Man Found Guilty for Tweeting Airport Bomb Threat
Airport bomb threats, even if they're a joke, are taken very seriously.
Back in January, a man was arrested for tweeting about blowing up an airport. Though it sounds serious when you put it that way, Paul Chambers was actually just kidding. His tweet, "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" was not meant to be taken seriously. It came from a guy who was worried that snow would affect his plans to take a trip to Ireland. However, Chambers soon realized how seriously his tweet was taken when police showed up at his door.
A few days after he tweeted about the airport closure, the police arrested him at his home under the Terrorism Act and questioned him for seven hours. "I had to explain Twitter to them in its entirety because they'd never heard of it," Chambers told the Independent at the time. "Then they asked all about my home life, and how work was going, and other personal things. The lead investigator kept asking, 'Do you understand why this is happening?' and saying, 'It is the world we live in'."
Apparently an off-duty manager at Robin Hood Airport had been searching Twitter for mentions of the airport and saw the tweet. It had been posted a few days earlier but he notified the head of airport security, Steven Armson, anyway. Armson said he graded the threat level of the message as "non credible" but added that he had no choice but to pass it on to police Special Branch.
In February, Chambers was charged with sending a menacing message and released on bail. A police statement issued at the time said, "A 26-year-old Doncaster man has been charged with sending by a public communications network a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character contrary to Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003."
Today the Telegraph reports that Paul Chambers has been found guilty. A district judge at Doncaster Magistrates Court ruled that the Tweet was ''of a menacing nature in the context of the times in which we live''. Chambers has been ordered to pay a £385 fine, a £15 victims surcharge and £600 costs.
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How do you question a guy about his tweet but not know what twitter is?
In other news, overreact much?
That is absolutely ridiculous. Sometimes these things go too far.
Don't run into the proverbial movie theater and scream fire, and then get upset when people blame you for a stampede. And then you wonder why you're being arrested for inciting a mob or some other thing.
Folks, we live in a society where people really do blow up airports or airplanes (or cars, or farmers markets, or anything else). Even as a joke, stuff like this MUST be taken seriously, because law enforcement (let alone the general public) don't always know that your joke isn't half serious.
I agree with Jerreece, don't joke around about bombs and a public area you are just asking to be arrested/fined.
This is today's version of, as jerreece said, screaming fire in a movie theater.
Cant remember the last time a terrorist attack was stopped because of a tweet being called in.
...and Darwin Award goes to.
Cant remember the last time a terrorist attack was stopped because of a tweet being called in.
...I can't remember the last time a terrorist attack was stopped because of a pager...
...or a taco...
...or an iPad...
...pointless comment.
Right... because the first thing a terrorist would do before blowing something up is announce the target and time a week in advance from his middle class house for the entire world to see...
Who was victimized by this exactly? Or did the £15 go back to himself?
Who was victimized by this exactly? Or did the £15 go back to himself?
Right... because the first thing a terrorist would do before blowing something up is announce the target and time a week in advance from his middle class house for the entire world to see...
Terrorism is just that - inciting fear. They don't need to actually blow something up to disrupt people's lives and cause panic. Though I'd agree that usually terrorists are smart enough to cover their tracks so they don't get caught. But the last attempt at Times Square proves they're not always that clever.
Under these circumstances you don't need to be a genius to figure out this guy is no terrorist, but the stuff you can joke about with your friends in private are not always things that you should say out in public, where people who don't know you might take it seriously.
Bottom line, he should have known better, and hopefully others will too, now that he's been convicted.
Right... because the first thing a terrorist would do before blowing something up is announce the target and time a week in advance from his middle class house for the entire world to see...
Not only that, but it's Twitter. Honestly. This is just ridiculous. There's a difference between denotation and connotation, and look at the connotations of Twitter in society? Not to mention, he'd have to have followers and such who would even see it. Seems like a waste of time and the 'justice' system to me.
...I can't remember the last time a terrorist attack was stopped because of a pager......or a taco......or an iPad......pointless comment.
and what exactly did yours accomplish...exactly stfu.
this is ridiculous.welcome to 1984 people.obviously this guy was not threatening to blow something up,he was a normal person getting angry.
boy i better watch out when iwrite my lyrics for the punk rock band i sing for.we might all get put in jail because of our offensive lyrics!!!
No wonder babies that are born with parents who did not pass maturity are retarded. WTF is wrong with these news and the world... Boring and hella annoying.
i guess, i think they did this just to scare people from doing such. it is quite costly do some background investigation for such.
Not exactly something to joke about.
I fully agree with the guilty verdict. People need to realize that joking about certain things will land you with a fine, or even worse, in jail.
Stupid guy, that is not funny. Guilty!
Btw, only losers use tweeter.
Don't run into the proverbial movie theater and scream fire, and then get upset when people blame you for a stampede. And then you wonder why you're being arrested for inciting a mob or some other thing.Folks, we live in a society where people really do blow up airports or airplanes (or cars, or farmers markets, or anything else). Even as a joke, stuff like this MUST be taken seriously, because law enforcement (let alone the general public) don't always know that your joke isn't half serious.
yep
If he said the same but on the end: NOT lolz
They wouldn't arrest him
...and Darwin Award goes to.
The Darwin Award would require him to die, or to render himself incapable of reproducing. I don't think this would even qualify as as an honorable mention.
Cant remember the last time a terrorist attack was stopped because of a tweet being called in.
I can't remember the last time a 'terrorist' attack was stopped, full stop. Even when a concerned father called his local US embassy to say that he thought his own son might be a threat, all it ended up doing was to increase the 'security measures' that the US mandates on the rest of the world in order to keep the US 'safe from 'terrorism''. Doesn't work, hasn't worked in the past, so why keep beating the same old drum? I could insert some relevant quotes here, but I will pretend that it would be insulting to (some) Yank's intelligence...
So now in USA you can't have the wods "****" and "airport" in the same sentence?
If I make a comment like that amongst my friends, some might laugh, knowing that it is a joke.
When I see someone getting convicted for something so stupid I must say that the System and the Law it created are a joke too.
They speak about terrorism and created that Terrorism Act as an excuse to keep the world safe.
Well... if you hadn't created monsters like Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden, none of this would be necessary.
Please! One day you'll have a surveillance system monitoring you while you use the toilet...
Your government just wants to control all your moves, not the "terrorists" moves. Don't let yourself be fooled by your politicians.
Hopefully my comments won't be censored. In my country I still have the right to speak freely. Do you even remember those days? The days when you thought you fought for freedom?
What most worries me is that this terrorism nonsense is growing in european countries too.
Ignorance/Stupidity is not above the law.
People seem to have forgotten that.
Fire the judge. Now.
Don't run into the proverbial movie theater and scream fire, and then get upset when people blame you for a stampede. And then you wonder why you're being arrested for inciting a mob or some other thing.Folks, we live in a society where people really do blow up airports or airplanes (or cars, or farmers markets, or anything else). Even as a joke, stuff like this MUST be taken seriously, because law enforcement (let alone the general public) don't always know that your joke isn't half serious.
That’s the problem no stampede…. brought to court for airing a thought.
At least if he had some previous terrorist involvement and or was found to have some method of carrying out an attack then such cases would be considered possibly justified. Otherwise a simple caution should suffice.
Frankly I think these laws are just used as method of reducing the number of such “airings” making it easier for security agencies to separate trash from the proverbial cash.
Do you understand why this is happening? This is the world we live in...
Poor guy, sure his tweet wasen't too bright but people can say stupid things when annoyed.
I dont think he deserved such treatment, more like the government wants to make an example at how serious it is about brainwashing people that there really is a MASSIVE terrorist threat...
Really, +1 on blueomni's post.
Sure there are some terrorists out there, some poor unfortunate lost souls with serious dangerous issues, tho the so called terrorist issue is mostly thanks to the US government to have more control.