Northumbria Police said they had received a number of complaints in relation to a message posted on to the site following the incident yesterday… Police have today said a 19-year-old man from Sunderland has been arrested “on suspicion of making a mailicious communication” after he handed himself into police on Monday evening.

Arrested for making a joke. You can almost excuse the intolerant, censorious Twitter mob who read the tweet and narked to the police. They reacted in the manner of a prig who tells the surly store worker, “I’m going to call your boss and have you sacked.” But no-one sane can excuse the craven police for actually making an arrest.

A Northumbria Police spokesperson says:

“He has been bailed pending further enquiries into the incident... The Twitter message was deleted by the individual immediately.”

And that should have been the end of it. But the police do so like to show off their caring, listening therapeutic credentials.

So. The poor sod gets arrested when he might just be shame-faced, called a few names and shunned.

What price free speech?