58 
26-year-old Leigh Van Bryan and his friend Emily Bunting were cuffed and stuffed into jail cells upon landing in Los Angeles, thanks to joking about plans to “destroy America” in a simple tweet to a friend before leaving.
This was no bomb threat or joke about terrorism. Leigh’s tweet simply asked his lady friend if she was: “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?.”
His excuse to US border police — officially the most humourless group of people on the entire planet — that British people often use the word ‘destroy’ to mean ‘party’ didn’t wash, with the armed cops accusing the pair of intent to commit crimes, locking them up for 12 hours, before putting them on a flight back to Paris.
America obviously doesn’t mind if people destroy France.
Officials also grilled Leigh about a previous tweet made some weeks earlier, in which he said one of the plans on his travel itinerary was “diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!”.
Leigh’s travel partner Emily said: “I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh’s lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe. I couldn’t believe it because it was a quote from the comedy Family Guy which is an American show.” [Daily Mail via The Register]
Image credit: Statue of Liberty from Shutterstock
These people got exactly what they deserved.This is just the modern version of people who used to take fake guns or alarm clocks that look like bombs through an airport or that dick who tweeted about blowing up an airport last year. It is the job of the security forces to ensure security and while I doubt that they seriously considered these dickheads a security threat these sorts of stories do serve to warn off other idiots who might do the same. Cutting down on extraneous noise and making their jobs easier.
Bollocks. To be needlessly hyperbolic for a minute, this sort of story means “the terrorists won”.
What sort of idiot is going to tweet about an actual attack they plan on committing? Do they really think Al-palaver are going to train and make use of morons?
This is just bog standard American over-reaction.
I disagree, while freedom DOES mean the freedom to make stupid posts on twitter, this has always been the reaction of the security forces (believe me, if they had done this in Israeli they would still be there). My example about Alarm clocks shaped like bombs was not a random one. There are plenty of idiots who have taken such clocks through customs and then been “surprised” by securities reaction, this was well before 9/11.
“if they had done this in Israeli”
You mean Israel, not Israeli.
Yes, thank you. I originally wrote “in an Israeli Airport”, but changed it since this there is no indication this happened in an airport, obviously I missed a bit. As for my knowledge of Israeli Airport Security, I have plenty and they do not fuck around.
Your comparison to Israel is a bit much and completely irrelevant. You could equally say that being gay in Mauritania is punishable by death, so being discriminated against in the UK is nothing in comparison.
I may be able to understand slight caution should they not have realised the context to these statements – to the extent of searching their bags and asking a couple of questions – but kicking them out of the country for quoting Family Guy and using slang is completely disproportionate. It’s also important to understand where this was said – it was on twitter, a public space where you’re likely to be communicating with friends in a casual manner. It wasn’t in some political broadcast or said in any sort of serious way.
If they’re really going to do this, they’d better be prepared to send a lot of people home. Most people don’t think who else may be reading their tweets other than their friends and they really shouldn’t have to. Just because it’s more public doesn’t mean you should hide what you say, if anything it should taken less seriously that it’s public – much more suspicious would be a private tweet saying let’s go destroy America…
My comparison with Israeli security was entirely accurate and relevant to the treatment these people received at the hands of US authorities. Yes, this is excessive activity by the US security forces, but the point is, this story has now been broadcast round the world, which would not have happened had they acted in a reasonable way. As you will see from my original post. I suspect that “these sorts of stories do serve to warn off other idiots who might do the same. Cutting down on extraneous noise and making their jobs easier.” I wish this sort of thing were not needed, but the world is jam packed with idiots.
@Darrell (I still don’t really get why you can’t reply directly after a certain point)
I didn’t say your comparison was inaccurate – I entirely believe it to be – rather I was making the point that just because it would have been much worse somewhere else doesn’t make it right to do it.
I think that we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one, because I don’t think they were acting in an unreasonable way or that what they did would have been that stupid without the benefit of hindsight. With a bit of perspective it would have been viewed as an innocent comment in the same class of ‘I could kill for a mars bar’ or ‘I’ll murder you if you tell anybody’.
“It is the job of the security forces to ensure security and while I doubt that they seriously considered these dickheads a security threat these sorts of stories do serve to warn off other idiots who might do the same.” – So it’s OK to deport people who aren’t actually a security threat? The implication here is that in airports and around airports and whenever referring to airports no one can ever use ambiguous language. To “destroy” somewhere is an accepted English term for “get a serious party on” and the refusal of the US authorities to look at the context of the comments is more than a little worrying. And I’m not sure that two comical out of context tweets deserves quite the vitriol your giving them.
The difference in tone between this story and the corresponding one on Giz US is quite interesting too, just look at the different headlines:
UK: Rubbish Twitter Banter Gets UK Tourists Kicked out of America
US: US Detains and Deports Two Morons Over Dumb “Destroy America” Tweets
I think this says something about how willing each populace is to mindlessly accept orders.
If my actions do not directly cause suffering or hurt towards others then why are my actions scrutinised and interfered with? If it isn’t to protect the people then its to control them.
You keep fighting the imaginary good fight. One day when you are powerless to act with good intention, you will then be left with only fear.
What a tit. Serves him right.
Although a bit stupid of the tweeters, I think this more shows that the security services aren’t actually doing their job properly, using “destroy” to mean party is actual British slang. Me and my mates use it when referring to a heavy night out i.e. “I’m gonna go destroy brighton tonight” so if they are going to be spying on people surely they should have people who are au fait with slang/dialect used by people of that country/region…
Urgh, golf clap for America once again.
Im so glad that the English Language is the only thing vaguely linking us to America, imagine if we had to deal with that lack of cerebral functionality in the UK.
It would be detrimental to the sustained growth of the country… Oh wait, perhaps we need to think up some basic tests for our political candidates to perform prior to joining parliament.
A good starting questions would be:
Do you know what a moat is?
Gary, I’m sure this happens occasionally, but I think you’ve made a double post. Kyle beat you to it yesterday.
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/01/us-detains-and-deports-two-morons-over-dumb-destroy-america-tweets/
How depressing to see people side with the border police on this one.
This is on par with some parent being overheard telling their child “I’m going to kill you when we get home!” and being arrested for it.
How utterly fatuous.
Agreed, the thing that gets me is that after questioning, they felt the need to send them back??? It should have been obvious that they intended no harm. There is either something missing from this story or the security was offended by them and felt the need to give the full punishment available.
I may have been the guy who was bullied for having a small penis. That kind of treatment can leave a man bitter.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/funny/plea-deal-tsa-screener-assault-390182
That was meant to be “it” not “I”.
My therapist would call that a Freudian Slip. If I had a therapist that is.