DutchNews.nl - 15-year-old arrested for threatening Ajax' Ryan Babel on Twitter

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15-year-old arrested for threatening Ajax' Ryan Babel on Twitter

Friday 26 October 2012

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested after sending a threatening tweet to Ajax footballer Ryan Babel, Amsterdam police said on Friday.

The youth was picked up at his home in The Hague at around 02.00 in the early hours of Friday morning after police had been alerted to an exchange of messages between the two.

The boy, known as @_LORENSS, used the microblogging service to state Babel, a fervent twitter user, should ‘get a bullet’ and referring to the player's skin colour.

Fines

There then followed an exchange of messages in which Babel accused the boy of racism and published his name and address.

‘Now you think about it, I’m going to make work out of this and report it,’ Babel wrote. Although the police statement said Babel is due to make a formal complaint on Friday afternoon, it is unclear if he has already done so.

In January 2011, Babel was fined £10,000 by the English FA for an outburst on Twitter about a referee. Then in May this year, he was fined a further €3,000 by the German football association for threatening another referee using Twitter.

Are the police over-reacting? Have your say using the comment box below.

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Readers' comments (6)

I don't understand what Babel's tweets from Januari 2011 and May this year have got to do with this. A little punk did a racist tweet and I don't think the police is over-reacting. The anonymity of the internet doesn't mean that you can write anything you want without repercussion.

By pepe | October 26, 2012 4:45 PM

Draged out of his home at 2a.m. For what? Overreacting: yes.
And for what? A teenager likely acting irresponsiblily. This is what teenagers do.

By Me | October 26, 2012 5:40 PM

If Ryan Babel has been previously fined for twitting racisim, the police should question him and not the 15 years old boy. My opinion !!!!

By Rosie M | October 26, 2012 5:52 PM

The youth was picked up at his home in The Hague at around 02.00
-------------------

Deeply disturbing to emulate Nazis by arresting in the middle of the night.

By Puck | October 27, 2012 9:34 AM

@Rosie M. There is nowhere mentioned in the two stories about Ryan that he was fined for twitting racism.

By Elton | October 29, 2012 8:12 AM

Racists need to be punished. The earlier the better.

By Philippe | October 29, 2012 12:43 PM