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Darthbaz
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| Posted: 11 November 2010 at 2:11pm | IP Logged
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has been following this clicky but the guy is this minute appealing against his sentence , obviously not a serious threat and if it IS deemed that then surely this sh*te from a concillor in Birmingham deserves to be treated the same way clicky
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Nhumrod
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| Posted: 12 November 2010 at 12:10pm | IP Logged
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WTF?!?!?! What ever happened to freedom of speech?!?! It was obviously a joke!!! There is something seriosly broken with this country...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/11/twitter-joke-trial-appeal-verdict
I cant possibly explain how angry this makes me, without using a LOT of expletives! If we cant poke fun at serious situations, then age old institutions like Private Eye may as well close their doors now for fear of being prosecuted as terrorists, menacing through the form of cartoons.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARSE!
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Darthbaz
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| Posted: 12 November 2010 at 4:29pm | IP Logged
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Says it a lot more eloquently than I could clikcy
Edited by Nhumrod on 14 November 2010 at 6:47pm
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Darthbaz
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| Posted: 12 November 2010 at 4:33pm | IP Logged
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Also someone has written a letter to their MP and given permission for others to use it as well so copy and paste it and wing it on it's way to your MP . Find your MP here
Dear MP,
I am motivated to write to you in the wake of a man getting a criminal record this week for making a flippant remark on the social networking website, Twitter.
In January this year Paul Chambers made an innocuous, arch comment in frustration when he found out his local airport was closed and he couldn’t travel to Belfast to visit a young woman he was anxious to meet as their friendship had flourished online.
He said: “Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week… otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
This comment was intended for Twitter users who had chosen to follow him but was published openly on the service for all to view. If they could find it amongst the thousands of tweets (messages on Twitter) posted every minute.
By chance, a few days later, the airport’s duty manager found this tweet and notified airport security. In turn they notified the police and Paul Chambers was arrested. This was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service who, after ruling out the Criminal Law Act 1977, deemed parts 127(1)(A) and (3) of the Communications Act 2003 were infringed and this then became a matter for Doncaster Crown Court.
In May 2010 Paul Chambers was found guilty of sending a menacing message via a public telecommunications network. The appeal was heard on 12th November and rejected. Paul Chambers has been fined and worse has been given a criminal record. He has lost two jobs and will now find it harder to get another.
While his life has now been made far worse for broadcasting a facetious comment any one of us could make and not actually mean it, we now have a dangerous, documented precedent set limiting our freedom of expression.
We have a CPS and a judge that appears to have robotically adjudicated without the application of context and without considering the existence of the many facets of humour that the British are renown for: irony, sarcasm, hyperbole, sub-text, subversion and more I cannot think of. We also have an Act of Parliament that allows the prosecution of an individual without the burden of proving intent.
Do we now live in a United Kingdom where we cannot speak freely? Do we now live in a United Kingdom where not only must we be overly nervous of causing offence when engaging with humour we now must be cautious of prosecution?
Judge Jacqueline Davies determined the message contained “obvious menace” and that “anyone in this country in the present climate of terrorist threats, especially at airports, could not be unaware of the possible consequences”.
“Anyone in this country” is quite an assumption to make, but then “anyone” could make such a comment but expect people to understand the context in which it was made.
Also of considerable concern to me is that the record shows at various points in this case that the police have made statements and behaved in ways that clearly suggest that they did not believe that there was ever any intended menace, or that Paul Chamber’s comments were intended as anything other than a joke, and that their testimony, and reticence in treating this case as a credible threat has been summarily ignored by the Judge’s ruling and closing statements.
If we are to take the stance that we must ever be vigilant to the threat of terror, particularly in the “current climate”, we should be chilled that so many of the resources meant to be being used to keep us safe and secure are being spent instead on chasing spurious convictions, against the protests and better judgement of our police. Not only do such rulings erode at our rights, and at the parts of our national identity that we can actually be proud of, they also make it far harder for the police, our legal system and our government to do their jobs, with the support and respect of the people.
I believe the judgement was wrong. I believe the judge acted too sensitively to the climate of fear stirred by terrorist alerts and did not fairly consider the context and the method of communication used. I believe we have a CPS incorrectly prosecuting and a broken Act able to target anybody with a clunking fist. I believe if somebody did more than just their job and realised the situation was ridiculous this never would have got as far as it did.
Freedom of expression died a little this week (on Armistice Day of all days) and the terrorists we are so determined to defeat have limited our liberty yet again without lifting a finger. I am saddened and ashamed by this and I implore you to ensure that if the Paul Chambers decision cannot be challenged that nobody else falls foul to such short-sightedness.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name goes here]
[Your address goes here]
Edited by Darthbaz on 12 November 2010 at 4:34pm
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Sirwomble
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Occasional Table
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| Posted: 13 November 2010 at 9:38am | IP Logged
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Democracy at its best
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Nhumrod
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 12:38am | IP Logged
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Emailed my MP, he's the Education Secretary, Michael Gove! Funnily enough, our old MP before we moved, was the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond... 
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greg
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 2:44am | IP Logged
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Does no one else think the guy sounds like a bit of an oddball though? "GRRR I've met my girlfriend on the internet and now I can't go meet her for real so I'm going to blow an airport up GRRRR"
Nice one mate 
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Nhumrod
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 3:04am | IP Logged
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Thats the point though isnt it; we're Brits so we can be as odd as we fckin like, as long as we arent hurting anyone! This guy MADE A JOKE, ONLINE, TO HIS MATES (much like we all do on here, week in week out). Due to some stupid busy body, nosey twat at Robin Hood (and the chain of idiots after him), the guy gets arrested, held in prison for a day, then charged and convicted of a crime written to protect 1930s telephone ladies.
How much do you think all this cost the taxpayer too?
Thats not the kind of Britain i thought I was living in...
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dazzy
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 9:09am | IP Logged
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O my god....
Stop arguing or im gonna BLOW this WEBSITE UP!
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Darthbaz
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 10:47am | IP Logged
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*reports*
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Nhumrod
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 6:45pm | IP Logged
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Sounds like a "legitimate threat" to me... HANG HIM!
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Phantom
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| Posted: 14 November 2010 at 7:03pm | IP Logged
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