Police close down Facebook barbecue for 15 people

[Hannah Bell]

When Andrew Poole organised his 30th birthday party and posted invitations on the social networking site Facebook, he was expecting only 17 guests including family members. He was therefore a little surprised when eight police officers, some dressed in body armour, arrived with a riot van and helicopter support.

"The thing (the helicopter) hovered over us for about 25 minutes, watching 15 people eat. They told us to take down the sound system and said everybody has got to leave. It was 4pm and we had not plugged in the music.

"What effectively police did was to stop 15 people eating burgers."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/facebook/5843814/Police-close-down-Facebook-barbecue-for-15-people.html

[Bicoastal]

1. Reminds me of that infamous read-both-ways headline:

LAWMEN FROM MEXICO BARBECUE GUESTS

[SmileyRose]

8. lol

:) I thought of the exact same thing but can't remember where that came from.

[CoffeeCat]

2. "Mr Poole...put down the cheeseburger and come out...

...with your hands up! You! You with the relish in your hand, drop it now and back away slowly!"

Hilarious and terrifying, but more terrifying than hilarious--with just a dash of WTF.

[Warpy]

3. Overreaction by the police did make it a memorable birthday party

but left the police with egg all over their faces because of their obvious lack of ability to count.

Having committed a ridiculous amount of resources to breaking up a family barbecue, it seems they were incapable of recognizing reality and calling it all off.

It's really a pity they didn't think to send a couple of uniforms to scope out the situation before they sent in the Gestapo.

I guess the UK has militarized their police force the way ours has been militarized and no one pays a military man to think.

It's time they and we did.

[Odin2005]

4. Shouldn't these bozos be going after actual criminals?

Oh, wait, that would be hard work. Much easier to harass party-goers. :eyes:

[wroberts189]

12. Not only that ...police have the loudest parties of them all.

My neighbor told me once he called to complain about the noise and was told "nothing could be done" "perfectly legal" etc right after his own daughters birthday party was shut down a week before ..noise ordinance. When he brought this up he was told they would check into it but nobody ever came... they are not going to break up one of their own parties.

[sam sarrha]

5. .... well Pigs Can Fly.. and Hover. totally absurd, i'd told em Fuck off.

[leftstreet]

6. I bet a vegetarian infiltrator showed up with soy hot dogs

Global intel at work.

Actually, the article is pretty interesting.
"Rave" stuff is the excuse they use. Hmmm

[MercutioATC]

7. One item makes me wonder...$1300 for generator, food, and marquee rental for one night??

Sounds like they had one hell of a big setup.

I still don't agree with the police's actions...but it probably appeared to be set up to accommodate a lot more than 15 people.

[wroberts189]

10. Article says 17 guests were confirmed as in rsvp.

"I had created an event, and 17 people were confirmed as guests. I did put the time on it as overnight in case people wanted to sleep over."

[MercutioATC]

14. $1300 just seems like a lot to spend for only 17 people.

I wouldn't be surprised if the set-up looked like it was meant to be a large party.

[Fumesucker]

15. That's $75 per person..

Not particularly expensive as nights on the town go, you can easily spend that much for a single meal at a halfway decent restaurant.

Keep in mind this also included entertainment.

[wroberts189]

16. The article suggests the guy wanted to spare no expense celebrating his 30th..

and at age 43 I do not blame him.


Wish I was 30 again.

[Hydra]

9. Lolz

"Keepin us safe from the criminal forces of the world"

[wroberts189]

11. The war on parties ..especially raves has been going on a long time.

They have basically killed most raves in the US using swat teams.. It was done here with the "Rave act" sponsored by Joe Biden.

Having been to a few they were fun and drugs or use of them were not easy to find or see. It was sad to see them vanish. They had really good music and fun tribal like dancing.


Welcome to our brave new world ...no parties allowed.

[Odin2005]

13. More like, only tame, corporatized parties allowed.

:(

[Kievan Rus]

17. Good thing they didn't get swine flu

'Cause cops are pigs!

[Hannah Bell]

18. no one commented on what i found most interesting here: the fact that

the party was publicized on facebook.

not sure if police got some info from neighbors via facebook, or monitored on their own, or what, but social network sites not all puppies, lollipops.

[NashVegas]

19. I Thought That Was Implicit

But more, the question: did police know how many invitations were sent out?

[Kievan Rus]

20. The nanny state at work in this case

This is prime nanny state crap. When there are murderers, rapists and child molesters running around, they focus on stupid crap like this.

[oedura]

21. They were worried about a potential noise problem?

Like a helicopter hovering for 25 minutes doesn't make noise?

[annabanana]

22. It's hysterical that they're DEFENDING this stupid overreacting invasion. . n/t