It’s rather frightening to see just how long one joke tweet can affect a person’s life.
A man who jokingly tweeted a threat to blow up an airport earlier in the year has since been arrested, been to court, charged, found guilty and fined and been fired from two jobs. Now he’s preparing to return to court tomorrow in a bid to clear his name.
It’s fair to say that Paul Chambers’ tweet in January of this year “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!!” after the airport was shut during heavy snow, has had far more impact on his life than he ever intended.
Tomorrow Chambers returns to court to appeal the guilty verdict and there’s plenty of pressure on the courts to overturn the charge of “Sending by a public communications network a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.
Lawyer and blogger David Allen Green has summed up the case in a must-read post for anyone interested. Green says that the case shows a “Horrifying lack of common sense or proportion shown by any of those who dealt with the matter”. In particular, Green blames the Crown Prosecution Service (the organisation that decides which cases go to court in the UK) for incorrectly interpreting the law in this case.
Paul Chambers’ girlfriend, who blogs under the name CrazyColours, writes today about the effect she says the ordeal has had on the couple:
“I sincerely hope that the Judge tomorrow will see sense, and realise that a person should not have a criminal record for a hyperbolic, humourous tweet. It would be absolutely amazing to get his conviction overturned so we could begin to put this horrible mess behind us…
“Financially, we’re totally buggered. Last night I googled “bankruptcy,” as it’s highly possible that this is the next hurdle to face after the trial. Also, we’re reaching the point of exhaustion. This whole thing has totally worn me down and I’m on the verge of tears constantly – and Paul is the same. He’s normally so cheerful and good humoured, but not so much any more. Everyone is worried about him. I think he’s worried about himself!”
As unwise as it may have been to tweet a bomb threat, it’s just basic common sense that a throwaway joke with no actual intent behind it shouldn’t be allowed to ruin someone’s life.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the outcome of tomorrow’s appeal.
Its common sense not to make these kind of jokes. And if you read his tweet – how is it funny? He made a mistake – going to court, losing his job (probably because he showed a lack of judgment more than anything else) … is part of the price for this horribly distasteful joke. He terrified a whole lot of other people and caused unnecessary panic and distress. After that, he’s welcome to get back to the rest of his life. His life isn’t ruined forever – Martin you are exaggerating.
He was certainly misguided to make a joke like that, funny or not. It’s about proportion, though. Given that there was absolutely no risk of harm to anyone, it’s over the top to drag him through all of this. His life isn’t ruined forever, I never said it was, but if he’s lost two jobs and is close to bankruptcy because of a harmless quip, I’d say it’s certainly been ruined for the year, wouldn’t you?
Thanks Martin for the prompt response.
How do you know its not real or no risk at the beginning? If a real terrorist made that tweet, I’d WANT the police to go over in person and check it out. So they did and it wasn’t a high alert – and I think that’s to their credit that they figured that out (the empathy is misplaced with Mr. Chambers). These days how DO you know its not a terrorist or a crazy person who is actually going to execute on the threat? So they went through their processes. These processes aren’t unreasonable. Someone makes a very, very serious threat (blow up an airport vs I’ve been kidnapped prank) and for these serious threats the authorities set up a system to investigate. Mr. Chambers is going through the processes – visit in person/arrest/charges/court case/etc. If he goes bankrupt as a result, that is a consequence of his actions that he has to bear.
I’d rather have these processes in place than not.
In any case, maybe they are using Mr. Chambers as an example. If so, good. Then there would no jokes like this that waste police time and resources.
Mr. Chambers is unapologetic. This is what he wrote on guardian “The reason for the arrest was a tweet I had posted on the social network Twitter, which was deemed to constitute a bomb threat against Robin Hood airport in Doncaster: “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!” You may say, and I certainly realise now, it was ill-advised. But it was clearly frustration, caused by heavy snowfall grounding flights and potentially scuppering my own flight a week later. Like having a bad day at work and stating that you could murder your boss, I didn’t even think about whether it would be taken seriously.”
“Deemed to constitute”? “Clearly frustration?” I think not. It was a tweet. People reading it/retweets COULD have no clue.
Mr. Chambers, by the way, is 26 years old. If he was twelve, even eighteen, his case and the case you make for him, would draw more sympathy from me, maybe even agreement.
Till then, welcome to being an adult and being responsible for what you say and do.
p/s he discloses his total cost is 2,000 pounds and that others have offered to donate to him. Hardly a case for bankruptcy. His girlfriend appears to be trying to drum up more sympathy for him and his cause.
Fair point of view Katie, however: Total fine + cost of lawyer + people saying they’ll donate and then not following through + fact he’s unemployed = likely a *lot* more than £2000 cost to his finances.
Thanks Martin. Perhaps those who said they’d donate, were just joking.
Thanks Martin. Perhaps those who said they’d donate, were just joking :)
Anyone who is actually going to blow up an airport should be smart enough not to tweet about it. While this tweet wasn’t clearly a joke, it’s a bit overboard for this guy to be arrested, etc.
I totally agree. For a tweet like that to be taken seriously they should’ve looked beyond the single tweet. If it would have been a series of tweets, okay, but this is clearly someone who is joking. If I tweet ‘I’m so hungry I can eat a horse’ should I be arrested for animal cruelty? Drunk driving for “I drink better when I drive!” or for threatening a person when I write “Guys, bring me some beer or I’m going to pop a cap in your *$$!”? I guess not…
I’ve never heard of a terrorist tweeting an attack.
Enough said really.
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