London’s Metropolitan Police is planning to spunk £1.7 million setting up a new “Twitter squad” to combat trolling on social media. On top of this, the Home Office has put nearly £500,000 into setting up an Online Hate Crime Hub. Gosh, what could possibly go wrong? No, it’s OK. I’ll tell you. Police don’t do nuance The police are good at lots of things: high-speed chases; bashing down doors; saying “You’re nicked, son.” But expecting a rozzer to have the intellectual wherewithal to differentiate between idle social media banter and serious crime is as futile as expecting Joey Essex to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. We saw this in the ludicrous case of Paul Chambers, who shared the following Tweet with friends: “Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” Actual members of the actual police – alright, so they were the famously corrupt and stupid South Yorkshire Police (Rotherham; Hillsborough; Cliff Richard), but they are, still, technically a police force – decided that this constituted a genuine threat worthy of prosecution. And, amazingly, the Crown Prosecution Service agreed. Free speech means freedom to offend Does this really need explaining?