Utter BS
This is an instance of the law being an ass since, even before twitter posters performed their Spartacus act, millions of similar remarks have been made online for many years (go read Usenet history for a few weeks, using Google's web interface if you want to see virtual blood). Singling one out for retribution is childish, selective, ill informed and not what is expected of a supposedly mature judicial system, employing finders and triers of *fact*, not speculation.
This shallow instance of mistrial not only shows a misunderstanding of the net, but also fails to take into account the fact that the so-called 'threat' was neither delivered to nor aimed at the body in question, was not delivered to anyone at all, but more resembled a child's plastic arrow, shot into the air, landing where it did.
The finders and triers of fact did not appear, to any degree, to have demonstrated intent, not to have shown a specific connection between the iterator of the alleged 'threat' and his supposed 'target' (other than being p*ssed off with the airport), no planning [...] actually what we have is an immature assessment of a remark clearly made in the heat of the moment (as any mature human ought to be capable of understanding), with no credible means of activation, including training, equipment and delivery mechanisms. The people who brought these charges would appear to have either responded as if Chambers' remarks were a personal threat to them, or to have taken exception to him, and this is another instance where the CPS is in urgent need of a swift, hard toecap to the crutch.
This is the legacy of 13 years of excessive legislation to cover even random farting in public places, the legacy of a box ticking culture where the letter rather than the spirit of the law is applied, a culture where police officers charge civilians for using a handkerchief whilst driving a car, a culture where things are taken literally and not for what they are, whilst simultaneously allowing its 'stars' to parade a shower of vitriol and stupidity (in return for vast sums of money), where a government can take its military forces to war on the basis of one sample of flimsy evidence and no corroboration, whilst making the MoD pay for their wars, not the contingency funds.
So perhaps I am unsurprised. Perhaps, if Iraquis can be slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands, on the authority of a naff presentation at the UN, and any fabrications that Tony Bliar can produce (remember the yellow cake episode?) that turn out to be false, then Chambers can be sent down for doing something that has been done millions of times before. Let's reopen the Gulag, let's put millions of people in clink for something they did not do, right?
Are readers aware that posting something online that can be construed - no matter how thin the evidence is stretched - to be a threat against the US President, they can be dealt with by the US judiciary/law? Are readers aware of the various devices sifting through online activities - these included - for evidence of a plot? That's it! Chambers was a plotter! Fegelein, bringen sie mir Fegelein!!!!
This is idiocy and the perpetrators are in need of that steel toecap to the groin. Several times. Idiota.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
