Of course, I’m not plotting to blow up an airplane, despite the intentionally provocative headline above, and anybody who would believe for moment that such a headline constitutes a threat that should make me the subject of a terrorism investigation, let alone criminal proceedings is a complete and utter idiot.
And yet, that’s exactly what happened to Paul Chambers for venting his frustrations over airport delays with the following harmless tweet:
“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.”
And the thoughtful, calm response of British authorities?
He was held under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of conspiring to create a bomb hoax and questioned for seven hours.
Mr Chambers was eventually released on bail until February 11 pending further enquiries.
His Twitter post was deleted and his laptop, iPhone and home computer confiscated.
He also been banned from Robin Hood airport for life and suspended from his job while an internal investigation is launched.
Yeah, because we all know that real terrorists always publicly tweet their intentions before striking.
Now I know that some of you trolls will respond that a bomb threat is a bomb threat, and should be punished accordingly, regardless of whether this poor schmoe actually had the means or intention of carrying it out, but, well… get a life. It’s not even like this guy made the comment while sitting on an airplane, or standing in line at security, or even passing time in an airport bar. Context matters, and both the context and content of the tweet make it clear that there was no threat, implied or otherwise. (Is it actually possible to blow up an airport? And had he said the same thing, or worse, in a comedy sketch, would that have been equally prosecutable?) And yet in the name of security theater, Chambers now finds himself banned for life from his local airport, out of a job, and potentially facing huge legal bills if not an actual prison term.
Feel safer?
Reportedly, when Chambers tried to explain to investigators what Twitter is, and the context behind his tweet of exasperation, the officer merely responded “It is the world we live in.” A shameless cop-out if I ever heard one.
As the wise folks at Gizmodo opined:
Indeed, it’s the world we live in, giving up on all our civil liberties for a sense of false security, and allowing morons to run the world.
Well, if that’s the world we live in, I might just have to blow it sky high.
UPDATE:
The post has been up for four hours now, and I haven’t been arrested yet. I guess there are benefits to being an American.
UPDATE, UPDATE:
24 hours later, and the feds still haven’t busted down my door and hauled me away. What’s up with that?
C’mon Goldy, where’ve you been? Britain has a king and nobility, and doesn’t have free speech. That’s why we revolted.
Thanks to the IRA, the Brits take security at airports a little bit more seriously than we do.
Roger’s right – we tend to forget that despite the Magna Carta and the “unwritten constitution” and all that, the British have never had the same level of free speech we have.
But that kind of begs the question – what if he had done the same thing here?
I suspect that if authorities had gotten hold of the same tweet, they might have responded in much the same way.
BTW –
Hoax being the operative word.
One of the things which is particularly upsetting is the delegation of virtual unquestioned authority to TSA, airport security, and the flight crew. While in principle you want someone to be in charge when you are 30,000 feet in the air in what is essentially and aluminum tube, in practice it hasn’t always worked out so well.
What can easily happen is that a TSA worker or a flight crew member gives a patently mistaken or unreasonable demand, and your attempt to assert your rights suddenly becomes “interference with a flight crew member in the performance of their duties”, a federal offense.
Like when the overworked flight attendant got upset at the passenger who asked for an orange juice, reported him to the captain as being unruly and disruptive, and issued a formal warning to him that he could suffer legal consequences as a result of his conflict. Fortunatly for him, he was in first class, rather than economy class. I say that was was fortunate for him because his fellow passengers were accostomed to being treated like important customers, rather than cattle, were offended by the flight attendant’s behavior, and several waited for a while after arrival to give statements to airline management, airport security and TSA supporting his version of events.
The funny thing is, I’m just old enough to remember traveling when you could escort your traveling family members to the gate and wave goodby to them as the airplane taxied out, you didn’t have to go through any security at all, and you could even bring guns on board (not that I ever tried).
ya know, in this day and age, he really should have known better than to write something like that.
I remember once in the late 1990s being stuck at a connection city airport overnight due to snow. They told us that since no planes were getting out, our luggage could be picked up as if at our final destination. When we got down to baggage and our bags weren’t there, some random guy on my flight went ballistic. In frustration, he shouted, “If my bag doesn’t show up, I’m going to bomb this place.”
Well, this was pre-911, but security was on this guy in an instant. I don’t know where they took him or what happened next, but the bottom line is that threatening to bomb planes or airports has never really been a smart move. Not then, not now.
of course, I don’t mean to imply that the penalty the guy in Goldy’s story got is deserved. No, it seems quite extreme. But my point remains the same: intelligent people don’t make jokes about bombing anything related to air travel!
@8
Yup!
JFK got shut down by a guy who opened the wrong door. Terrorist don’t need to blowup planes to stop our economy, the just need to run around airports opening doors willy-nilly.
@5 “The funny thing is, I’m just old enough to remember traveling when you could escort your traveling family members to the gate and wave goodby to them as the airplane taxied out, you didn’t have to go through any security at all, and you could even bring guns on board (not that I ever tried).”
I have a close friend who went to the airport with his mom and brother and sister to meet their dad, who was returning home from a business trip, back in the early 60s. The plane crashed at the end of the runway and exploded in a ball of fire, killing everyone on board, in full view of the families in the terminal. His dad, by the way, was a hero of the beach landings at Normandy on D-Day.
reasonable @8,
The guy wasn’t at the airport. He was tweeting about a flight a week away. Any reasonable person would have understood his tweet to have been harmless hyperbole. Instead, to cover their own asses, the authorities now seem prepared to prosecute him for perpetrating a bomb hoax.
The only hoax here is that this has anything to do with making us safer. It’s about asserting authority, pure and simple.
you cant deny the holocaust in europe either…so whats your point?
the tsa took away my child’s yellow wiffle ball bat (made in the usa btw) on the way back from sfo. in seattle on the way out, tsa let the wiffle ball bat on board the plane. sfo tsa let me take my razor on board. security is code for something. i hear it’s all the talk in haiti right now.
RR @ 10: Now that I’ve got my memory working on the subject, I remember in the very early 1960’s, actually GOING OUT ONTO THE TARMAC with my mom & sister to say goodbye to my dad right before he climbed the staires onto a DC-4. When the plane turned to taxi out, we were blasted with gravel from the prop wash.
Man, I must be getting old!
Amazing how the British species of jobsworth makes ours look like a bunch of pikers. Of course one big difference is here someone with some sense (or who just doesn’t want to process the paperwork) typically will speak up before things get too silly. In the UK it would seem the instinct is to close ranks and CYA rather than admit the initial call was bullocks.
Massachusetts peeps just blew up the airplane containing the 60 vote filibuster proof meme!
Yawwn. What a myth that was..
Ever hear of Lieberman? Nelson? Lincoln?
3 years for the man with bullhorn and the teabagger bullshit.. I don’t see any more past that.
@15 I remember boarding flights across the tarmac in the 80s. And I got to go on the tarmac in 1970 when my dad came home from Viet Nam.
But I digress.
@2 – How would you feel about the Brits if they had militarily occupied our country for the last 700 years? They’re assholes and lots of people in the world want to kick their asses. But this guy obviously wasn’t one of them.
I believe your headline. I believe someone who advocates taking guns to political rallies to “settle” disputes is a danger to us all. & I only hope TSA & the FBI agree with me.
expat @19,
Of course you do. Because you believe it’s wrong to use government to, say, educate children or help provide poor people access to health care, but it is right to use the power of the state to intimidate dissenters and to suppress political speech.
So, my question for you is… why do you hate America?