Posted on 09/22/2007 6:37:50 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&referrer=welcome&id=20070922/46f49340_3ca6_1552620070922-1497302150
Lawyer: Fake Bomb Charge an Overreaction
BOSTON - The MIT student who walked into Logan International Airport wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweat shirt claimed it was harmless artwork. But to troopers who arrested her at gunpoint, it was a fake bomb.
Nineteen-year-old Star Simpson was charged Friday with possessing a hoax device. Her attorney described the charge as offbase and "almost paranoid," arguing at a court hearing that she did not act in a suspicious manner and had told an airport worker that the device was art.
(Excerpt) Read more at home.peoplepc.com ...
I have a guess about the PlayDoh on the back. That looks like a "Wire Tie" prototype board. The back is a bunch of little pins that are tied together with wire to allow continuity between the various devices on top of the board, in this case....some LEDs, a battery, and a a few other components to make it blink. I would have used silly putty, epoxy or maybe some PlayDoh to protect the exposed pins and insulate the board when I attached it to my shirt, other wise you can bend the little pins and cause a short and your blinky doesn't blink anymore...;(
“The terrorists need do nothing but stand back and watch the US destroyed by rampant idiocy unfettered by even the most simple and basic logic.”
I believe you will be leading that charge.
“Why don’t we just have a country where security can lock up anyone they suspect of terrorist activities. Oh, wait that is what the Stasi, NKVD and SS did, one suspected subversive at a time.”
Save this foolishness for a real cause, not to save some idiot who wore a fake bomb into an airport. You are so bent on protecting this probable hoaxter, that you have jumped over the edge, and pulled all common sense with you.
Just how does arresting someone who wears what could easily be mistaken for a bomb, into an airport, equate with the tactics of the Stasi, NKVD or SS?
And why was she carrying a handful of modeling clay?
This is prima facie evidence of her intention to look like she was wearing a bomb, and at Logan Airport of all places.
I’m dying to hear her explain that away, especially the modeling clay she was carrying as an accessory.
You deride our security forces, and maybe some things are deserving of your scorn... but this isn’t one of them.
And in case you didn’t realize it: you’re kind of a jerk.
Why don't we just have a country where security can lock up anyone they suspect of terrorist activities. Oh, wait that is what the Stasi, NKVD and SS did, one suspected subversive at a time.
We have a country that can lock people up for being a suspected murder, rapist, robber ...should a suspected bomber be treated differently? Maybe cute little collage girls should have special status.
Like one of the old Radio Shack educational toys - small board full of holes, various electronic components that could be wired together to make radios, timers etc. Unfortunately times have changed. Kids can’t even play with toy guns that look like guns. I once had a mantel clock that looked like several stick of dynamite, blasting cap and clock. I haven’t seen them for sale now for several years.
“Note the green LEDs arranged in the shape of a star, as in Star Simpson.”
That airport employee should have known that those lights made up a star, and that the girl was obviously making art that matched her name.
She must be one of those low IQ types, who look at modeling clay, and circuit boards attached to hoodies, and is incapable of intuiting the true nature of art.
“She did not pretend it was a bomb.”
Yes, she pretended it was a bomb. She wore a circuit board, complete with battery, while carrying modeling clay.
That is tacit pretense of carrying a bomb.
Moron.
Jim, I have read everything I could find about this, and I didn't find anything that indicated this. All posters on this thread have made good points, although more heated than necessary. The cops did the right thing in stopping her, but I also agree that once they discovered it wasn't a bomb, but a little LED flashing star, they only needed to tell her to remove it and don't do anything that stupid again.....I don't believe she should have been shot, nor have her entire life ruined.
Star probably wouldn't have fared any better had she worn a T-shirt that had a picture of an exploding bomb on it. As it was, to most the apparatus was no more threatening than a singing birthday card.
Yes, she pretended it was a bomb. She wore a circuit board, complete with battery, while carrying modeling clay.
That is tacit pretense of carrying a bomb.
Moron.
She had the Play-Doh in her hand. People sometimes squeeze the stuff as therapy for a hand injury. It feels good.
It's not clear if Moncayo even saw the Play-Doh. In order for it to be construed as a bomb (by a non-moron, that is), it would need to have had a detonator inserted and wired up to the circuit.
Certainly not from what transpired in this instance.
The wires could conceivably have gone through the front of the hoodie, and down the sleeve. Remember, it was just a brief glance by this employee.
First lack of common courtesy is not a crime. Second, we don't know the content of the conversation. The other explanation is that Star, being actually innocent and thinking there to be nothing wrong with her gadget, herself thought the question from the information desk manager to be rude and impertinent. You go to an information desk to ask information, not to be interrogated.
Get it through your thick fascist skull. IT WAS NOT A FAKE BOMB!
You can't charge someone for what could have been, only what was. They investigated and it wasn't/they didn't.
She did? Where? Did anyone overhear her say "I have a bomb" or "you are all dead" or "hand over the cinnabons."
The idiot pretending this is a bomb is the moron to whom this post is addressed.
It wasn't a bomb. She took no steps to try to persuade anyone that it was a bomb, but because security folks deluded themselves into thinking it might be a bomb she gets to go to prison.
I just looked out the window to the street. My car has a blinking red light going on inside. I suppose I should be locked up because it could be construed as a bomb by an itinerant donut muncher. Of course, it might look like the standard security alarm that comes as standard equipment on all late model cars, but once terrorists figure that out they could take off the shelf autos and wire them up to be bombs we are all in trouble. Other than the fact that there is nothing to make you think it is a bomb, the flashing red light is a great disguise because it looks just like a normal car.
So our security folks should go around blowing up normal looking cars, with that blinking red security light, to assure terrorists that they cannot hide bombs in normal looking cars.
Then we need to arrest the owners for staging a hoax and causing our donut munchers to become "alarmed."
Is this really that complicated for you dimwits? They investigated and she wasn't equipped with a bomb.
The only problem is that we don't get any security out of this.
I suppose there is an alternative, which is that these security folks are really really really smart and they are just acting dumb to lull the terrorists into complacency. Ockham's razor would eliminate this explanation, but I cannot refute it out of hand.
That much, huh?
Maybe she learned a lesson from all this - people don’t like bombs.
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