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Father and 14yr old daughter held after anti-whaling protests

Tokis-Phoenix

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23 Sep 2005
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"An environmental protestor who has been arrested with his daughter said she believed certain issues were important enough for her to risk her freedom.

Martin Wyness, from Hereford, was arrested after climbing the Japanese embassy in London in an anti-whaling protest earlier this month.

He said as a parent, he had a duty to allow his 14-year-old daughter, Sophie, to find her voice.

She said she was now "too aware" to stop and wanted others to get involved";

Full story;

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hereford/Worcs | Protest father defends daughter



Personally i think he father was irresponsible for getting his daughter involved- this guy has been arrested 17 times over the last 17years, its obvious that his daughters actions are largely influenced by her fathers behavior.

IMHO, however one might feel about whaling, its not right to drag your kids into your personal battles with whoever you're against.

I've met some 14yr old kids in the past which were surprisingly mature and ahead of their years in their thinking, however at 14yrs old your opinions are likely to change massively over the next 7years as you become a fully fledged adult.
Most 14yr old kids simply don't have the experience and maturity to make big life changing decisions well, which is partly why when they commit criminal acts they are tried as juveniles rather than adults etc.
When i was 14, i thought i had got my idea's in life pretty sorted and to a level where i was unlikely to change them- but ah so much has changed since those young times! If i still had the same idea's now as i did when i was 14, i would probably be in the army right now and have a massive collection of video games and consoles etc back at home. I've changed a great deal since then and i would have a lot of regrets in life if i had been able to do everything i wanted back then at that age.

Anyways, i think the father is irresponsible for getting his daughter in all of this- she very much could have got a criminal record (i'm sure the main reason why she didn't is because the court probably realized that her father had massively influenced her actions in all of this).
Her father doesn't seem to care much for his long record of arrests, but he shouldn't have ever put his daughter in a position where she could get arrested and he shouldn't encourage her to commit criminal acts in the sake of her beliefs. What if she grows up and regrets her actions she did at 14years old? What if she ends up getting banned from the country and can no longer visit Japan? What if she gets a criminal record and this has a serious negative impact on her adult life in the future, like when she tries to apply for jobs etc?
IMHO, if her father really cared about his daughter more than his anti-whaling beliefs, then he wouldn't have put/allowed/encouraged her to be a situation where she could actually get arrested.

What do you think about all of this?
 
After reading the story, it sounds pretty positive to me. The father was arrested for other protests, not for breaking laws. It sounds like peaceful protest against things that are really important to people.

In my opinion, the girl is lucky to have a father backing her in her beliefs and actions. I don't think he's pushed her into anything. It sounds like she's just "inherited" his own penchant for protesting.
 
After reading the story, it sounds pretty positive to me. The father was arrested for other protests, not for breaking laws. It sounds like peaceful protest against things that are really important to people.
In my opinion, the girl is lucky to have a father backing her in her beliefs and actions. I don't think he's pushed her into anything. It sounds like she's just "inherited" his own penchant for protesting.



Hm i don't think you can inherit stuff like that, IMHO, its pretty obvious that its her father thats massively influenced her beliefs in all of this more than anything else and it is obvious her father had no issue with his daughter protesting and seems to have actively encouraged it. Who knows, if she had been brought up on a Japanese family whose income depended on whaling and her father was in support of it, then its likely that she would turn out to be pro-whaling in that situation.

For me, i disagree with the fathers actions not because he was protesting against whaling, but simply because he's getting his daughter dragged into all of this. You can get arrested and it is possible to have criminal charges even for peaceful protests (like Tresspassing on private property, being a public nuisance, wasting police time etc).
This girl is very young- she is much better off focusing on her education than on going trips abroad to protest when she'll only be having her GCSE's exams (very important exams) a year or 2 in the near future. I wonder how her mother feels about all of this?

Seriously though, do you agree with the girl's/fathers actions because she was protesting against whaling or simply because she was protesting against something? How would you feel if her father happened to be against troops leaving or staying in Iraq, Mexicans in America, was anti-abortion or contraception, pro-cannabis, anti foreign trade, pro-seal culling, anti or pro gays etc or any other such hot controversial topic and was getting his daughter involved in all of this? What if she was protesting against legal abortion or was protesting in favor of seal hunts- would you feel any different about this?
 
It is highly likely that they would show more peaceful protest or mysterious silence against the US embassy, a sort of whaling nation, there, though I am not sure if they have already broken into there or not.
This attitude is exactly the same as some anti-NUKE activists in Japan who claim some NUKE in China (or the USSR during the Cold War) are clean, but the ones in the US are dirty.

Anyways, the article says,
The charges against them were later dropped.

Since she is still young, I really hope she will come to Japan during her gap year and create her speaker's corner here. It is lucky of her that British nationals can apply working holiday visa.
 
Seriously though, do you agree with the girl's/fathers actions because she was protesting against whaling or simply because she was protesting against something? How would you feel if her father happened to be against troops leaving or staying in Iraq, Mexicans in America, was anti-abortion or contraception, pro-cannabis, anti foreign trade, pro-seal culling, anti or pro gays etc or any other such hot controversial topic and was getting his daughter involved in all of this? What if she was protesting against legal abortion or was protesting in favor of seal hunts- would you feel any different about this?

Actually, I guess I am guilty of being in favor of it because it's something I believe in myself (anti-whaling). If they were protesting against something I didn't agree with I'd probably be more inclined to think of it the way you have, that her father was misleading her and encouraging her to follow a dangerous path. Oh well, I guess I'm just human!
 
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