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Chicagoan Arrested For Using Cell-phone Jammer To Make Subway Commute Tolerable (chicagotribune.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bug-me-not-write-large dept.

McGruber writes with this story from the Chicago Tribune: Last Fall, certified public accountant Dennis Nicholl boarded a Chicago subway train while carrying a plastic bag of Old Style beer. Nicholl popped open a beer and looked around the car, scowling as he saw another rider talking on a cellphone. He pulled out a black device from his pocket and switched it on. Commuters who had been talking on their phones went silent, checking their screens for the source of their dropped calls. On Tuesday, undercover officers arrested Nicholl. Cook County prosecutors and Chicago police allege he created his own personal 'quiet car' on the subway by using an illegal device he imported from China. He was charged with unlawful interference with a public utility, a felony. This is not the first time Nicholl has been charged with jamming cell calls. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in June 2009, according to court records. He was placed under court supervision for a year, and his equipment was confiscated and destroyed.

9 of 518 comments (clear)

  1. Good by fonos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's lucky there wasn't an emergency and that his device did not interfere with a 911 call. This is reckless behavior, and he already knew the seriousness of this crime because of the prior conviction.

    By the way, are you allowed to have a beer on the Chicago public transit? If so, that's fantastic!

    1. Re:Good by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He's lucky there wasn't an emergency and that his device did not interfere with a 911 call.

      I guess I was just lucky to survive the dark ages before mobiles existed and someone would have had to get the train to stop in the next station before calling for help. Yes this guy was being an idiot but lets not blow things out of proportion: life was indeed possible before the cell phone was invented and it was not significantly more dangerous.

    2. Re:Good by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

      911 calls from cell phones on public transit are relatively rare. But many of us use the data links on our smart phones to check our schedules for connections for other buses or for trains. Many of us in high demand work also respond to text based alerts during lengthy commutes. We're not loud, we're not speaking on the cell phones, and it's much safer to do this on public transit than it is to drive home and have to pull off the road to handle an alert. So it sounds like he's interfering with people who are being responsible and safe, as well as those who are rude.

    3. Re:Good by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I guess I was just lucky to survive the dark ages before mobiles existed

      And more people died back then (unpreventably) due to this, so it is an irrelevent point.

      If someone could call for help and get assistance faster (greater chance of surviving), and you interfere with this, then you become liable for their death, and if you did it with knowledge and/or intent, or a legal equivalent (such as reckless negligence), then criminally liable.

    4. Re:Good by Improv · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Modern technologies, even comm technologies, have made some dangers (like heart attacks) significantly less dangerous. We've built a better world, and just because people survived the old doesn't mean that we should permit people to recreate those older dangers.

      --
      For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
  2. No good guys. by Cytotoxic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are no good guys in this story. He's a dick for blocking other people's services. The government are being ridiculous in charging him with felonies and holding hundreds of thousands in fines over his head, and people having loud animated conversations on their cell phones in crowded public spaces are rude.

    If he did what he is accused of then he is guilty of disturbing the peace. He should be punished accordingly. He's not guilty of intercepting people's cell calls and recording their conversations with a sting-ray device. He didn't bring down the local power sub-station. He did the equivalent of loudly disrupting a public meeting. Proportionality is an important concept, and we've lost track of it.

    1. Re:No good guys. by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The only thing I would add is that if all Mr Nicholl wanted to do was silence the cellphones, he could've left the jammer in the bag.

      Bringing it into plain view ratchets it up a notch to, "I am making a point here. Look at me!"

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:No good guys. by Jahoda · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "There are no good guys in this story"? WT actual F logic is this? Excuse me, sir, but I don't want some baby-boomer rageoholic, upset that the world doesn't work the way *he* wants it to in the train car he shares with others, buying crappy Chinese electronics and interfering with my ability to use my technology. It is impossible to not know that these devices are illegal and prohibited by the FCC, and he's been arrested for it before. The first time, he got a slap on the wrist. Now, he gets the felony. This is how this shit works. "No good guys in the story". SMH.

  3. Re:In Japan by Aerokii · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's also rude to block the network access of everyone in the subway car just because a few people are talking. Phones are used for so much more than talking to people these days. Actually I shouldn't say rude- it's illegal.