We've Finally Found Someone Worse Than The Protesters Who Block Traffic - This Serial "Silent" Traffic Blocker Who Blocks Traffic For No Reason Whatsoever

Wales Online – 'Silent man' who has spent a decade repeatedly blocking traffic does it again

Once arrested for obstructing the highway David Hampson refuses to speak to police officers, lawyers, doctors, court staff, judges, and probation staff. Juries have found he is "mute of malice" not "mute by visitation of God"

As most people do, every time I see protesters blocking traffic for a cause, even if I happen to agree with their cause, I make a mental note to take their cause less seriously than I did before. As a citizen of the world, I feel like it's our responsibility to do that. The only traffic blocking protester I've ever respected is the Vietnamese monk who fully set himself on fire to protest the persecution of Buddhists.

If you're going to block traffic, and you want to be taken seriously, at bare minimum you can burst into flames and die. And even that Vietnamese monk, who arguably pulled off the most iconic protest in the history of protests, had the courtesy to do it in an intersection where any cars who were really in a hurry could probably just skirt around the side and be on with their day. 

Unfortunately, all the traffic blocking protests you see today are groups of people sitting in a row across a busy road, ruining the days of innocent people (half of which might even agree with their cause). And the message of the protesters never hits. Because in the end, people can better relate to innocent people who just want to get to work on time, than they can wrap their minds around what happens if we don't STOP OIL by the year 2030.

But at least the Just Stop Oil people have a message. I couldn't disagree more with the way they go about getting it across, but at least they think they're doing something. This fucking "Silent Man" on the other hand… get a load of this ass hole. 

A man who has spent more than a decade repeatedly standing in the middle of a busy road until he is arrested and then remaining silent has done it again - just a month after being jailed for his last road-blocking offence.

David Hampson always chooses the same spot for his action, namely the junction outside Swansea Central police station in the middle of Swansea. After being arrested for obstructing the highway the 55-year-old refuses to engage with police officers, lawyers, doctors, court staff, judges, and probation staff, and the reasons for his behaviour remain unknown.

Over the last 10 years the defendant has sat through multiple trials to determine whether he can talk and is simply choosing not to or whether there is some psychological or physical issue preventing him from speaking - in legal terms to determine whether he is "mute of malice" or "mute by visitation of God" - and trials to determine whether he is guilty to standing in the road. Hampson refuses to enter pleas to any charge, refuses to call any evidence in his defence, and has always remained silent throughout the trials, usually just looking down at the floor of the dock when asked a question.

And the fact that he's doing it in the same town, in the same location… what a menace. He's literally a supervillain. At a certain point, you gotta just keep silent guy in jail. Clearly 6 months in prison, and whatever his punishments were the 11 TIMES he did this before, weren't sufficient enough. I don't necessarily agree with the concept of a 3 strikes policy for repeat offenders. But a 12 strikes policy? I can probably get behind that. And if you're not going to keep him in jail, at least release a notice to the public that this man (and this man only) is fair game to run over if he's blocking you in the street. There's no place in society for rogue, causeless, not-even-on-fire traffic blockers. 

P.S. If anybody is ever unfortunate enough to stumble upon a traffic blocking protest, I'd love to see someone do this one day. Join the protesters. Empathize with their message. Once you get them to believe you're on their side, tell them, "You know what would take this to the next level?"… then walk to your car, pull out gas can (you don't have to use real gasoline, they just have to think it's real), and pour the "gasoline" in a circle around the protestors like you're about to light everybody on fire for the cause. Give them the whole, "Oh I'm sorry.. I thought you were serious about this?"… See if they don't get out of the road when you light the match.