence, Sgt Kate Evans told Woolwich Crown Court the injury left her with “severe pain.”
She was off work for three months, left unable to drive, shower or dress herself after the Palestine Action activist hit her in the spine with a sledgehammer.
Evans said she was attempting to place handcuffs on one of the female defendants at the scene when she felt a “thud” on her back.
“A massive shock vibrated through my whole body. I had no idea what it was until I turned around and saw a male with a sledgehammer behind me,” she said.
“It was a shock, I felt frozen. It was almost like being in a movie, everything was going so fast.
“It just extended through my whole body down to my legs. I felt frozen.
“I was stunned to begin with. I didn’t know what it was. I remember looking round and seeing the male with the sledgehammer behind me.”
Corner admitted striking the officer, but claimed in court that he “panicked” and thought another activist was being hurt. Prosecutors said the attack was serious violence, not protest.
Other activists involved in the raid were also jailed for criminal damage.
However, left-wing politicians, campaign groups, and pundits came out in support of the jailed activists, minimising the GBH suffered by a police officer.
The leader of the far left Green Party Zac Polanski, said it was “gut wrenching to see four young people jailed for direct action against an arms supplier to Israel.”
“Years in prison for protesting to save lives in Gaza, with ‘terrorism’ used despite no jury convicting them of it.
“A truly dangerous attack on the right to protest.”
Quite the framing.
Guardian reports heavily featured the “panicked” defence narrative.
Amnesty International called the sentences “completely disproportionate” and warned of a “new low in the ongoing crackdown against protest
Other came out against putting people in prison for attacking a police officer with a sledge hammer.
One far left account, with over 37,000 followers on X, said the officer had “minor injuries.”
Another, said: “If you’re under the impression Filton activists attacked & smashed the spine of a policewoman with a sledgehammer, you’ve been thoroughly misled by the media you’re reading.”
“She was not hit twice. She was hit once, with the side of the sledge hammer,” said another.
One popular far left account said: “No spines were shattered at Filton. The officer walked unaided from A&E. Later a small, hairline fracture to the transverse process (the bony projection that sticks out from the side of a vertebra) was identified & the officer was advised to take paracetamol. Truth matters.”
Don’t tear your hair out for trusting your own eyes. Just understand how revolutionary politics works.
In Politics and the English Language, George Orwell wrote that political language is “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
Divide the world into oppressors and oppressed, then deem the target evil, an arms firm, Israel, the police, capitalism, “the system,” then almost anything done against it can be reframed as “resistance.”
So a sledgehammer blow to a policewoman’s spine then becomes “direct action,” a serious injury becomes “minor” or didn’t happen. Violence can only be committed by the “right” people for the “right” cause.
You are not going mad for seeing it.
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