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Art Imitating Life: MIT Student Arrested at Logan Intl. Airport with Fake Bomb...
Zahaladeen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
...claimed it was "art".
http://wbztv.com/topstories/local_story_264104114.html
She's lucky she didn't take two in the chest.
http://wbztv.com/topstories/local_story_264104114.html
She's lucky she didn't take two in the chest.
Zahaladeen on
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Somehow I don't think she thought that far ahead.
She was probably too busy singing along with her iPod while on the subway or stressing over career day to put two and two together about blinking lights in an airport. Also, I think the title of this thread is sort of inappropriate as her defense of it as "art" is pretty inconsequential. Also, calling it a fake bomb, since it wasn't.
It was a fashion statement by an electronics student, who could understandably make this mistake if she hasn't been watching network TV for more than several hours a day.
EDIT: I still think that some response was justified-- though probably not a full deployment with submachine guns-- but definitely not all of this criticism of the poor girl's intelligence.
It says she cooperated fully. If she so much as raised her voice, THEN she would be swiss cheese.
First, I'm paraphrasing from the news headlines and wire reports. Go bust their balls, not mine.
Second, what exaclty do you call a device that is meant to look like bomb but isn't? What suits your mood better?
Faux bomb?
Counterfit bomb?
Diet bomb?
The un-bomb?
There is nothing that "looks like a bomb." If an exposed circuit board and blinking lights is a de facto bomb, well.
It's just too retarded. I can't comment.
EDIT: She was going to career day afterwards. She wanted to stand out as a capable electrical engineer who was also creative and unafraid of expressing herself. It's completely valid-- it being a fake bomb is nowhere implied or reasonable.
Nonetheless, you don't wear that shit into an airport, and it doesn't take an MIT-certified rocket surgeon to figure that out.
Wait. We've done this before.
edit: I mean really.
I'm sure you've done stupider, it just didn't involve a cadre of men with submachine guns.
It doesn't say what she was doing with it-- I mean, note the intentional vagueness on elements like this in the story. Do you know why? Let's put on our thinking caps and exercise hermeneutics!
Ooh, ooh, I have an idea!
Because it wasn't really all that incriminating at all if you give the whole story?
Bing-fucking-bingo!
I've flown probably 15 or 16 times (not a huge amount, but more than a lot of people) and have never once seen people wandering around playing with play-doh.
seriously, who has the train of thought "I'm going to the airport .... I'll probably need play-doh in my hand."
"It'll be fun .... hanging in the airport. waiting for my friend. got my lightup circuit board strapped to my chest. playing with my play-doh"
Seriously though, 1) the metrics that admit you to MIT do not translate automatically and without loss to all other facets of life, 2) you do not have the right to disparage someone's intellect at large for their having had a lapse in judgment when you are unaware of the facts leading up to the situation, 3) she was not "lucky she did not take two in the chest," because as was mentioned, a response of an entire unit with submachine guns is ridiculously over-the-top in any situation. That's poor anti-terror response.
That's pro-terror response, to the Q.
t Dyna-- like I said in my first post, I'm not saying their response wasn't justified on a level. She definitely needed to be escorted out by at least one trooper and told that she was doing something stupid and not smart to it. I only object to people feeling like they have the right to call her a retard, tarnish her reputation, and say that she doesn't deserve her education in the process.
What don't you get from "repeating wire service stories and headlines"? At no point do I, personally, say that was her intent nor am I a shill for the Logan Intl. Airport Police. I'm just repeating facts. THEY said it was a "fake bomb". The components, one of which you left out was "Play-Doh" which molded correctly can look an awful lot like Semtex, was in her hands. In this day and age of hyper-vigillance, what do you expect from law enforcement at an airport?
are Hawaiians stupid or something?
I don't get that defense.
also, if someone really had a bomb in an airport I'd be thankful that a bunch of guys with submachine guns showed up to figure out what was going on.
Edit: Also, how many guns stop someone from blowing up?
If I saw someone being calmly escorted away-- even by just one or a few troopers with guns drawn-- I would be freaked out, but would probably just think it was pretty run-of-the-mill.
Seeing a full deployment with submachine guns, though, puts the fear of God in me.
EDIT: Poster above me has it exactly right-- I'd think that if the intent is to blow up, they will blow up. If they are not intending to blow up, hasn't it been proven that keeping the suspect calm is more important than intimidating them?
Frankly, I think she needs to be praised for being so level-headed when a group of men approached her with submachine guns, not have her intelligence ceaselessly insulted. Kudos, I guess?
Just out of curiosity, does it freak anyone else out that even trained professionals have no clue what a bomb looks like?
Unfortunately, I'm sure the exact opposite happens behind the scenes, and they receive the exact opposite sort of motivation.
all bombs look the same do they?
hell, my friends and I used to make black powder bombs out of folgers coffee cans (stupid I know) (very stupid, but at least we were in the moddle of nowhere and had the sense to use a long fuse).
anyway my point is that bombs can look like anything.
because thats the same thing? ..... besides, they check all shoes before flight.
I think the question should be, what does a bomb NOT look like...
LightBrite- Not a bomb.
A circuit board- Not a bomb.
The last time this country was hit by terrorists they had to use giant planes... the time before that they had to use rental trucks loaded with fertalizer.... now suddenly terrorists have the ability to turn a deck of playing cards into an explosive device? Seriously? People really do need to get their heads out of this Lethal Weapon/24 crap...
bah
my car looks like a car .... I guess there could never be car bombs
coffee cans don't look like bombs .... and yet they have been
almost anything can be made to explode.
On a more serious note, I'm not sure that a bomb really looks like anything in particular. Remember the guy that hid plastic explosives in his shoe? I mean, sure, you might have something like sticks of dynamite ductaped together, or grenades or whatnot. But I'd bet home-made explosives can come in infinite variations that could be virtually impossible to identify.
I wouldn't say airport security over-reacted, because it's their job to contain any possible threat as fast as possible, and a circuit board (which could be anything, really) certainly does look threatening. One can argue that a real terrorist wouldn't be flaunting his bomb, but it's always better to err on the side of caution with these things. But this news story calling it a fake bomb is just sensationalist, because it wasn't intended to resemble a bomb, nor to trick people into believing to was one. But, you know, "MIT student with circuit board arrested today" isn't nearly as punchy of a headline. So much for truth and objectivity in journalism.
tl, dr: The security took appropriate response. The newspaper turning them into heroes for it to try to sell some rags is retarded.
QFT
Oh shit, terrist's might be out to get me.