Extinction Rebellion Collateral Damage

On 3 October 2019, the Met Police tweeted: "People on a privately-owned fire engine had sprayed a liquid at the Treasury building....Local road closures are in place while police deal."

This demonstration was orchestrated by Extinction Rebellion, environmental activists, who planned protests in London between 7 and 19 October. Their aim is to "non-violently disrupt the government...target corporations, ministries and infrastructure that maintain our toxic system" in order to compel government action on climate change. However, the fire-engine incident shows that non-violent does not mean property will not end up becoming collateral damage. Clearly, there will be clean-up costs but there may also be business interruption (BI) losses where businesses close their doors to protect their customers and staff if they are in close proximity to the demonstrations.