Teen arrested after Twitter troll abuses Tom Daley (From Daily Echo)

I am sure the twitterer got the old fashioned response from the public: disgust, disbelief, and told to shut up and stop being an idiot.

This seems enough to me: the police should get on with preventing crime - not protecting the feeling of sportsmen and celebrities - and we can do our bit and ignore the likes of Rileyy69 as quickly as possible.

What DOES this have to do with the POLICE !! I'm sure the sheep that make up twitter can cope ,. Just tell them to go worry about something else and the Sheep will without fail do it

10 Minute Man, agreed...
The police should just leave this to the user's of twitter to sort out. Make an insensitive comment on twitter and the Old Bill come knocking on your door... Daft. If it had been a death threat, that might be different...

What on earth is the point of TWITer? Oh bye-the-way, I've just had peanut butter toast for breakfast.

Saw some of the tweets sent to Tom Daley from this Rileyy69 lad, it didn't make nice reading so after reading one or two I choose to ignore them, as for the police getting involved,well it smacks of over-reaction to me and a waste of valuable police time.

Well said all the above posters - nailed it I think

There was also a lot of anti Japanese sentiment on twitter yesterday as well after they protested and took silver from GB in the gymnastics,some really nasty stuff.

Don't see the need for police involvement, Tom Daley himself may well be thinking that he let his dad down by not winning, personally I believe he did his best and it was just not to be.
I feel he did his dad proud just for participating in the Olympics, Tom Daley has nothing to be ashamed of, he should be proud to have represented his country, he is also young enough to have another go.
Tom, you did us all proud and I'm sure your late father is smiling down on you, ignore the dipsticks and know that for every nasty person on twitter and throughout the world there are thousands who continue to cheer you on in your efforts to win in later years.

crispy_pants wrote:
What on earth is the point of TWITer? Oh bye-the-way, I've just had peanut butter toast for breakfast.

Smooth or crunchy? These things are important!

I think TWITer sums it up.

Oh, and when did British lose the capital B?

crispy_pants wrote:
What on earth is the point of TWITer? Oh bye-the-way, I've just had peanut butter toast for breakfast.

Yeah, but with twitter you can post a photo of your peanut butter toast (whatever that is)

Sorry but if celebs and stars don't want abuse then don't use twitter sorry, you leave yourself open to it. It's all part and parcel of being famous unfortunately, one of the downsides to having loads of money and living a lavish lifestyle.

just out of interest how many officers were involved in this "arrest"? Also Tom Daley and his partner as far as i can see never boasted that they were going to win, it was the great British media building them up again like they do with all our sportsmen, then there is moaning from everyone when no medals are achived.. In a diffiicult sport like diving nothing is certain until the last dive

Thats the police for you nowadays. My sons were stopped by the police being children and chasing each other down the road playing tag as they went to meet me at a shop 500 yds away. One is 9 the other is 16 and yet I wa told I cannot leave my nine old with my 16 year despite the fact he has left school!

So what's he being charged with? We, the public, should be concerned that making unpleasant jokes is now an arrestable offence.

Georgem wrote:
So what's he being charged with? We, the public, should be concerned that making unpleasant jokes is now an arrestable offence.

We really should be concerned, and many people have been pointing out this increasing encroachment. Unfortunately not enough people taking notice.

Dibbles2 wrote:
Thats the police for you nowadays. My sons were stopped by the police being children and chasing each other down the road playing tag as they went to meet me at a shop 500 yds away. One is 9 the other is 16 and yet I wa told I cannot leave my nine old with my 16 year despite the fact he has left school!

and if it was a real incident of a 16yr old chasing a 9yr old down the road they should have just left it ? better safe then sorry.

The Police, as usual nowadays keen for a media hit, have apparently waded in where they have no business.
Making and receiving offensive comments is a core part of 'twitter' territory. If you don't like it simply do not go there.
You have to ask what did Daley expect to find, it was absolutely inevitable that someone on twitter would make remarks like this.
There are a lot of dim idiots out there and many of them seem to go on twitter to prove it!
Not a Police matter, they should be attending to more important things - even if they don't generate a headline.

What absolute nonsense. Are the police to now investigate every single hurtfull comment on Twitter and Facebook and the like, or does this just apply to celebrities. I`m sure the police have far more better things to do that deal with this rubbish.

Dibbles2 wrote:
Thats the police for you nowadays. My sons were stopped by the police being children and chasing each other down the road playing tag as they went to meet me at a shop 500 yds away. One is 9 the other is 16 and yet I wa told I cannot leave my nine old with my 16 year despite the fact he has left school!

Just got this off the internet, it does amaze me that 14 year old's have to pay adult fares on buses, can legally have sex and ride a motorcycle at 16, but looking after your little brother is a hanging offence it seems, oh well that's health and safety and political correctness for you in this country.
.
There is no minimum age at which children in the UK can be left on their own, nor do laws specify how old someone needs to be to babysit. However, if the babysitter is under 16, then the parent remains legally responsible for the child's safety.
But children's charity, the NSPCC, advises that children under 13 should not be left at home alone for long periods and children under 16 should not be put in charge of younger children.

Twitter is for twits who have nothing better to do.

prior to his account being suspended I ready some of this guys other tweets. Basically a racist scumbag spouting vile abuse at pretty much anyone. Comes accross as not being particularly inteligent. Quite bizzare when you check out his picture and he looks about 3 foot tall and 5 years old.

I do not think this is a police matter but surely twitter must have some accountability for their users. I can not believe there have not been complaints about this child before.

I signed up for Twitter last year to see what the fuss was about - I was bored senseless in 30 minutes and closed my account.

I simply cannot understand anyone who wants to post every 5 minutes what they are doing and even more so anyone who wants to read it.

Sports men and women should stay well away - 'celebs' are fair game if they want to expose themselves to it.

I love this "don't the police have better things to do" rhetoric. What exactly are people's mental images of the Dorset police? Do you imagine them all racing around town in their cars chasing down bank robbers and murderers and rapists in high speed, Michael Bay-esque action scenes, until someone gets on the radio "stop what you're doing lads, we've had reports of a child on Twitter being a bit rude", causing them all to cease operations and descend on a guesthouse in Weymouth in their thousands?

They've sent round 2 coppers whose job it is to deal with public order offences and taken him in for a word They've not called in the army.

You can view all of his disgusting tweets right here. The kid got what he deserves.

http://www.allmytwee
ts.net/#Rileyy_69

jamiegiles wrote:
I love this "don't the police have better things to do" rhetoric. What exactly are people's mental images of the Dorset police? Do you imagine them all racing around town in their cars chasing down bank robbers and murderers and rapists in high speed, Michael Bay-esque action scenes, until someone gets on the radio "stop what you're doing lads, we've had reports of a child on Twitter being a bit rude", causing them all to cease operations and descend on a guesthouse in Weymouth in their thousands?

They've sent round 2 coppers whose job it is to deal with public order offences and taken him in for a word They've not called in the army.

So why was this a public order offence, exactly? And I do mean "exactly".

So every anti Mitchell tweet means the police will come round ! Well fine but you better start paying extra tax for all the new police needed

I think the fact that the guy said he was going to hunt Tom down and drown him in the pool (tweet later removed) is reason enough to involve the police. Threats to kill should be taken seriously.

Threatening behaviour, homophobia and racism are criminal offences right? Irrespective of the platform

Some people seem to have forgotten this.

Maisie wrote:
I think the fact that the guy said he was going to hunt Tom down and drown him in the pool (tweet later removed) is reason enough to involve the police. Threats to kill should be taken seriously.

But was it a threat to kill? Pretty much everyone has said words to the effect of "I could kill you!" at some point. We all know it's not actually a threat to kill. Someone actually planning a murder is unlikely to announce it on Twitter.

Malicious Communications Act 1988; if someone made a complaint to the police they have a duty to investigate. Bit like when a spectator complained to the police about John Terry.

Maisie wrote:
I think the fact that the guy said he was going to hunt Tom down and drown him in the pool (tweet later removed) is reason enough to involve the police. Threats to kill should be taken seriously.

Nah we prefer to moan about the police for not doing the job properly! Comes to something when most people feel if you don't like something don't use twitter, or 'its the price you pay for being famous. How about we go back to good old fashioned values of respecting people. I feel the police should be involved in this, and maybe it might send out a message to others who feel its ok to put things like this into the public domain.

I love how all these people above feel that they know so much about policing, crime and the law that they can state that it's not a police matter.

Has anyone heard of the Malicious Communications Act?

Let me summarise the part relevant to this:

"Any person who sends to another person...an electronic communication...whic
h conveys 1) A message which is indecent or grossly offensive 2) a threat...is guilty of an offence...if his purpose in sending it is to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient"

So it is a police matter as soon as someone makes a complaint or allegation of an offence.

That's how policing in this country works. I'm sure if any of you made a complaint to the police because you perceived you'd been a victim of something you would expect to be taken seriously and be acknowledged. So all you keyboard critics out there should probably just allow people to do their job.

Then again it's far easier to spout off ill informed opinions.

Looking at some of his posts, he was bragging about owning firearms and using them as well as threatening women with broken jaws and far far worse. I for one am glad that the police have taken him to one side as this behaviour is unacceptable in any form whether through face to face contact or via social media.

gazdance wrote:
I love how all these people above feel that they know so much about policing, crime and the law that they can state that it's not a police matter.

Has anyone heard of the Malicious Communications Act?

Let me summarise the part relevant to this:

"Any person who sends to another person...an electronic communication...whic

h conveys 1) A message which is indecent or grossly offensive 2) a threat...is guilty of an offence...if his purpose in sending it is to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient"

So it is a police matter as soon as someone makes a complaint or allegation of an offence.

That's how policing in this country works. I'm sure if any of you made a complaint to the police because you perceived you'd been a victim of something you would expect to be taken seriously and be acknowledged. So all you keyboard critics out there should probably just allow people to do their job.

Then again it's far easier to spout off ill informed opinions.

Perhaps some of us disagree that this act should exist. Did that occur to you? That not everyone wants to meekly accept whatever our benevolent leaders tell us, without question?

http://thedigitalrep
ort.net/2012/07/uk-d
iver-tom-daley-subje
cted-to-abuse-by-twi
tter-user-rileyy_69/


Here is the timeline of his tweets. Decide for yourself if you feel police involvement is necessary. I believe it is. Please be aware of foul language.

Maisie wrote:
http://thedigitalrep

ort.net/2012/07/uk-d

iver-tom-daley-subje

cted-to-abuse-by-twi

tter-user-rileyy_69/



Here is the timeline of his tweets. Decide for yourself if you feel police involvement is necessary. I believe it is. Please be aware of foul language.

No. I don't believe police involvement is necessary.

It won't be long before you can be arrested for being in possession of an offensive face!!!!!!

In "NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS" constable Savage arrested someone for being in possession of an offensive wife.

what makes it even more disgusting is its from my own town where i live were i didn't believe such people like him live

Georgem wrote:

gazdance wrote:
I love how all these people above feel that they know so much about policing, crime and the law that they can state that it's not a police matter.

Has anyone heard of the Malicious Communications Act?

Let me summarise the part relevant to this:

"Any person who sends to another person...an electronic communication...whic


h conveys 1) A message which is indecent or grossly offensive 2) a threat...is guilty of an offence...if his purpose in sending it is to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient"

So it is a police matter as soon as someone makes a complaint or allegation of an offence.

That's how policing in this country works. I'm sure if any of you made a complaint to the police because you perceived you'd been a victim of something you would expect to be taken seriously and be acknowledged. So all you keyboard critics out there should probably just allow people to do their job.

Then again it's far easier to spout off ill informed opinions.

Perhaps some of us disagree that this act should exist. Did that occur to you? That not everyone wants to meekly accept whatever our benevolent leaders tell us, without question?

Perhaps you think that people should be allowed to do whatever they like, whenever and to whomever? The law exists for a reason - usually its designed to protect the weakest and most vulnerable in society.

All of this is by the by, whether you agree with the law or not (and there are some that I don't agree with either), it exists and we - the people - expect it to be upheld.

If you don't like it, sorry but it makes no difference. To argue that it should go unnoticed just because not everyone agrees with a particular law is trite and crass.

Georgem wrote:

Maisie wrote:
http://thedigitalrep


ort.net/2012/07/uk-d


iver-tom-daley-subje


cted-to-abuse-by-twi


tter-user-rileyy_69/




Here is the timeline of his tweets. Decide for yourself if you feel police involvement is necessary. I believe it is. Please be aware of foul language.

No. I don't believe police involvement is necessary.

why not? or maybe because it does not happen to you it does not matter, how about someone knocking on your door every night at 1am 2am and 3am? should the police be involved then? Just kids having fun!! guessing you would want them then, Tom daley has the right to have a Twitter account (I personally dont use it) he should not have to cancel his account because of idiots, Lets start cracking down on all these idiots

gazdance wrote:

Georgem wrote:

gazdance wrote:
I love how all these people above feel that they know so much about policing, crime and the law that they can state that it's not a police matter.

Has anyone heard of the Malicious Communications Act?

Let me summarise the part relevant to this:

"Any person who sends to another person...an electronic communication...whic



h conveys 1) A message which is indecent or grossly offensive 2) a threat...is guilty of an offence...if his purpose in sending it is to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient"

So it is a police matter as soon as someone makes a complaint or allegation of an offence.

That's how policing in this country works. I'm sure if any of you made a complaint to the police because you perceived you'd been a victim of something you would expect to be taken seriously and be acknowledged. So all you keyboard critics out there should probably just allow people to do their job.

Then again it's far easier to spout off ill informed opinions.

Perhaps some of us disagree that this act should exist. Did that occur to you? That not everyone wants to meekly accept whatever our benevolent leaders tell us, without question?

Perhaps you think that people should be allowed to do whatever they like, whenever and to whomever? The law exists for a reason - usually its designed to protect the weakest and most vulnerable in society.

All of this is by the by, whether you agree with the law or not (and there are some that I don't agree with either), it exists and we - the people - expect it to be upheld.

If you don't like it, sorry but it makes no difference. To argue that it should go unnoticed just because not everyone agrees with a particular law is trite and crass.

I stopped reading at the first sentence. False dichotomy, I'm afraid. I can be in favour of some laws, and not others. I don't have to choose anarchy OR conformity.

tricky1007 wrote:

Georgem wrote:

Maisie wrote:
http://thedigitalrep



ort.net/2012/07/uk-d



iver-tom-daley-subje



cted-to-abuse-by-twi



tter-user-rileyy_69/





Here is the timeline of his tweets. Decide for yourself if you feel police involvement is necessary. I believe it is. Please be aware of foul language.

No. I don't believe police involvement is necessary.

why not? or maybe because it does not happen to you it does not matter, how about someone knocking on your door every night at 1am 2am and 3am? should the police be involved then? Just kids having fun!! guessing you would want them then, Tom daley has the right to have a Twitter account (I personally dont use it) he should not have to cancel his account because of idiots, Lets start cracking down on all these idiots

The post I replied to specifically requested that we decide for ourselves. I did so. What bit of that don't you understand?

Georgem wrote:

gazdance wrote:
I love how all these people above feel that they know so much about policing, crime and the law that they can state that it's not a police matter.

Has anyone heard of the Malicious Communications Act?

Let me summarise the part relevant to this:

"Any person who sends to another person...an electronic communication...whic


h conveys 1) A message which is indecent or grossly offensive 2) a threat...is guilty of an offence...if his purpose in sending it is to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient"

So it is a police matter as soon as someone makes a complaint or allegation of an offence.

That's how policing in this country works. I'm sure if any of you made a complaint to the police because you perceived you'd been a victim of something you would expect to be taken seriously and be acknowledged. So all you keyboard critics out there should probably just allow people to do their job.

Then again it's far easier to spout off ill informed opinions.

Perhaps some of us disagree that this act should exist. Did that occur to you? That not everyone wants to meekly accept whatever our benevolent leaders tell us, without question?

If you disagree with an Act of Parliament, perhaps you'd better go and live in a country where there is no such thing. Sorry I've seen some daft comments in my time but that about takes the biscuit Georgem!

Well said Gazdance.. and 'why' should someone who is working hard and 'tweeting' about their achievements, training etc by subjected to this vile behaviour. Quite simply we wouldn't accept it in person so we shouldn't accept it online. If a person engages in an altercation and encourages abuse back that is one thing but that is clearly not the case here.

We do need to clamp down on these anonymous internet trolls who think they can threaten and intimidiate people online. That is why this Act exists and quite rightly so. People also need to remember that once something is written on the net it's there pretty much forever, as is shown by the blog reposting all the offending Tweets.

As for those slagging off Twitter, I find it useful to see many things in one short go whilst on the move. I#m not a prolific Tweeter myself as I don't have time but i do find it enjoyable reading others. If anyone hasn't found 50 Sheds of Grey yet on Twitter give it a whirl, so v. funny (and yes for all you moaners it's NOT a spelling mistake - it's ironic).

freemantlegirl2 wrote:

Georgem wrote:

gazdance wrote:
I love how all these people above feel that they know so much about policing, crime and the law that they can state that it's not a police matter.

Has anyone heard of the Malicious Communications Act?

Let me summarise the part relevant to this:

"Any person who sends to another person...an electronic communication...whic



h conveys 1) A message which is indecent or grossly offensive 2) a threat...is guilty of an offence...if his purpose in sending it is to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient"

So it is a police matter as soon as someone makes a complaint or allegation of an offence.

That's how policing in this country works. I'm sure if any of you made a complaint to the police because you perceived you'd been a victim of something you would expect to be taken seriously and be acknowledged. So all you keyboard critics out there should probably just allow people to do their job.

Then again it's far easier to spout off ill informed opinions.

Perhaps some of us disagree that this act should exist. Did that occur to you? That not everyone wants to meekly accept whatever our benevolent leaders tell us, without question?

If you disagree with an Act of Parliament, perhaps you'd better go and live in a country where there is no such thing. Sorry I've seen some daft comments in my time but that about takes the biscuit Georgem!

Well said Gazdance.. and 'why' should someone who is working hard and 'tweeting' about their achievements, training etc by subjected to this vile behaviour. Quite simply we wouldn't accept it in person so we shouldn't accept it online. If a person engages in an altercation and encourages abuse back that is one thing but that is clearly not the case here.

We do need to clamp down on these anonymous internet trolls who think they can threaten and intimidiate people online. That is why this Act exists and quite rightly so. People also need to remember that once something is written on the net it's there pretty much forever, as is shown by the blog reposting all the offending Tweets.

As for those slagging off Twitter, I find it useful to see many things in one short go whilst on the move. I#m not a prolific Tweeter myself as I don't have time but i do find it enjoyable reading others. If anyone hasn't found 50 Sheds of Grey yet on Twitter give it a whirl, so v. funny (and yes for all you moaners it's NOT a spelling mistake - it's ironic).

I should emigrate, because I disagree with a law? You're telling me you trust the lawmakers to get absolutely everything right, 100%, and you agree in advance with everything they will ever tell you? You've never, ever, not even once, thought "That law is stupid"? So if we look through your comment history, there will be no examples of you questioning a court sentencing, nothing whatsoever?

Ok.

ITT: People who don't understand the Perfect Solution Fallacy.

Some are claiming the police shouldn't be arresting a homophobic and racist little imbecile when he inevitably progresses on to death threats.

Perhaps they should have the right to post taken away from them if they support him?

BackOfTheNet wrote:
Some are claiming the police shouldn't be arresting a homophobic and racist little imbecile when he inevitably progresses on to death threats.

Perhaps they should have the right to post taken away from them if they support him?

And there we have it. The death of free expression. Anyone disagreeing with the status quo shall be silenced.

Georgem wrote:

BackOfTheNet wrote:
Some are claiming the police shouldn't be arresting a homophobic and racist little imbecile when he inevitably progresses on to death threats.

Perhaps they should have the right to post taken away from them if they support him?

And there we have it. The death of free expression. Anyone disagreeing with the status quo shall be silenced.

Disregard the above comment, I broke my own golden rule of not replying to total morons. Sorry.

To be fair- the Echo hasn't reported that he made any other concerning tweets- just that he said 'you let your Dad down'. My first reaction was also 'what the hell are they arresting him for?' but then reading some of the comments above it would appear this lad has actually done something that should be looked into. Why doesn't the Daily Echo put in the story that he apparently sent more messages which included threats to drown him?! Then people might be better informed before pointing out their opinions.

So, the question really is "When did Britain become a Police state?" (Just take a look at the Olympics - Zil Lanes for the 'Olympic Family' to use, soldiers on the gates - and laughably providing an audience to fill empty seats - the Cameron-Clegg Politbureau in full swing)

No doubt this ridiculous, overblown Daley incident will be considered by our dear Old Bill as being some sort of 'hate crime'.

Anyone who has ever read '1984' may have the uncomfortable feeling the 'hate crime' isn't a million miles away from 'thought crime' - an arrestable offence to THINK bad thoughts? It will come...

The Police are only really interested in 'easy wins' with a nice degree of political correctness, possibly a little touch of 'hyper safety' thrown in for good measure (dropped banana skin on the highway? - close the road for 4 hours for 'elf 'n safety - would'nt want someone to slip on it would we?) - otherwise we are told "Sorry, can't help, that's a civil matter" (eg traveller trespasses) Civil Matter = too hard to bother with.

All our lives would be a whole lot better had Twatter, Fakebook and all the other vacuous, self-centered "look at me" websites never been invented. But, the genie is out of the bottle - best way to deal with so called 'trolls' is to ignore them and keep the hell off the websites where they operate!

Makes me ao angry. The police can get involved over this but when my granddaughter was taken by her father last year. Which we had court papers saying he couldn't do. Could we get them to help us NO. We had to get the mp involved. Wish they would spend as much time doing things they are really needed to do.

The Echo has reported this very poorly .. specks volumes about their journalistic integrity/ability.

** This guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley.
That is why the police arrested him. **

(you can view some of the tweets here - http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ )

fowley wrote:
The Echo has reported this very poorly .. specks volumes about their journalistic integrity/ability.

** This guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley.
That is why the police arrested him. **

(you can view some of the tweets here - http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ )

I don't see the bit where he threatened to kill anyone.

Murzik wrote:
So every anti Mitchell tweet means the police will come round ! Well fine but you better start paying extra tax for all the new police needed

Think you'll find the tax has and is already being paid for a certain amount of police numbers, it's the poxy government that are cutting the numbers so they can fill their coffers with your tax money which is supposed to pay for the police numbers that are actually needed in this country.

before the Olympics his own coach expressed deep concern that he was not putting in the hard work in the pool, he was concerned that he was spending far to much time making money by promoting his autobiography and other commercial ventures pushed on by the money men, no one condones attacking someone with threats etc, however before this sport started i and others said that he would let his country down if he did not put the hard work in, and instead concentrated to much on the commercial side, this has proved corretc his form is off because of the hard work not being put in.

My advice to anyone affected by the pathetic comments made by "trolls" is simple. Ignore them. If you react they win. Easier said than done sometimes of course.

I am in the same position as Bemused26 in that no mention was made in the media reports this morning about death threats, so i commented on that basis. However if this person has been on twitter for some time making assorted offensive remarks why has something not been done about it sooner. Surely the time has come to order these sort of sites to police thei own comments or be closed. Why have the police only acted now when some one high profile is involved. Is this actually an example of one rule for one and one for everyone else. Just out of interest are Olympic officials above the law as i was passed by one of their black BMW's with the green logos on on the A31 last night, doing well over the national speed limited and tail gating any one who was in his way, I do not want to open the debate about speed limits etc but is there one law for them and one for the rest of us poor mugs who are paying for this jolly with our taxes?.

These posters are cowards, they would not have the cojones to spout their vitriol to the person's face. Internet trolls, a nuisance but not a job for the constabulary.

BIGTONE wrote:
It won't be long before you can be arrested for being in possession of an offensive face!!!!!!

Crumbs, that had me dashing to the Mirror, but thankfully all seems OK at the moment! When you realise that, even on this little comment site it can get quite abusive, and some seem to get OCD, about certain subjects, imagine how much worse it can get on an open World Wide site? On here, mostly sticks and stones, and for every bad post there are usually some good responses, there are rules of course, but it is a dangerous precedent to censor someone for having a point of view, which differs from the norm. All I ask is for a degree of thought before posting on the thread, think about what your intention is, and be ready for some strong reaction if you get it wrong, plenty of room for sensible discourse but absolutely no point in being personally abusive as it only reduces the value of your own posts.

OSPREYSAINT wrote:

BIGTONE wrote:
It won't be long before you can be arrested for being in possession of an offensive face!!!!!!

Crumbs, that had me dashing to the Mirror, but thankfully all seems OK at the moment! When you realise that, even on this little comment site it can get quite abusive, and some seem to get OCD, about certain subjects, imagine how much worse it can get on an open World Wide site? On here, mostly sticks and stones, and for every bad post there are usually some good responses, there are rules of course, but it is a dangerous precedent to censor someone for having a point of view, which differs from the norm. All I ask is for a degree of thought before posting on the thread, think about what your intention is, and be ready for some strong reaction if you get it wrong, plenty of room for sensible discourse but absolutely no point in being personally abusive as it only reduces the value of your own posts.

It's ok, I think you're quite safe

http://leagueofsexy.
com/members/ospreysa
int

Georgem wrote:

jamiegiles wrote:
I love this "don't the police have better things to do" rhetoric. What exactly are people's mental images of the Dorset police? Do you imagine them all racing around town in their cars chasing down bank robbers and murderers and rapists in high speed, Michael Bay-esque action scenes, until someone gets on the radio "stop what you're doing lads, we've had reports of a child on Twitter being a bit rude", causing them all to cease operations and descend on a guesthouse in Weymouth in their thousands?

They've sent round 2 coppers whose job it is to deal with public order offences and taken him in for a word They've not called in the army.

So why was this a public order offence, exactly? And I do mean "exactly".

It causes "intentional harassment, alarm or distress" in a public place, breaching section 4A of the public order act. It's hardly surprising that people in the comments section of the Daily Echo should condone trolling given the amount that goes on here; it's apparently fine to directly call someone an idiot (and much worse) and tell them they should be "tortured to death" yet at the same time the book should be thrown at anyone who is rounded up in the town centre under section 5 of the public order act for using bad language while intoxicated in the town centre at 2am on a Friday night, or similarly for telling a policeman to 'catch some real criminals'. Again, presumably it is taking the police away from 'catching real criminals', ie racing around in cars chasing bank robbers and murderers. If you're not going to take any notice of anything you read on the internet then why even have it? You might as well just go through life with your heads in the clouds.

Today I learnt that life is an endless string of either/or choices, and that nothing outside of the two most extreme views on anything exists. Apparently.

Georgem wrote:

fowley wrote:
The Echo has reported this very poorly .. specks volumes about their journalistic integrity/ability.

** This guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley.
That is why the police arrested him. **

(you can view some of the tweets here - http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ )

I don't see the bit where he threatened to kill anyone.

It's there, on that link..

In case you can't find it... here is ONE of the tweets...

"ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ @Rileyy_69
“@tomdaley1994 i’m going to find you and i’m going to drown you in the pool you cocky t*** your a nobody people like you make me sick”
30 Jul 12"

Georgem - the general thrust of the negative comments above seemed to suggest that a lot of people believe that this sort of thing is not a police matter, their business or even a crime. My post sought to address & clarify why it is a crime and therefore a matter for the police to investigate.
Your counter post/argument to that seemed to suggest that because not everyone agrees with a certain law then it should not be within the police's remit to follow up. I cannot see the logic in that - it is false. If that is not what you were implying then I will happily be corrected. But the fact still stands that on the basis of the tweets sent to Tom Daley, including the one where the guy threatened to drown him, constitutes an offence under the Malicious Communications Act. Whether you or anyone else agrees with that law is irrelevant. As I mentioned above - most laws of this kind are designed to protect the most vulnerable in society. For example, let's say that a young female with a baby separates from her partner after being a victim of domestic violence but then is subjected to texts, emails, letters etc from the ex-partner where he makes threats and is generally abusive. The law protects her by giving the authorities a means of dealing with it. In those circumstances, I cannot see how it can be argued that it is a bad law to have.
A stranger sending abusive tweets to Tom Daley may seem insignificant and will likely have no lasting impact beyond the media furore but it doesn't change the fact that the law may have been broken and the police are duty bound to act if they receive an allegation of a crime. I believe that most people in this country would expect no less. Certainly some comments above would suggest that to be true. A lot of people expect the police to be involved in things that certainly aren't police matters - civil disputes and custody battles for example.
If we, the people, disagree with the way things are then we have this wonderfully imperfect democratic system by which to try and change it.

To address another point made, where people are talking about police states and 'thought police' and the like - a bit of perspective please. This is hardly communist China. We have a heck of a lot of liberties.
It's all very well to think anything you like - racist, homophobic, murderous, whatever - but to choose to act on those thoughts, publish them, tweet them or whatever, the people have to expect to be dealt with when laws are broken.

fowley wrote:

Georgem wrote:

fowley wrote:
The Echo has reported this very poorly .. specks volumes about their journalistic integrity/ability.

** This guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley.
That is why the police arrested him. **

(you can view some of the tweets here - http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ )

I don't see the bit where he threatened to kill anyone.

It's there, on that link..

In case you can't find it... here is ONE of the tweets...

"ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ @Rileyy_69
“@tomdaley1994 i’m going to find you and i’m going to drown you in the pool you cocky t*** your a nobody people like you make me sick”
30 Jul 12"

I can read, thanks. I'm also able to differentiate between a death threat, and some stupid kid on Twitter trying to get attention.

fowley wrote:

Georgem wrote:

fowley wrote:
The Echo has reported this very poorly .. specks volumes about their journalistic integrity/ability.

** This guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley.
That is why the police arrested him. **

(you can view some of the tweets here - http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ )

I don't see the bit where he threatened to kill anyone.

It's there, on that link..

In case you can't find it... here is ONE of the tweets...

"ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ @Rileyy_69
“@tomdaley1994 i’m going to find you and i’m going to drown you in the pool you cocky t*** your a nobody people like you make me sick”
30 Jul 12"

The thing is you can block people who abuse you on Twitter. Not sure why Daley didn't just do this. Far less hassle than calling the police in. Come to think of it maybe the Echo could introduce that feature on here.

Georgem wrote:

OSPREYSAINT wrote:

BIGTONE wrote:
It won't be long before you can be arrested for being in possession of an offensive face!!!!!!

Crumbs, that had me dashing to the Mirror, but thankfully all seems OK at the moment! When you realise that, even on this little comment site it can get quite abusive, and some seem to get OCD, about certain subjects, imagine how much worse it can get on an open World Wide site? On here, mostly sticks and stones, and for every bad post there are usually some good responses, there are rules of course, but it is a dangerous precedent to censor someone for having a point of view, which differs from the norm. All I ask is for a degree of thought before posting on the thread, think about what your intention is, and be ready for some strong reaction if you get it wrong, plenty of room for sensible discourse but absolutely no point in being personally abusive as it only reduces the value of your own posts.

It's ok, I think you're quite safe

http://leagueofsexy.

com/members/ospreysa

int

Trouble is, at my age, things are going downhill fast!

userds5050 wrote:

fowley wrote:

Georgem wrote:

fowley wrote:
The Echo has reported this very poorly .. specks volumes about their journalistic integrity/ability.

** This guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley.
That is why the police arrested him. **

(you can view some of the tweets here - http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ )

I don't see the bit where he threatened to kill anyone.

It's there, on that link..

In case you can't find it... here is ONE of the tweets...

"ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ @Rileyy_69
“@tomdaley1994 i’m going to find you and i’m going to drown you in the pool you cocky t*** your a nobody people like you make me sick”
30 Jul 12"

The thing is you can block people who abuse you on Twitter. Not sure why Daley didn't just do this. Far less hassle than calling the police in. Come to think of it maybe the Echo could introduce that feature on here.

What this numpty is forgetting is that Tom has still to compete for a Gold Medal in the Individual Competition, what should have happened is a message of sympathy for the missing of a medal in the Synchronised, but rooting for you in the Individual. Slagging someone off at this stage is out of order and damaging for morale.

What's interesting is, the little turd also tweeted an attempt at an apology. I'm not saying that makes everything OK, far from it. Read that sentence again, because I know the average numpty is going to ignore it first time round.

But it's interesting to see that so many people are willing to believe his 'death threat' tweets were genuine, but not his 'apology' tweets. Seems a lot of people are looking for things to get outraged about.

Best to write the entire incident off as puerile attention-seeking.

I think that there are two sides to this coin.

On one side, I agree it’s a waste of Police time and he should not have been arrested. Maybe given a visit by the plod and a firm warning. As already said, he has made himself look a fool on Twitter and may even, if not already, been banned by them.

Someone even suggested that Daley should have blocked his comments and even wished we had such here at Echo Letters. Well I have had long experience of the nasty Trolls, blocking or even banning them does not in any way stop them. They simply change their ‘sign-on names’. It’s easy done.

On the other side of the coin, we hear many cases of ‘bulling’ via trolls. So shocking to believe, some have led to disgusting abuse of people who have tragically lost a loved one, especially with murder. Others that have even driven people to suicide.

Surely that must be a case for the Police to always step in?

Then again, on that same opposite side of the coin, there is without doubt many mentally deranged people out there, including young kids. I mean look what happened not long ago in Colorado in the USA?

If that kid had of been known to write such violent and offensive stuff on the internet forums, somebody could have got to him earlier and helped prevent it. Same goes for a lot of mass murder killings. Not saying that this guy in question was like that, but surely to pick him up, question him and then maybe pass him onto to others, might be a far better solution than having to pick up the pieces afterwards.

Maybe ‘arrest’ was the wrong word. But to me, he surely needed some closer examination and arresting him was the first safe rung.

Tom Daley is a great kid and will surely go on to be a big name within his field. His father must be for sure really proud of him, as we all are.

Maybe that’s the real problem with this Troll guy.

He just aint – but then he could be if he put as much effort into it!

chrspeters wrote:
I think that there are two sides to this coin.

On one side, I agree it’s a waste of Police time and he should not have been arrested. Maybe given a visit by the plod and a firm warning. As already said, he has made himself look a fool on Twitter and may even, if not already, been banned by them.

Someone even suggested that Daley should have blocked his comments and even wished we had such here at Echo Letters. Well I have had long experience of the nasty Trolls, blocking or even banning them does not in any way stop them. They simply change their ‘sign-on names’. It’s easy done.

On the other side of the coin, we hear many cases of ‘bulling’ via trolls. So shocking to believe, some have led to disgusting abuse of people who have tragically lost a loved one, especially with murder. Others that have even driven people to suicide.

Surely that must be a case for the Police to always step in?

Then again, on that same opposite side of the coin, there is without doubt many mentally deranged people out there, including young kids. I mean look what happened not long ago in Colorado in the USA?

If that kid had of been known to write such violent and offensive stuff on the internet forums, somebody could have got to him earlier and helped prevent it. Same goes for a lot of mass murder killings. Not saying that this guy in question was like that, but surely to pick him up, question him and then maybe pass him onto to others, might be a far better solution than having to pick up the pieces afterwards.

Maybe ‘arrest’ was the wrong word. But to me, he surely needed some closer examination and arresting him was the first safe rung.

Tom Daley is a great kid and will surely go on to be a big name within his field. His father must be for sure really proud of him, as we all are.

Maybe that’s the real problem with this Troll guy.

He just aint – but then he could be if he put as much effort into it!

Tom Daley's father passed away last year, which is why the cretin in the story tweeted "you've let your father down". Nice, eh.

Rileyy69 was not arrested because of malicious tweets, it was because he sent death threats to Tom Daley. For some unknown reason The Echo have decided not to mention this in the article, which has lead to confusion in the ranks! No, Rileyy69 shouldn't have been arrested for malicious tweets but yes I think he should have been for death threats...

Here you go: http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ

Loo_44 wrote:
Rileyy69 was not arrested because of malicious tweets, it was because he sent death threats to Tom Daley. For some unknown reason The Echo have decided not to mention this in the article, which has lead to confusion in the ranks! No, Rileyy69 shouldn't have been arrested for malicious tweets but yes I think he should have been for death threats...

Yeah we get that. What Georgem and others are arguing is how serious should we take these 'death threats'. Like the guy who recently had his conviction quashed for threatening to blow up Nottingham airport. He never intended the 'joke' to be taken seriously.

Talking of Internet, is anyone else having problems with Yahoo Mail today?

OSPREYSAINT wrote:
Talking of Internet, is anyone else having problems with Yahoo Mail today?

Page not even loading up.

Team GB should keep off Twitter until the Olympics are over and focus on winning more medals (preferably gold)! Surely social media is one modern distraction our athletes can do without during this amazing event.

ToastyTea wrote:

Dibbles2 wrote:
Thats the police for you nowadays. My sons were stopped by the police being children and chasing each other down the road playing tag as they went to meet me at a shop 500 yds away. One is 9 the other is 16 and yet I wa told I cannot leave my nine old with my 16 year despite the fact he has left school!

and if it was a real incident of a 16yr old chasing a 9yr old down the road they should have just left it ? better safe then sorry.

I agree better safe than sorry but my 9 year old was very upset by the incident as the police took him away from his brother and he had no idea why.

bemused26 wrote:
To be fair- the Echo hasn't reported that he made any other concerning tweets- just that he said 'you let your Dad down'. My first reaction was also 'what the hell are they arresting him for?' but then reading some of the comments above it would appear this lad has actually done something that should be looked into. Why doesn't the Daily Echo put in the story that he apparently sent more messages which included threats to drown him?! Then people might be better informed before pointing out their opinions.

I agree with this.What I dont agree with is if that had been a general member of the public and that happened over one day the police wouldnt give it the time of day. It was vile behaviour no doubt about it but if it were you and I we would have to put up with weeks of it before the police acted.

i agree if you dont like something dont go on there or dont look, pretty simple really

The dim witted troll sits high in the branches of the internet tree, hurling stone insults at everything that moves below him. It's not surprising that sometimes someone throws a brick at him to fell him back to earth.

Lets not forget the london riots.Thugs using twitter, facebook,bbm.I suspect the social networking sites are being closely monitered.

surprised no boscombe bashers have been on yet to point out his father lives in boscombe

wilson castaway wrote:
Lets not forget the london riots.Thugs using twitter, facebook,bbm.I suspect the social networking sites are being closely monitered.

I imagine that there is already fully automatic monitoring and recording of posts containing key words and phrases, and offenders could perhaps soon be issued with automated cautions with no human involvement. Big brother's mainframe is watching everything.

beachcomber1,

Talk about an own goal!

These stories always annoy me, this happens to regular people everyday, if the police acted on every case of online trolling/bullying, they wouldn't have time for anything else.

The best course of action for dealing with trolls is to ignore them. They thrive on getting a reaction, so, if they were ignored, I think many of them would get bored and give up. How many times do people need to be told "do not feed the trolls!"

Excellent advice!

Trolls only work if they get response and the harder it is, the better it is.

As said, ‘Ignore them’. Tom Daley should have been advised to do the same.