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Herefordshire river will take decades to recover from 'vandalism' (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/nature@feddit.uk
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An ecologist says it will take 20 to 30 years for a stretch of River Lugg in Herefordshire to recover after being damaged by a local farmer.

John Price was jailed in 2023 for illegally removing tonnes of gravel from the riverbed to build a road and horse yard at his home and tearing out 71 trees.

He was ordered to pay £600,000 and to restore the damage he had done.

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[–] 9 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I don’t mean to be picky but the guy caused “wilful and malicious damage and destruction” which is exactly the current definition of what “vandalism” means, so, in that sense, the word usage is spot-on.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    No it fucking isn't spot on. He did the damage to benefit himself, which is very different from most types of vandalism.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    In the UK the “Criminal Damage Act 1971” is most often used to prosecute acts of vandalism.

    You can get up to 10 years (or possibly more in extremely serious cases) prison time for vandalism under the law.

    Why you committed the vandalism is also taken into account. For profit? Through ignorance? Drunkenness? Jealousy? etc.

    Stealing the copper electrical cable, to sell as scrap, that feeds an entire hospital or rail line is vandalism. Stealing the lead off a church roof is vandalism.

    Smashing a bus stop because you’re drunk and the last bus didn’t come is vandalism.

    Scrawling “Bob Woz Yuh” on a public restroom wall is vandalism.

    That’s just how English and Welsh law operates. The man was a vandal. That’s not an opinion, but a legalese fact - as I currently understand uk law. But I don’t currently practice.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago*

    Yeah, this is how minimising language works - it's technically correct, but it minimises the actual harm. I'm not saying that it doesn't meet the definition of vandalism, but when someone says "vandalism", absolutely nobody in the entire world thinks "oh, that's when you destroy multiple ecosystems for your personal benefit to expand your farm". It's ridiculous.

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