Guy Who Was Arrested & Convicted For Joke Tweet Loses Appeal
from the common-sense-isn't-so-common dept
We found it ridiculous that UK law enforcement pushed forward with a plan to prosecute Paul Chambers, a guy who made a bad joke on Twitter. After hearing that his local airport was closed and noting that he was supposed to fly out of there in a week, he stated that if the airport didn't "get [its] shit together" he was going to "[blow] the airport sky high!!" It's a bad joke, no doubt. And I don't even mind that law enforcement felt the need to check the whole thing out. But where it gets insane is that they pushed forward with prosecuting him. Of course, even law enforcement was smart enough to recognize that they couldn't charge him with making a bomb threat (which is illegal), because they knew he really didn't make a bomb threat. So instead, they charged him with an obscure part of the UK's Communications Act which outlaws sending a message "of menacing character." It got even more ridiculous when he was found guilty of this.Now, to turn a ridiculous situation into a pure farce, an appeals court has upheld the earlier ruling. Comedian/actor Stephen Fry, who had promised to pay the original fine has again promised to pay whatever Chambers owes. The BBC coverage doesn't explain the court's ruling for upholding the original conviction, but it certainly seems to make the UK judicial system look like a joke. At some point, shouldn't common sense enter into the discussion? It's fine to investigate the comment, but even the officer who investigated it noted that the statement was obviously a "foolish comment posted on Twitter as a joke for only his close friends to see." That's the point at which they tell him maybe he shouldn't make stupid jokes and send him on his way... not go through with a trial.
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Filed Under: jokes, paul chambers, threats, uk
Companies: twitter
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IAmSpartacus
http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23iamspartacus
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Re: IAmSpartacus
I'm amused by the people pointing out that Robin Hood Airport is technically named after a terrorist.
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Relatedly
http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23IAmSpartacus
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It is a joke.. it's going on at the improv next month in a double act with the US judicial system.....
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/12/iamspartacus-campaign-twitter-airport
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No gov't official gets rewarded for showing sense.
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Re: No gov't official gets rewarded for showing sense.
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/sarc
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Guess I'm the tight-ass
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And another one..
Tory councillor arrested over Alibhai-Brown 'stoning' tweet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/11/tory-councillor-tweet-yasmin-alibhai-brow n-arrested
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Once again proving "the law is an ass!"
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Unbiased News Source?
Sounds to me the 'Politically Correct' and 'unbiased' British news source is trying to make it out as if it wasn't a joke.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11742182
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"of a menacing nature in the context of the times in which we live"
So it was a menacing act he was found guilty and what was it that he was claiming to do?
Thats right BLOW up the airport,
So Mike pipes up and says it was not a 'bomb threat', THEN WHAT THE F*&Y^*% is it MIKE. !!!!
Was he going to go there and blow up balloons ?
If you say you are going to blow something up, anyone with any brain's will see that as a bomb threat.
As the court and the judges did twice.
the only two people who say it was a joke is Chambwers lawyer, and the cop.
The cop im sure did not know that 'his small number of close friends' was 600 people and a publicaly searchabe forum.
You never think one or two steps ahead Mike, you do not see that actions have effects, and you do not see those effects.
You cannot seem to understand, that a simple message like this might have caused someone enough stress that they had a heart attack.
Or if the airport took the threat seriously, and a plane was diverted to another airport, and crashed (for no related reason) but would not of crashed if it was not diverted. Then what then is it still just a "dumb joke".
Like you write off a DDoS attack, what if it is done on a telemedicine web site, and someone loses their life due to your actions ?
But it seems you cannot see anything past your tunnel vision of the world.
It would really suck to live in your world Mike..
At least for my days work, I actually achieve something each day. I dont just spend my life reading slash dot and doing cut and paste.. Never looking beyond your keyboard..
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Re: "of a menacing nature in the context of the times in which we live"
Second, this is a hobby for Mike, which you'd know if you had half a brain and clicked through to his business site. That's too hard for you, though. We've come to expect the most nonsensical shit to fly out of your mouth, none of it making sense or having a real or even /honest/ point. Why do you keep wasting your and our time? Seriously?
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Waste of money
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