Is That A Device On Your Body? Or Am I Just Acting Suspicious?
When I read this -- I have zero empathy. None.
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.
Authorities said they were amazed that someone would wear such a device eight months after a similar scare in Boston, and six years after two of the jets hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks took off from Logan.
"I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport," said State Police Maj. Scott Pare, the airport's commanding officer.
The bottom line -- the law is based around being reasonable. It was reasonable for authorities to act the way they did and it was unreasonable that somebody would wear something like that to an airport (especially considering the caliber of intelligence if they are going to MIT).
As for the lawyer's comments, it is interesting that he/she is basically saying that if you are not acting suspicious, yet you have some sort of blinking device with wires and a battery on your sweatshirt, that the police should not have taken action. Ummm... I could be wrong. But the device alone was grounds for suspicion.
On the advice of counsel -- I have no further comments. The post speaks for itself.
Comments
However, I certainly don't see this as something that the authorities should be pressing charges over.
Next thing you know, we'll all be forced to stuff our liquid toiletries into see-through plastic bags because some terrorist thought they could get away with sneaking a liquid-based bomb onto a plane. Oh...I guess that's already happened. And what's going to become of airline travel when we have a terrorist plot involving a suppository-bomb?
We need to be selective in how we go about enforcing these things. While we're chasing down girls with lame wiring on their shirts, we have two entirely open borders through which it's been proven that terrorists frequently infiltrate.
Whether or not they press charges -- that is up to prosecutors. But that isn't my issue -- my issue is law enforcement and their suspicions up front -- not the downstream charges.
The police did the right thing.
This is a good read, albeit kind of feel-good in it's approach.
It's hard for me to believe that Star Simpson a MIT student would actually do this unintentionally. I could be wrong, but if I did it I would be asking for trouble