Slashdot Mirror
DHS Sends Tourists Home Over Twitter Jokes
itwbennett writes "In a classic case of 'we say destroy, you say party hard,' the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security detained a pair of British twenty-somethings for 12 hours and then sent them packing back to the land of the cheeky retort. At issue is a Tweet sent by Leigh Van Bryan about plans to 'destroy America,' starting with LA, which, really, isn't that bad an idea."
herr DHS. DHS and the Patriot Act, destroying a once great nation one bit at a time.
The terrorists have won.
America has a chance to vote for someone like George Bush Jr, please remember how much it has completely screwed the country up!
According to the New York Times report on this subject:
Information gathered during this interview revealed that both individuals were inadmissible to the United States and were returned to their country of residence.
That's the government talking. But they don't say that it was the Twitter posts themselves that rendered the two "inadmissible." They say it was "information gathered during this interview." Presumably the people interviewed repeated many times that it was all a joke, they didn't mean it, etc., so it seems unlikely that the "information gathered" was anything that was said. It seems totally possible, though, that there was something else that flagged them to be blocked at the border during the interview (for example, they had prior drug convictions).
Breakfast served all day!
The US is fast on track to be earth's most totalitarian society.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
A critical detail absent from the summary is that these tweets took place weeks before their trip -- they weren't done at the airport. So whereas previously one could not make a joke at the airport, now one may not make a joke anywhere, anytime.
The jokes in question were not made in the airport. They were made much earlier, while still in Britain. DHS just ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. The inability to confirm whether "destroy" is British slang, or that the other tweet in question was a Family Guy quote is absurd.
The corner of a round room
"Arrogant xenophobia" is a way of life too, you insensitive clod.
+1 Disagree
Yes, we cannot be too careful when it comes to watching what we say -- the Stasi are always listening! Someone might report you, and then you'll be in for a world of hurt, because you said something they did not like.
Hrm? Oh, right, there is no Stasi anymore. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to demand that everyone watch their mouths because the government might be watching.
Palm trees and 8
So, you're saying, "It's OK because they're white and thus obviously not a threat?"
No, I'm saying absent any contextual information, 140 characters can be widely interpreted as different things by a global audience. An audience who subconsciously fill in the context based upon their own individual culture, background, beliefs, ideas, worldview, etc.
Happens both in Tweets and in Slashdot posts.
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
Forbidding jokes is one of the hallmarks of a repressive regime. Actually a pretty good indicator. Seems this time the US is ignoring history. In the past the price to pay for that was always extreme.
Les face it, there is no need for terrorists anymore, the US is right on the path to hell. A pity.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
itwbennett, the author of this story, is now on the DHS no fly list.
They also ticked the: 'Aways subject to full cavity search.' option.
Isn't that the default?
Really?
First: It was a tweet.
Second: It was a joke. When did we get such a stick up our ass that making a joke is cause for arrest and deportation?
Third: Airports are not dangerous. Flying is not dangerous. Taking our national security too seriously though - that to me as a freedom loving American - is downright terrifying. Once the tools are in place, they will be used. They will be abused, and it is *damned* hard to get rid of them.
+1 Disagree
Dear Penis1,
... you are a moron.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
she had to quickly explain to him that this means "kill a gay person" in America.
He already knew.
+5 for this vile, lewd, disgusting hate speech? Whatever you think of the USA's policies and practices, only the most sick and twisted can compare this to Nazi Germany.
This is why I've almost left slashdot completely. The nuttiest commenters have moderators have taken over the political discourse here.
As someone who has lost relatives to the Nazis, seeing this post as "insightful" almost bring me to tears.
Why doesn't the average American see that the freedoms they hold so dearly and supposedly separates them from the "terrorists!" have been eroded and continue to be?
Here's what I don't get: Why don't more American servicemen and women, past and present, speak out about how cowardly and weak this kind of action makes America look?
Let's just assume for the moment that the "War on Terror" is totally legitimate. If we assume that's true, and these people were really kicked out of the country because of two Tweets, then... seriously? These two spooked us? This is what we're worried about? That's like a big, musclebound guy strutting around all day, sticking out his chest, then leaping onto a tabletop and shrieking as soon as some passing kid pulls a squirt gun.
It's deep in the American psyche to think of this country as the most ass-kickin' badass on the planet. The DHS is making us look like a bunch of scared pussies.
Breakfast served all day!
indeed. but this doesn't explain why, after detaining them for twelve hours, they were denied entry to the country. are we to believe that they were unable to convey that context successfully to their interrogators, or that those same interrogators couldn't get on some internets to investigate the whole "destroy" idiom? i can't help but think of the rob corddry character from the second 'harold and kumar' movie when i try to picture the clowns that thought these brits were an honest-to-god threat to america.
do not read this line twice.
I, too, hate Obama for allowing Twitter to exist.
I suppose that's what you mean, since he has no control over or anything to do with the daily operation of Twitter...
You, sir, are an excellent troll.
So vote Democrat only if you want things even worse than voting for Republicans - because in the end the only people really into fascism are liberals.
I bet you can't name one thing that these dastardly Democrats do that is worse than an equivalent measure by the Republicans (ok, maybe with healthcare).
Also, by definition a liberal cannot be 'into fascism'. Liberal implies a breaking free from constraints, while Fascist implies the opposite with absolute and strict monitoring and control. They are diametrically opposed and cannot be likened to each other in even the slightest way.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
The terrorists, who are in this case the US Government, have clearly won. They have taken the freedoms which we have been granted and been too glued to American Idol and MTV to defend. The ironic part is that they have used the 'fear of losing our freedom' to take it from us.
The general population are more concerned with celebrity housewives than who is running the country. They have won. We are now a slave population, and those that speak out against it will be detained and perpetually monitored until the powers-that-be determine they have reached their quota of 'unlawful speech' and have them imprisoned, deported, or executed.
Welcome to the future. Welcome to 1984.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
...so are you going to vote Ron Paul? He's the only politician thats said he'd do exactly this.
Why on earth anybody would want to take a vacation in that fucked up neo-fascist country is beyond me. Its like someone violated the prime directive by giving a bunch of red-necked hill-billies access to the idea of statutory obligation. Capitalism: Its not a mode of commerce, its the idea of registering your biological property to a corporation.
Just the other guys don't understand the language.
Nonsense. DHS got the joke, they just didn't appreciate it.
There is a significant segment of the population that simply does not appreciate jokes about terrorism or jokes that put the United States of America as the butt of the joke.
Right or wrong, that's what was going on here: Brits making fun about God, Glory, Apple Pie... Send 'em home to good old England where people have much more freedom than here in the United Fascist States of America.
Oh, that's right, the Brits live under constant surveillance that would never be tolerated here...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
indeed. but this doesn't explain why, after detaining them for twelve hours, they were denied entry to the country. are we to believe that they were unable to convey that context successfully to their interrogators, or that those same interrogators couldn't get on some internets to investigate the whole "destroy" idiom? i can't help but think of the rob corddry character from the second 'harold and kumar' movie when i try to picture the clowns that thought these brits were an honest-to-god threat to america.
It doesn't explain why, if the DHS thought they actually intended to "destroy LA" that they put them on a plane back to the UK without any charges.
Terrorists, bent on destruction, and THEY PUT THEM ON A JUMBO JET.
Nothing could demonstrate more clearly that the DHS knew full well it was a joke and was simply punishing the tourists.
Terrorists: 1
Land of the free and home of the brave: 0
Seems like the DHS have improved on the lower bound of Richelieu's requirement.
"If you give me six lines written
by the most honest man, I will find
something in them to hang him."
- Cardinal Richelieu
And that message is, "We are watching everything now. Everything."
Check your premises.
1) Man gets criminal conviction for severely beating a woman, gets travel restrictions when applying for visas.
2) Holidaying teenagers get detained and deported for tweeting that they were going to party hard.
If you can't see a difference, you're beyond help.
Look, I love equality for everyone and I think prejudice is stupid. But can we please stop pretending that Muslims are a "race" or an ethnic group? They are the followers of a religion, Islam.
Some religious extremists love spreading this lie because it allows them to stop any criticism (legitimate or not) of their actions by labeling it as "discrimination" or even "racism".
Please don't fall for it: there's a very important difference between attributes like ethnicity, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, place of birth and other characteristics like religion or political ideas.
Everything in the first group is something that people get assigned at birth and cannot change, so discrimination based on them must be strongly opposed. But the stuff in the second group is something that people can change at any time if they want to, so criticizing people for their religion or political ideas should always be fair game.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
It's funny. When the Irish where bombing London, I don't remember the Americans taking that particularly seriously. In fact, as far as I know, a lot of Irish Americans were financially supporting the IRA. Certainly doesn't help when one of your own Congressmen actively supports the IRA, you have to wonder which side he's on. Especially when Peter King is the chairman for the United States House Committee on Homeland Security.
Does he support terrorism or not? Oh that's right - he supports it when it's not in the USA.