Police In Britain Arrest Man For Bomb-Threat Joke On Twitter

An anonymous reader writes "A British man was arrested under anti-terrorism legislation for making a bomb joke on Twitter. Paul Chambers, 26, was arrested under the provisions of the Terrorism Act (2006). His crime? Frustrated at grounded flights over inclement weather, he made a joke bomb threat on the social networking site Twitter."

Comments

Human rights.

[TapeCutter]

Human rights are for everyone, including the people who took this guy's "joke" seriously. I don't think freedom of speech gives one the right to make bomb threats or (more classically) shout "fire" in a theater, both of those acts may lead either to injury and/or financial loss. Even if it was a joke you will still have to convince a judge that a resonable person would not take your words seriously in the context they were given.

Re:Living in fear

[TapeCutter]

I'm not sure where you get the idea "lazy pigs" were "fishing for leads on twitter" but you're example is what cops would term being a smart arse. There is an unofficial procedure cops have for dealing with smart arses. I have no doubt that one day you will find out what that procedure is.

Re:What part of "use a proxy" can't he understand?

[MrNaz]

Don't trust the Chinese, always whispering their secrets to each other.

Re:What part of "use a proxy" can't he understand?

[drinkypoo]

Twitter may be a relatively new technology, but from the perspective of the police this is no different from phoning up a TV or radio station and saying that you're going to blow up the airport.

Then the police are fucking idiots who shouldn't be allowed to be involved any time the alleged crime involves a computer. Anyway, that's pure bullshit. Plenty of cops must be twats (twits are the messages; twats are the users) so they must know what Twitter is like; small, irrelevant messages from people too uninteresting to post long comments.

Shrug, I do emergcency services

[SmallFurryCreature]

I will presume next time your house is on fire, that it is just a crank call. Hope you make it out alone and can convince the insurance company you did call for help.

Re:What part of "use a proxy" can't he understand?

[dgatwood]

Just to pick nits, he never said he was going to kill anyone. He could just as easily have rented a Ryder truck, loaded it up with explosives, gotten somebody to drive a getaway car, pulled it up to the front door of the airport at three in the morning (assuming that the airport shuts down at night), gotten in the car, and triggered it with a phone call once at a safe distance. It would completely shut down the airport with no real chance of killing anybody.

Further, it would not qualify as terrorism because:

• No humans were targetted.
• No innocent third parties were attacked (the airport was not an arbitrary target, but rather the source of the anger).
• It is not intended to create fear, but rather to exact revenge.