A right to think?

You might not think it was possible to be arrested for a joke you made on Twitter, but that is exactly what happened to Paul Chambers.

He was due to fly to Ireland on January 15th but after the extreme bad weather on January sixth which resulted in the closing of the airport he was to fly from, he jokingly posted the following:

You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!

We’ve all done it. We’ve all said and though things similar to this, but for Paul Chambers it resulted in being arrested by police to whom he had to explain what Twitter was because “they’d never heard of it”. It resulted in having to pay to be bailed out, being suspended by his employer, having his laptop, iPhone and home computer taken away and he is still waiting to find out whether or not he will charged with conspiring to create a bomb hoax.

It’s overkill, it’s ridiculous, it displays a complete misunderstanding of the law (by the police no less) and it is about to become the “norm” in our society.

Everyday we make statements such as the one Paul Chambers made. While watching a match on TV – “I’ll kill him if he doesn’t score”. Parents – I’m sure you’ve said “I’ll kill (enter child’s name here) if he’s late home” and other such things.

We do it on blogs,  on social networks and we do it in our day to day conversations. If you need convincing just do a search on twitter for “I’ll kill” or “I’ll blow up” and watch the comments scroll by.

What people and police don’t understand is that expressing the desire to do something does not mean that we *will* do something.

I have a desire to throttle Hugh Grant. I can’t stand they guy. I’ve expressed that desire verbally and in writing a number of times. However, expressing the desire to do something does not mean that I would, have or will. I have (apparently) the ability for rational thought, for self control and to know the difference between right and wrong.

Just because I don’t have much money and say that I would love to “rob a bank”, it does not mean that I will do it or ever had any real intention of doing it. I know it’s wrong and desire aside, I will be driven by my own moral compass. Or to put it another way I know it’s wrong so I won’t do it!

As I said, these types of arrest are about to become the norm rather than the exception.

As governments and law enforcement agencies continue their futile attempts to crack down on terrorism (lets be honest, if you want to do it they can’t really stop you until it is too late) they continue to disregard the difference between “thinking about doing something” and actually “doing something”.

While arrests like these are becoming more common place, we continue to be ourselves, to use social networks and forums, expecting to have the right to think what we want. At the same time companies like Facebook continue to make our previously private data open in the name of data-mining, page views and advertising revenue, providing law enforcement agencies, which are supposed to be protect us, with the means to criminalize use because we choose to think and express ourselves.

To quote civil libertarian Tessa Mayes, an expert on privacy law and free speech issues:

Making jokes about terrorism is considered a thought crime, mistakenly seen as a real act of harm or intention to commit harm.

The police’s actions seem laughable and suggest desperation in their efforts to combat terrorism, yet they have serious repercussions for all of us. In a democracy, our right to say what we please to each other should be non-negotiable, even on Twitter.