General Robin Hood Airport tweet bomb joke man wins case

[tom_mai78101]

A man found guilty of sending a menacing tweet threatening to blow up an airport has won a challenge against his conviction.

Paul Chambers, 27, from Doncaster, who now lives in Northern Ireland, was found guilty in May 2010 of sending a "menacing electronic communication".

Mr Chambers tweeted he would blow up Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire when it was closed after heavy snow.

After a hearing at the High Court in London his conviction was quashed.

Robin Hood Airport tweet bomb joke man wins case

A man found guilty of sending a tweet threatening to blow up an airport wins his challenge against conviction.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Accname]

This is actually a compicated case because i can understand that police would take action if you publicly say you are going to bomb an airport.
But it is also (probably) obvious to anybody who knows him that this was a joke.

The problem is you never know these people yourself. You can never know if they really arent some kind of crazy psychopaths. There are many crazy people out there, actually an disgusting amount of them.
There was alot of amok and terrorism in the western world as a result.

So if i was a police officer and i would see somebody who says something like this, especially on the internet, i would be concerned as well.

 

[FireCat]

It was a pretty dumb "joke" And next time, It might not be a joke.hmm

 

[Nyph]

People should generally be able to say what they want and joke around imo. Taking preventative steps like that is really a breech of civil rights. What if I went on some dudes twitter(from his computer) and said I was going to bomb something? Then that dude will then have to prove that he is innocent of intention in court. That would be very difficult ("it wasn't me!" wouldn't really go over well). Crimes should be punished, not thoughts.

 

[Accname]

But the big problem is Nyph, you can only punish a crime which has already happened. And if it happened its too late.
You cannot put a suicide bomber in jail or anything, and besides that, it wouldnt undo all the losses and the damage done. You have to prevent the crime from taking place.
But that isnt all that easy, and maybe they are some times too eager with their prevention. I can imagine that isnt an easy job they have.

 

[Nyph]

Yeah, but even with these preventative measures, people who actually intend to carry out the crime plan it secretly. That means these measures mainly take out innocent people. I would rather 5 guilty get away than 1 innocent sent to jail.

What terrorist would publicly give away his intentions? The bad guys aren't dumb. They know what is monitored.

You have to prevent the crime from taking place.

oh yay, thoughtcrime
Thats stupid. Thats what justifies random raids and sending inoccents to jail (ya'know, just in case?). I say no to sacrificing civil rights and personal liberty for the supposed protection of the collective.

About the suicide bomber thing, I see no way to be able to stop them, short of keeping everybody in a cage. As long as theres gasoline, guns, vehicles, explosives, knives, sharp objects and whatever else(bare hands?), there is going to methods available for suiciders to take out other people with them. Opressing the public for their own safety is not the answer.

 

[Accname]

There are enough people who tell about their attempted terrorism on the internet. There have been numerous cases.
Those people dont need to be dumb, they are most of the time just crazy.

I am not saying what they are doing as preventative measures is the right thing to do, just saying it is very hard in general but they need to do at least something.
They are the police after all and the people pay them for protection, they have to take some form of action to show that they actually do something.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

What terrorist would publicly give away his intentions? The bad guys aren't dumb. They know what is monitored.

Which is exactly why they do it. To set off paranoia and panic, possibly even as a diversionary tactic so that they can bomb some other place while police are monitoring the first.