14 DAY TRIAL // All around the world, security measures are being tightened to protect us from the most evil of evils, terrorism. Just a few days ago, the FBI's mighty computing power and its brightest forensic detectives put together a mock photo of an older Bin Laden using photos they found on the Internet. Not one to be outdone, the British police has now arrested a man for joking on Twitter that he would blow up the airport if his flight was further delayed.
Turns out they didn't catch any terrorists, but they notched a first on their belt, the first man in the UK to be arrested over a tweet. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the Americans beat them to it again as people have been arrested over the stuff they post on Twitter for quite a while now across the Atlantic.
Paul Chambers was eager to go on vacation to Ireland, but his plans were derailed by the airport authorities which closed down the Robin Hood airport, near Doncaster due to snow. A growing tradition in the UK, the first sign of snow throws the country into chaos and eventually paralysis. As you can imagine, Chambers wasn't thrilled with the prospects and sent out a tweet in frustration, leaving the authorities a week to get their 'act' together "otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
Well, one week later the airport didn't blow up, but the police sure did come knocking on his door. They presented him with a print-out of his tweet and arrested him under the Criminal Law Act 1977. A grueling six-hour interrogation followed, presumably designed to break through his obvious military training and get him to confess to his murderous plans.
Actually, they probably spent that time trying to understand Twitter as the policemen had never heard of the microblogging platform and Chambers had to explain it from the ground up. He was then sent to jail for another hour and then released on bail, but not before having his iPhone confiscated and the tweet deleted. He is now awaiting for February 11 when he is to be informed if the police are pressing charges or not. In the mean time, his iPhone, laptop and home PC have been confiscated. Another clear example of how crime doesn't pay.