Bc2ID

Circuit board, wires, nine volt battery,bulky sweatshirt and play-doh....Oh i get it, all a misunderstanding.... We all should just chuckle and say , "silly college prank" or "she was just kidding..can't you all take a joke"


some light reading for you all.....

You are all entitled to your opinion, however it is the uninformed opinion that is hard for me to understand.

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marstein

"Circuit board strapped to the chest" sounds a lot more dangerous than the picture in th first post. This is the size of a small hand. And it has some LEDs on it. Then she was probably kneading some playdough. It looks more like 'electronic jewelry'.
She asked about a flight at the terminal information stand. They could have just asked here there what that was on her chest.

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Gigabyte P35-DS3R, 2GB, 8800GTS 640MB, Core2Duo E8400

Steeler

Please read my post carefully before you retort. I said:

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Kerostasis

So as I understand it, she went into the airport and walked up to an info desk. She asked "when is this flight arriving", and then she left the airport to wait outside. While she was outside, the guy at the info-desk called security on her.

So she wasn't even in the airport when she was "almost shot". I'd say the authorities overreacted just a little bit. By all means, security should have checked out the situation -- to ignore it would be irresponsible. But that doesn't mean you have to come that close to shooting an innocent civilian, and then arrest them for a bomb threat.

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Betterdeadthanred

It takes a special person to be smart enough to go to MIT yet stupid enough to pull a stunt like that.

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Gillespie

So the information booth assistant calls security and says, "Oh crap, I think this girl in a hoodie has a bomb on her!" So security responds. What the hell is wrong with that? What, standard operating procedure calls for a lone guard to stroll up to a potential bomber and ask about the weather? :P

"Oh, gee! This is a stupid fake bomb. Sorry, misunderstanding. You can go home." Are you serious? This dumbass deserved to get arrested. Period. Bring in an airsoft rifle into an airport and call it "art". What exactly do you think will happen to you?

Coming from two overseas tours, you do not take bombs of any sort lightly. They come in all shapes and forms. There is no "this-is-what-a-bomb-looks-like" stereotypes. That anyone would disagree with the decisiveness and authority in which these guys reacted to a potential BOMB THREAT is shocking.

Go do the whole "screw the man" routine in the annual college-kid-gets-tasered-for-being-as-ass incident.

leejo

Everyone who wants to walk up to the person hanging around outside the airport with something that looks like it might be a bomb and ask them if that's a real bomb or some kind of electronic art or just a prank raise their hands.

I fly twice a week. There are signs all over the place at the airports that say even making jokes about bombs can get you arrested. I have to put eyedrops and toothpaste in a little plastic bag for their journey through the scanning thingie. Does anyone...ANYONE...imagine that strolling around an airport with that contraption is not going to raise immediate and urgent attention?

She didn't get shot. The fuzz did fine. Her dad is really really mad right now, and staring at a second, third, and forth mortgage to pay a lawyer to keep her dumb ass out of jail for the next 10 years. Good luck using that MIT degree and that felony conviction.

marstein

I have a circuit board as a bookmark. I realize now that this could mean trouble for me. Even if it is a TSA-approved book.

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Gigabyte P35-DS3R, 2GB, 8800GTS 640MB, Core2Duo E8400

leejo

It just might. I triple dog dare you to go make your point at the nearest airport and let's find out.

Gillespie

I could show you some MacGuyver-rigged IEDs that the Iraqis build that would make you think twice about that sort of sentiment. You'd be surprised what you can use to make explosives go "BOOM".

Evo<^|SiNz|^>

You haven't been able to even joke about bombs at airports for decades... why is anyone surprised by this? Has she lived in a cave her entire life not to expect that "art" to raise some red flags at an airport? A circuit board with a duracell sticking out of it could be a lot of things. She should get charged with a felony if it wasn't malicious, but no one here should be surprised at the response it got from police, should they? I mean, airports have been sensitive about bombs since... forever, right?

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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
- Attributed to General George Patton, Jr.

Bc2ID

Steeler,

I did read your post..there is no misunderstanding the items she brought in...hence there is no misunderstanding.

This is along the same lines as shouting fire in a movie theater...(actually this is worse) It creates a panic, for which it should have. The customer service agent was not the only one who thought this woman had something. Many people started to flee the terminal.....

I respect her right to call her creation art, but she will have to pay the price for the manner and location in which she displayed it. Society has rules and norms for which its citizens will follow and obey. You cannot bring anything that looks like a hoax device into the airport. You cannot say the word "bomb" in the airport or even joke that you may have one (not that she did this). These are the rules for which society has created for itself and one for which the citizens will abide by.

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Pickle

In the minds of the LEO's this was a potential threat. If I saw a person with wires and a battery and white putty in the manner she had you can bet I would be thinking something very bad was about to happen. I am not in a position to know or care if the bomb is real or fake. I will take the steps I deem necessary to render the threat as harmless as possible. It was a good thing she complied with orders. Her intent, anyone's intent is not the issue, nor should it be. The officer can not look at her and determine, "Oh it's okay. She just an MIT student making an art statement."


We don't know why she was almost shot. It could have been they thought she had a bomb and when told to comply with certain commands she hesitated or refused. We don't know yet why. Just because she is outside of a terminal does not mean we should take less precautions. People can still be killed. What if she was in a mall. Would be okay to shoot her there or not? The location is not the issue. The close proximity of people is.

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TheSkudDestroyer

Clear and Present Danger clause, am I correct?

I have freedom of speech and of expression. But I cannot go to the airport or any large public area and yell "GUN" Or "BOMMMMMBBBB!"

It's like bringing a realistic looking toy gun...It's just a terrible idea.

IED's look like crappy little pieces of plastic and duct tape, but they're taken seriously.

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|TG-6th|Skud, NA Deputy Lead Tester

Kerostasis

Everyone's making the comparison to shouting "bomb" or other frightening words in a crowded place, but she didn't make any threatening comments of any kind. She was on her way to the parking lot when she was nearly shot.

@Pickle: We do know why she was almost shot. It wasn't because she hesitated -- if she had hesitated even a moment, it wouldn't have been "almost shot", it would have been "sorry we killed your college student". It was "almost shot" because she complied instantly and without hesitation.

The reason I felt the need to clarify outside the airport vs inside wasn't that security should be any lower 3 steps outside the door. Its that security is most definately higher once you pass the security checkpoints inside, which she never got near. People have commented on various otherwise innocuous items which you are no longer allowed to carry through those checkpoints. Well, she wasn't going through a checkpoint, she was standing in the parking lot.

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