Big Ben protest pair escape charges

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/03/1080941726665.html?from=storyrhs

<snip>London: Two brothers who scaled London's landmark Big Ben clock tower and unfurled an anti-war banner on the first anniversary of the Iraq invasion would not be prosecuted, police said yesterday.

Harry and Simon Westaway, both from the environmental organisation Greenpeace, were arrested last month on "suspicion of causing criminal damage" after scaling the tower at Britain's Houses of Parliament.

After hearing charges were not to be brought against them, the pair offered another message to Prime Minister Tony Blair over Iraq.

"One year on, we urge him to come clean, admit his mistakes and commit to never undertake an illegal pre-emptive war in Britain's name ever again," said Harry Westaway.

...Imagine if a stunt like that happened in the US. They would be in Gitmo for years.

They'd definitely shoot them.

The British culture seems to have a higher trust culture than the U.S.

There's a stronger sense of what's public is shared. I think that's partly why they have universal health insurance and we don't.

Some foreigners from Europe and Canada have commented to me how cruel Americans are towards one another.

I imagine he would have found it useful to make an example out of these guys through prosecution.