[buchanan700]

(Original post by internetguru)
Help help! I'm in serious need of assistance somebody called me gay on twitter!

a) I said serious need of assistance
b) the cases which you are mocking, in which the police had to get involved, were beyond a few gay jokes and silly teasing. Death threats and actual harassment need to be dealt with. People can actually be hurt when things get taken too far, and yes I have acknowledged that sometimes the police may jump the gun a bit, but it's better them making a few mistakes, than these things being completely ignored.
Cyber bullying has seen a steady rise, I've seen it first-hand as a trainee teacher, and it's not a joke.

[internetguru]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
No


As I have said, your understanding of internet bullying is clearly different from mine ... indeed it would seem that your understanding of bullying is different from mine

Then why don't you explain what should and should not be considered bullying rather than assuming we are all idiots for not being able to read your mind.

[TenOfThem]

(Original post by internetguru)
Then why don't you explain what should and should not be considered bullying rather than assuming we are all idiots for not being able to read your mind.

I certainly do not think you are an idiot and if I have come across as suggesting that I apologise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbu...gal_definition

I would not argue with the legal definition ... of course most of the bullying that I have to deal with is by people who know the target

[hughcapet]

(Original post by boba)
it doesn't matter whether the threats had any real intent behind them making them was illegal so he could be arrested for it. So I don't think it was really taken out of context as I don't think anyone even claimed to worry for their safety. And if your going to do something illegal is seems kind of stupid to do it in a very public way

So no I don't think he is a safety threat but hes pretty stupid.

I don't know the exact word of the law I think threatening someone with violence is illegal, but I get the impression that the lad made threats of violence in response to Tom Daley's followers having a go at him for his earlier comment. If he was constantly messaging individual Twitter users and making threats in a sustained campaign of harassment then maybe that would be reason enough to involve the police, but it seems that he made the threats in the heat of the moment.

If the police had any sense they'd see that his comments were made during a heated exchange. Even if he could be arrested according to the law, you don't need the law when you've got common sense. I say don't arrest him and let him keep making a pubic dick of himself on the internet, if that's what he wants

[hughcapet]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
No he didn't this is a different case

Thanks for pointing that out, I thought this thread was about the user who insulted Tom Daley's dad.

Yet another stupid case of the police wading in and poking their noses where they have no business. However hurtful it may be to whoever is on the receiving end of such abuse, it's only words.

I remember when I was at school the boys used to call each other 'gay' all the time. It's a wonder none of us were arrested for inciting homophobia!

[gagaslilmonsteruk]

I would call states with a lot of dictatorship like North Korea a police state. Here in the West whilst things like arrests for offensive/threatening tweets are increasing, and rightly so, I think we still have a great deal of freedom in comparison to others. In some countries people are arrested just because they are gay or lesbian. People in the former GDR had their houses bugged and were arrested and had disappeared and although the files are now in the public domain in Germany, a lot of people don't want to see them as it brings back too many negative and powerful memories. So no, I don't think we are in comparison.

[thecrimsonidol]

Again, this is about the response used. Arresting people for particularly threatening/abusive messages is indeed absure due to the vast amount of people who do it and the fact it would be unenforceable as a deterrent. Things such as restricting internet access, fines etc. may be far more effective.

[lyrical_lie]

(Original post by Marco1)
It is the Police Service now actually. It is politically incorrect to say refer to them as a Force now, thanks to the misguided sensitivities of the fickle British general public. Policing by consent and all that linguistic Tom Foolery. You wanted a pink and fluffy police service so that's what you've got! The French, Spanish and German models of policing for example, are far more effective and focused on crime, rather than dealing with time-wasting law suits from ill-conceived complaints and petty perceived injustices. Mind you such countries have an entirely different legal system to work from. Unfortunately we are stuck with the over-complicated and selfdefeating, organic nightmare of English Law. It is not the police who set the targets. You can blame the Home Office for that.

And Scots law too

[kka25]

(Original post by TenOfThem)
That would be a disciplinary matter in most school

Most schools have a staff internet policy

ironically enough, the tutor has a Law degree teaching Law subjects...

[Snagprophet]

'Anti-gay' tweets? What? I don't remember this.

Anyway, I totally agree that it was right to take action against someone making death threats. I don't believe insulting people is (or at least should be) an arrestable offence but death threats are going too far. The problem is that the media twists it into that the guy merely insulted/focused on Tom Daley. Perhaps if this hadn't happened to a famous person he wouldn't have been caught, but it's a terrible idea to make death threats to famous people.

[systeric]

I thought 'oh FFS, here we go again' when I saw the thread title. But wow, these twitter arrests are getting way out of hand.

I can kinda understand the previous one, seeing as the guy was being pretty malicious and making threats of violence. But it was still heavy handed to arrest him IMO. This one is beyond a joke. Just some slightly non-pc guy fannying around a bit. Nothing really malicious about it whatsoever.

[cpfc12]

(Original post by cid)
Police are target driven morons, as long as they get a charge to add to the end of year tally so their higher ups get their pat on the back and maybe a nudge towards an MBE, and the lowers get that extra sniff at making sergeant they don't care how stupid something is.


Just to clarify, i am in no way an anarchist, i do however think our police force ...sorry service, should be re hauled from the ground up.

Trying checking out the other police forces around the world if you think ours is bad. its not about promotion for most rank and file officers, its more about keeping their jobs in this recession, as for the political arrests, i think you can blame the media and government more than anything else.

[lbsf1]

What I find alarming is how the police get involved in this yet on a karting forum I'm part of there has been a guy on there who had ripped off many people selling goods he doesn't have. Many people have reported him to the police for fraud and theft however the police are just saying that it is a civil matter and they will not get involved.

So they are happy to arrest a person for insulting someone over the internet yet won't get involved when someone steals money off people by saying he is selling goods of which he doesn't have.

[cid]

(Original post by cpfc12)
Trying checking out the other police forces around the world if you think ours is bad. its not about promotion for most rank and file officers, its more about keeping their jobs in this recession, as for the political arrests, i think you can blame the media and government more than anything else.

Why would you use the incompetence of others as a yard stick?

It would be like me killing 20 people and then going, 'well if you think that's bad, at least i didn't kill as many as Breivik'

It does nothing to excuse my actions just as other forces incompetence does nothing to excuse our own.