Paul Chambers, convicted of menace, yesterday.
How many times, infuriated with someone have you said the phrase " If so and so doesn't such and such, I'm gonna kill them!"
Imagine if suddenly the police came to your door and arrested you for intent to commit a crime. It would be ridiculous. Imagine you said it on Twitter and your tweet was used as evidence that you are on record as intending to commit that crime. You'd think someone was playing a joke on you. "Ok OK - I get it - you're a stripogram, aren't you? Who booked you- was it Stevo?" you'd say." Right do your worst, get the skooshy cream out, so called 'officer' " as you unbuttoned his shirt and exposed their chest.
Well if you've not heard of Paul Chambers or the Twitter Joke Trial then you're obviously not on Twitter. And if you've only heard the news media's reports on it, you'll be likening Paul to one of the 7/7 bombers or those guys who burned poppies in London this week and shouted death threats to British servicemen and women. Thing is , Paul's just a bloke who made joke on Twitter out of frustration. If you don't know the full story I'd advise people to visit this post at Heresy Corner because he's done a great job of summing up why we should all be appalled that this tweet got Paul into trouble with the police:
"Crap! 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!"
The tweet was posted by Paul when he found out his local airport was closing due to snow and he would miss his flight to Ireland to finally meet up with a girl he'd been dating online. It was clearly A JOKE!
Then Paul got arrested at his work. Then Paul lost his job. Now Paul has been convicted the bizarre crime of menace. Yesterday it went to appeal and Chambers lost again. Poor guy- he must feel like he's in some kind of dystopian Kafka type scenario.
Fellow Tweeter Stephen Fry has offered to pay any fine against Paul Chambers and today we're all repeating his tweet with the hashtag #IAmSparticus alongside it.
Do you think this is a freedom of speech travesty or do you think Paul deserves everything he gets?
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10 comments:
As you know, not on twitter, but have been reading a bit about it in the press (although obviously not the same press as you, because I'd come away feeling only sorry for him and irritation at the waste of police and court time and taxpayers money).
I feel so, so, sorry for the poor man. Even if it was a pretty stupid thing to say, surely ten minutes of police investigation should have resulted in a slapped wrist and a heartfelt guarantee that he'll never do anything like that again...
You forgot to say as well, that he's lost not one, but two, jobs. The second when he went to explain about the forthcoming appeal and why his name might therefore appear in the papers.
Plan B; Thanks for letting me know about that second job- I may edit my post to include than later. Flippin' shame and as you rightly say- total waste of taxpayers money.
I think when you say something to those near and dear to you, you can have a bit of leeway.
When you publish something for the entire world to read you should be very careful
The world is full of people who never had, or somehow lost, all sense of proportion or humour
Seems like a huge miscarriage of justice but if you wanna get involved you can do the #iamspartacus thingie on twitter
A travesty and a waste of everybody's money and time. My God, the pendulum really has swung too far the other way when gone are the days when Al Capone could only be nobbled for tax evasion and instead you can now be arrested and charged over a flippant joke. The law is an ass and needs to be blown up in my opinion. And if I get arrested for saying that I shall use my arrest as proof of the validity of my claim.
Oh my, the poor fella. Agreed it was a poor choice of expression, and I understand police might want to investigate it, but to be arrested and charged based on only that tweet is ridiculous
http://trashwhore.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html (NSFW)
whoa, where did my last comment go, that link makes little sense without it! GAH! Anyhow, I mentioned it reminded me of the post i linked above(post of 31st August) and how I'm genuinely shocked that this twitter thing has
A) gone on for so long now
and
B) not been overturned by someone in the Home Office as an obvious miscarriage of justice or even (and more likely) to score much needed popularity points for our current government.
welcome to the free world
What they all said.
Sheesh!
This just seems like insanity. I agree it was a poor choice of phrase, but honestly, arrest and conviction?! Especially when you consider all the real criminals who are not convicted due to loopholes in the law. It's a mockery of justice.
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