Slander & libel I understand, humour & sarcasm? I do not. For instance, Jeremy Clarkson got into trouble for saying he likes to run down foxes in his car, he also got into trouble for saying the people in the public sector who were on strike a lil while back should be lined up in front of their families and executed.
But it is his very dry and sometimes dark sense of humour. Yet he still got into trouble. My dad works in the public sector, instead of being offended he burst laughing. I am somebody who loves dark humour and often make dark jokes or am quite facetious about dark things. It worries me when I see comedians get into trouble for making a joke and it worries me more when somebody can make a joke in public and get into a lot of trouble. Yes, screaming "I've got a bomb" in an airport would no doubt cause a lot of panic and danger and even as a joke it would create a lot of problems. Where people have yelled, "fire" in a theatre, people have actually died.
But this wasn't yelling "bomb!" in an airport or "fire!" in a crowded building. It was joke taken out of context on a video game. Nobody actually got hurt and nobody was going to get hurt. If in these instances, the person yelling bomb or fire were to shout, "just kidding!" afterwards would likely prevent the panic, probably get a few people calling him names and security escorting them away, possible followed by a fine for causing a public disturbance. If panic erupts, the punishment would be more severe, based on the consequences of their actions.
Considering I've joked myself with lines like, "I'm now going to cut myself" or "I'm going to shoot myself" it hasn't flagged up warnings with anybody that I might be a suicide risk due to the context it was raised. Heck I joke all the time at work about killing customers, it's cathartic. Likewise for people who say they want to kill their boss (I actually like my boss, so I never do it).
The problem with these kind of situations it that people seem to base their judgment on, "well, what if he was serious?" "What if it was the real thing?" The issue is we can rarely predict the real thing, jokes people make day-to-day isn't going to be a bearing on whether or not you're going to catch somebody before it happens. Yes there is the possiblity somebody might say it for they do it, but then there are a lot of things that could have been done in the sequence of events leading up to the big kill. Without prior knowledge, you simply don't know.
But there's a lot of things people do that if put into a different context that would make them look suspicious. For instance, looking over your shoulder, scratching your head passing a school, you might even look a little nervous. Perhaps you're wearing an anorak too. This could be the sign of a killer, a drug dealer, a kidnapper or somebody who does unpleasant things to children. But the fact I've committed this suspicious act that might make an onlooker call the police on me, "I think that man could be a child killer, he's too suspicious", yet I could be completely innocent. But I'm not going to be charged for being a suspect of an uncommitted crime. We'd just walk away and find that it was a misunderstanding.
Thinking about it, it's highly unlikely somebody who's actually going to do it is going to joke about it. I would say severely bullied kids at school would make better suspects than a guy cracking a joke or making a sarcastic comment online, to me it's just a waste.
I think more effect (and emphasis) should not be put on catching who might sound like somebody who'd commit the crime, but to solving the very things that lead a person to commit it. It's not exactly random, there's numerous things that influence a person. As I've suggested, bullying is one (help fix that and you help with suicide rates too).
Once you start adding more and more "what ifs" you are restricting more and more what people can't say and can't do. Yes, there are certain amounts of restriction, for instance you're not going to hand a 5 year old a dirty heroin needle.
Frankly, I am big believer in the freedom of expression and I actually tend to rate freedom of expression based on how well society can take a joke. My view when it comes to jokes is "it's all okay or none of it is".
