Greta Thunberg: 'Justifiable' That I Ignored Cops

Last month, an unsurprising attendee showed up at a fossil fuels protest in Sweden and was detained: Greta Thunberg, who's been demonstrating in the name of climate change awareness since at least 2018. Local media reports that the 20-year-old activist was among those who stopped traffic on June 19 in the port city of Malmo, stepping in the way so that oil trucks couldn't get by, per the AP. Police on the scene at the Reclaim the Future protest say they told Thunberg and the dozen other participants to disperse, but that they refused to do so, a spokeswoman from the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in court on Monday, where Thunberg was found guilty of disobeying the cops' instructions.

The punishment for her actions: a fine of $5 a day for 30 days, or $150, plus another $90 or so she has to fork over to Sweden's Crime Victim Fund, per Politico. At the court hearing, Thunberg conceded she hadn't heeded police orders, but she insisted she hadn't committed any crime. "My actions are justifiable," she said, per the BBC, adding, "I believe that we are in an emergency that threatens life, health, and property," putting "countless people" in harm's way. A prosecutor told local paper Sydsvenskan that fines are a typical punishment for crimes of disobedience like this one, per the AP. (More Greta Thunberg stories.)