AN ENVIRONMENTAL student is among Oxfordshire activists who were arrested in London as part of mass climate protests.

Roseanna, who does not wish her surname to be published, was one of the activists from the Extinction Rebellion Abingdon group who were detained by police in the capital last week, as part of a huge demonstration calling for urgent action on climate change.

The 23-year-old environmental conservation student who lives with her parents in Abingdon, travelled to London with her father on Wednesday morning to take part in the non-violent action outside the Houses of Parliament.

The two joined a samba band playing in Parliament Square, with Roseanna one of the drummers.

Minutes later she was arrested by two Metropolitan Police officers and a photo of her circulated on the web.

She was filmed sat on the ground surrounded by officers, with her colourful drum still wrapped across her body.

Speaking about what happened to her, the student said: “The police started moving through the crowd and making arrests.

“I have been involved in many of XR’s actions in the past and was also part of last year’s demonstrations in London for seven days.

“However, last year they were very clearly warning people before arresting them, so if you did not wish that to happen to you, you had the chance to go.

“That was the assumption I was operating on.”

While Roseanna understood the risk of getting arrested during Wednesday's action, unlike other participants she did not intend to do so.

She said she did not resist arrest.

She added: “I believed that they would warn me clearly, which is the procedure they are supposed to follow, and I would have the opportunity to leave, which is what I would have done.

“From speaking to other XR members who had similar experiences, I do think the police are getting more heavy handed with their tactics.”

Roseanna was then taken to a police station in Sutton in South London where she spent about eight hours.

The 23-year-old said: “It is very easy for people to write us off as jobless hippies just because they do not want to listen to our argument.

“This is something of genuine concern.

“I should also say there were some really high-profile respected figures involved in Extinction Rebellion.

“I believe the old Archbishop of Canterbury was there, novelists Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith as well.

“These are definitely not jobless layabout who smoke weed all the time, so I think it is important that people recognise that.”

Roseanna said that she was not able to go into her arrest too much as she was released under an investigation, which, she added, normally happens when activists are detained.

Since moving to Abingdon with her parents, she started getting involved with the local Extinction Rebellion branch.

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She also participated in a so-called 'die-in' protest at the Westgate centre in August in which more than 20 teenagers from across Oxfordshire lay on the floor of the shopping complex and pretended to be dead.

The protest was staged against ‘fast fashion’, aiming to raise awareness of poor working conditions and what they consider shameful environmental records in the clothing industry.

Oxford Mail:

More than 300 people were detained during disruptions across the country last week. Roseanna confirmed that several activists from the Abingdon branch were among them.

Extinction Rebellion planned a 10-day action in London and Manchester to urge the Government to prepare for a climate crisis.

The group said it wanted the Government to declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025 and establish a citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.

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Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Tamsin Omond said: “The climate and ecological emergency has to be the absolute priority – how we are going to transform society into one that is fit for the crises we are already experiencing and the ones coming down the road.

“Disruption is a core tenet of how XR works and how we have managed to achieve so much in a short period of time.”