Robin Hood Airport
We have seen what happens when someone calls or emails a bomb threat to an airline or airport. With the popularity of Twitter, it was only amount of time before someone tweeted a threat.
Paul Chambers, a finance supervisor living in England was not happy about Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport not staying open because of snow. Like many he showed his anger on Twitter, but he might have gone a little too far. “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he tweeted. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s#@* together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!!”
It is easy for someone tweet an opinion without really thinking about it. Sitting in a robe, ranting, forgetting others (ie police) can be reading. Someone tipped off the South Yorkshire Police who took Chambers’ tweet very seriously. He was arrested and questioned for seven hours before being released on bail. He has been suspended from his job and had his iPhone and laptop confiscated. He is also not welcome at the Robin Hood Airport for life.
Now, people should know that even a joke isn’t taken lightly, but should the police have reacted so aggressively towards Mr. Chambers? Or was he just blowing off a little steam and took it one step too far?
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Source: Guardian Image: Robin Hood Airport
I think we should look at both sides of this issue: Threatening to blow up Robin Hood airport on Twitter and the person”s subsequent arrest in England.
On the one hand, making a public statement involving ”blowing up an airport” is a stupid and careless thing to do. We should be taken to task for publicly uttering stupid and scary threats, but is arrest and job loss not going too far assuming there is no substance to the remark? On the other hand, individuals using social networks do so for a great many purposes. What if, for example, a desperate person who is slipping into some form of mental illness knows no other way than to ask for help in a stupid and careless way? If the illness ultimately resulted in the person causing death and destruction at an airport, would you like to be in the position of the police who when asked about the remark after the incident, said they dismissed it as simply stupid and careless and hence ignored it?
The bottom line is that today”s authorities have no tolerance for threats of this kind in any circumstance or forum and must investigate them all. A word to the wise would be to keep your frustrated twitters to yourself and save the police unnecessary work.