Deported for a fucking Twitter joke?

[kpete]

Tourists deported from U.S. for Twitter jokes
By Rob Beschizza at 6:50 am Monday, Jan 30

Two U.K. tourists landing in L.A. were detained and deported because of tweets joking about "diggin' up" Marilyn Monroe and "destroying" America.

According to DHS paperwork, Leigh Van Bryan was matched to a "One Day Lookout" list, placed under oath, and ultimately denied entry and put on a plane back to Europe.

"He wrote on his tweeter website account that he was coming to the United States to dig up the grave of Marilyn Monroe," DHS officials wrote on his charge sheet. "Also on his tweeter account Mr. Bryan posted that he was coming to destroy America."


http://boingboing.net/2012/01/30/brits-deported-from-u-s-for-t.html

[Nye Bevan]

1. Joking about "destroying America" is probably not the absolute smartest thing to do

when visiting the USA. I would suggest sticking to mother-in-law jokes.

[snagglepuss]

6. You don't have an issue for people being arrested tweeting off-hand expressions. No

consideration for context? Will people get waterboarded for tweeting
"it's going to be a blast"?

[Nye Bevan]

7. If they were sent to prison, that would be an overreaction.

But not allowing them in the US, and sending them back home? I have no problem with that. I believe that most other countries would not welcome people who joked about "destroying" them.

[snagglepuss]

8. They were jailed for 12 hours. I find your reaction mind boggling.

[Nye Bevan]

9. Hopefully they learned their lesson (nt)

[snagglepuss]

10. Your submissive acquiescence to authority is alarming.

[Nye Bevan]

14. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you alarmed. (nt)

[snagglepuss]

16. You're right alarmed isn't the right word. Pathetic is more to the point.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

12. The lesson that the US has become a jackbooted thug place populated by people afraid of their own

...shadows and plenty of people like you to cause us to be embarrassed on the world stage? Yeah, I guess they probably learned that lesson.

[Nye Bevan]

15. Wow. They were beaten up by "jackbooted thugs"?

That sucks.

Or were they just denied admission and sent home because they said they were going to "destroy America"?

[Rex]

20. They were denied admisson because America is overrun by wannabe govt 'heroes'.

that pretend to care about critical thinking skills in the workforce. Okay, they don't pretend to care...they just don't have any.

Major FAIL goes to both groups involved. The SHAME should go to the DHS...but they are too busy coming up with ways to be instant 'heroes' and not responsible adults with critical thinking skills.

I would be embaressed to work with such a group.

[Nye Bevan]

24. So if a visitor to the US says they will "destroy America",

all they have to do is claim that it was a joke, and you would welcome them in with open arms?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. Yeah, because terrorists tweet their intentions.

good fucking grief

[Rex]

30. LOL!

Hey...where did you get that Angry Muffin from? Does DHS know? Maybe I should tweet about it...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

33. See here:

Nobody likes a snitch


http://www.democraticunderground.com/124037745

[Nye Bevan]

34. Good point. And I guess the Secret Service shouldn't bother investigating

threats against the President. Because no real wrongdoer will ever telegraph their intentions in advance.

[Rex]

35. So these visitors were a threat to the POTUS now?

It just gets bigger and bigger...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

39. LOL. I get it - performance art.

[Rex]

32. That would only work for someone with no critical thinking skills.

Have fun with it!

[SaintPete]

62. This is why you stop and question the dork

and then after you realize he was just a dork, you say "Welcome to America dork, don't be a dork while you're here, or we'll stomp you"

And then you get over it.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

43. not mutually exclusive. Yes, they were beaten by jackbooted thugs. thanks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

49. To not joke on Twitter??

Seems like a rather extreme punishment.

Meanwhile the speaker of the House in the Kansas legislature sends out an email praying for the president's death and nothing happens to him.

Anyone see a problem here?

[PassingFair]

38. I don't.

It's typical.

[Nye Bevan]

51. You sound like a disappointed headmaster (nt)

[PassingFair]

57. Now, now....

you never disappoint.

[Enrique]

2. Tweeter?

&quot He wrote) on his tweeter(sic) website account that he was coming to the United States to dig up the grave of Marilyn Monroe," DHS officials wrote on his charge sheet. "Also on his tweeter(sic) account Mr. Bryan posted that he was coming to destroy America."

[Capitalocracy]

3. Oh my God, I can't believe they let them enter the country in the first place!

But at least they caught them before they could carry out their extremely series threats.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. They probably should have shot the plane down just in case.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

[Rex]

37. You know...that muffin has upgraded your snark level

doncha know! I would never have expected a Star Trek reference! Maybe we should go to war with the UK for tweeting Family Guy lines? That probably is a crime in some countries.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. They'll probably extradite him for copyright infringement. Like that file-sharing college kid.

That's a different department.

[Rex]

42. Hey, this would be a perfect time to spend trillions

on a new Death Laser Platform(tm) in space...just for these kinds of situations!

DHS/NSA/CIA/CIB/CICofCID&FBI Overlord of all Secrets - "Where they serious or did they get that from a movie?"

Govt serf - "Family Guy, sir."

DHS/NSA/CIA/CIB/CID/ABCDEFG overlord of all secrets - "Fire at will."

[Capitalocracy]

45. "Family Guy, sir."

Very good, space death laser them just in case, then arrest the ashes for copyright infringement and fine them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Rex]

47. Also, do a DNA scan to make sure nothing living remains

they might be shapeshifters AND we all know shapeshifters have been trying to destroy America since 1812. Errr...1912. You know...the year we invented the 'secret government' and declared war on Spain, for a third time.

[Lint Head]

4. The GOP have destroyed America and they're not joking.

[a simple pattern]

5. Thanks you guys

this terrorist was about to destroy us! i'm glad you looked at his tweeter, i hate to think what he would have done to poor Marilyn

[leveymg]

11. Evidence that every Brit's Twitter messages are monitored? No warrants needed. Evidence also that

Last edited Mon Jan 30, 2012, 02:52 PM - Edit history (1)

whoever's doing the analysis at NSA/DHS is a complete Twit.

[snagglepuss]

19. How utterly idiotic for NSA/DHA to advertise the fact that

they monitor all tweets, now anyone actually intending to commit a crime will adjust their tweets accordingly.

[Nye Bevan]

22. To be fair, if there was a terrorist act in the US

and it turned out that the perps had been tweeting about their plans ahead of time, we would be pretty pissed off if it turned out that they were *not* being monitored.

[leveymg]

25. To be fair, you don't give away your program by interrogating everyone who Tweets that phrase.

Particularly, as anyone who has any actual human intelligence should know there's an obvious double-meaning to that sentence.

Tweet "Big wedding" or "light the match", however, and Delta Team comes through your skylight.

[Downwinder]

13. I am sure a few people will heed this warning

and take their vacation money elsewhere.

[Nye Bevan]

17. Most countries take a dim view of people who say they will destroy them.

These folks should probably just not travel abroad.

[mr blur]

63. You know, you're an idiot.

Or you have no sense of humour. Or you're an idiot with no sense of humour.

Do you even have any idea who Aneurin Bevan was?

[Nye Bevan]

64. My sense of humor does not extend to running my mouth off about "destroying" countries

that I am planning on visiting.

While jokes about bombing planes, destroying countries etc. can be hilarious, this line of humor is not really appropriate these days in the context of international travel.

As for being an idiot? Perhaps, but on this board we try not to discriminate against members whose IQ is abnormally low. DU is welcoming to geniuses, idiots, and everyone in between.

[gratuitous]

18. We've blown people to Kingdom Come for less

Mr. Van Bryan better thank his lucky stars that he was merely denied entry to the country, rather than having a drone missile strike blow up his neighborhood. The United States is the crazy violent drunk in the community of nations, and it doesn't take kindly to anything but the most abject obeisance. And even at that, we're pretty touchy.

This is how nature says, "Stay away."

[Nye Bevan]

23. The US is the "crazy violent one"?

Iran or Libya would have gone easier on them?

[gratuitous]

29. Check with the survivors of Abu Ghraib

And Guantanamo, and Haditha. Ask them what they ever did wrong. If you can.

[riverwalker]

21. for Tweeting "blow away" sales competition

Quebec Accused of 'Absurd' Terror Arrest

MONTREAL (CN) - A Muslim sales manager claims Quebec police illegally arrested him and "absurdly" accused him of being a terrorist because of "a pep talk he had given his fellow sales staff about 'blowing away' the competition".

"The complaint states: "On Friday, January 21, 2011, plaintiff had sent a message from his cell phone to about thirty of his sales staff that he wanted to 'blow away' the competition at a trade show in New York City the next day"
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/30/43447.htm

[mainer]

28. holy cow, we can't say anything without being accused of terrorism.

The list of trigger words must be hundreds of pages long.

Oops, I used the word trigger.

[Capitalocracy]

31. And you said terrorism.

And you said "holy cow". They're going to think you're an extremist Hindu terrorist.

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. LOL!

I shouldn't have laughed because that's probably something the mental midgets at DHS would think.

[mainer]

41. I'm doomed.

Is doom on the list?

[Capitalocracy]

44. haha... probably

but both "Democratic" and "Underground" are probably on the list too, so we're all in the same boat.

[a la izquierda]

48. Oh my lord, I'm cracking up.

[alp227]

46. in the post-9/11 era you shouldn't ever joke about violence like this

[Capitalocracy]

50. It means "party". They weren't joking about violence. nt

[mainer]

52. That's the sad thing. All this over a cross-Atlantic misunderstanding of slang.

The Brits are now joking that if they say they're coming to "paint the town red," Homeland Security will search their suitcase for paint.

[BrendaBrick]

61. Yep. Sadly. n/t

[FarCenter]

53. When you are a guest in another country, behave and be polite.

Yes, I know its not the American way either!

[T S Justly]

54. Obama's Homeland Security doesn't like jokes. Okay? K&R (nt)

[ZombieHorde]

55. This is what happens when we choose to take the folks who call themselves

the government so seriously. They start taking themselves really seriously.

[Courtesy Flush]

56. "Interviewed by highly-respected British newspapers such as The Sun and The Daily Mail"

I wish they'd said that at the beginning of the article, so I wouldn't have wasted time reading it.

The Daily Mail is a tabloid. Brits think it's hilarious that Americans frequently quote it as a news source.

[Jester Messiah]

58. I don't know about you...

but I feel safer already!

[tledford]

59. A "tweeter" is a loudspeaker designed for the reproduction of ...

... high frequencies.

[ecstatic]

60. Is this story even true?

Is there another source besides boingboing.net?

Even more shady--boingboing quoted the Daily Mail as their source.