15-08-11, 01:53 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2009
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Essex police charge man over water fight planned on BlackBerry Messenger
Essex police charge man over water fight planned on BlackBerry Messenger | Media | guardian.co.uk
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A man will appear before magistrates in September for attempting to organise a citywide water fight on his mobile phone.
The 20-year-old from Colchester, south-east England, was arrested on Friday after Essex police discovered the plans circulating on the BlackBerry Messenger service and Facebook.
The unnamed man has been charged with "encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence" under the 2007 Serious Crime Act, police said.
He was arrested the day the water fight was due to take place along with another 20-year-old man. He has been bailed to appear before Colchester magistrates on 1 September. The second man was released without charge.
The BlackBerry Messenger service, a closed communications network, was the social network of choice for organising many of the raids on shops and businesses during the riots across parts of England last week.
A police spokesman declined to disclose whether Essex police had been monitoring the messenger service since the riots. "Essex police use appropriate measures for whatever the crime and wherever our investigations lead us," he said.
Speaking during last Thursday's parliamentary debate on the riots, David Cameron said he would investigate whether social-networking sites should be shut down if they helped to "plot" crime. The prime minister said he would "look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality".
He has received support from some Tory backbenchers, including Louise Mensch, who likened such a ban to closing a stretch of rail network after an accident.
In 2008 there was a spate of mass water fights in UK towns and cities that were organised through social networking. Most remained peaceful.
This month a water fight attended by thousands of young Iranians attracted the attention of Tehran's morality police and led to a series of arrests.
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