When is a bomb threat just a joke?
For decades, even centuries the younger generation has always tried to be a bit more controversial by pushing the boundaries of their time. Now when most of the world is online we seem to be constantly pushing the boundaries more and more to the extreme. What might seem like a joke now would probably be seen as extremely offensive only 10 years ago; but we also have things that no one took offence to 10 years ago that you do not dare to say today. Or at least should not dare to say.
As we have managed to confuse ourselves with what is okay and not okay to joke about the line has become extremely blurred. It has even become a bit crocked, because at one point it is high up on the scale, but the next second it is almost at the bottom. Due to this confusion we seem to be developing this strong attitude that anything goes. So suddenly it is really not about humour anymore, it is more about who can be the most shocking person this second.
Someone who tried to be funny, but got caught and punished for it is journalist Paul Chambers.
Robin Hood airport was closed because of heavy snowfall in January, something an airport can’t be blamed for, he thought it would be completely okay to post the following message on Twitter:
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!
I do not know much about Robin Hood airport; actually I know nothing about the airport, but I highly doubt they control the weather. Looking at what he wrote without knowing this person I would at least not brush it off as something silly. Obviously the police had the same concern and Picked up Mr. Chambers and later on charged him for ‘sending a menacing message’, and to pay some fines and the legal costs.
It is not mentioned, but I see his charge also a punishment of wasting the time of the police, the court, and taxpayers money.
It is very important to understand, when you are trying to be funny, that it is really not that important if you think it is funny. If your audience do not laugh at your joke or your joke gets you in a lot of trouble, that joke was probably not that funny. You also need to make it obvious that you are joking. Something that is very difficult with plain text.
Most of you know I do not like being watched by the government and freedom of speech is very important to me, but people like Mr. Chambers really doesn’t help my case.
Seriously?! Can anyone please tell me when joking about blowing something up became a joke? Can we now assume that when anyone threatens to blow something up they are just being silly and also a bit frustrated? Should we also expect the police to tell us if we report such a “joke” that we should ignore it because someone is probably just joking?
If the police started to ignore bomb threats because they need to stop being so sensitive, but bombs really started to go off everywhere, the public would then turn on them again and call them useless and say they are not doing their job.
Seriously?! What do you want? Do you want a police force that is vigilant or do you just want to make everything a joke and hope everything will be okay?
I understand that some people can never be pleased. Just look at what happened with the huge ash cloud that disrupted the air traffic in Europe. People moaned about the governments being too strict.
I can promise you that if airplanes would start falling out of the air because of this ash cloud the governments would be blamed to have been too soft.
Let us not forget the online threats made by students who went on a rampage and killed a bunch of people at different schools. Should we also ignore those too now, because they might just be joking, they are just kids you know, and how dare we police jokes, right?
We live in a time where not only jokes go a bit too far, but also a time where people in general go a bit too far. Some people have become so ruthless and fearless they gladly post their threats online.
If you had to choose between these two options, what would it be?
- Ignore a bomb threat that would later kill a lot of innocent people?
- Arrest someone making a bomb threat to later learn that this person has a really poor sense of humour?
To be honest, I would rather see some idiot get dragged to court for making a tasteless “joke” than the risk of people actually dying for the cause that people should be allowed to make jokes about bomb threats.
What I have seen a lot lately is people who is incapable of using social networking tools properly. It is almost like they do not understand the whole world can read their public updates and people do not hear the tone you wrote that 140 character tweet in. That some do not hear the ironic tone it was written in is not their fault, it is your fault Mr. Chambers for not understanding that.
I have also noticed that some love to blame everyone else and are not willing to take any responsibility what so ever for what they do.
