Lawyer: Fake bomb charge an overreaction

Source: ap




Lawyer: Fake bomb charge an overreaction

By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

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.

............

Simpson showed "a total disregard to understand the context of the situation she is in, which is an airport of post-9/11," prosecutor Wayne Margolis said at a hearing where a not guilty plea was entered for Simpson and she was released on $750 bail. Margolis had asked for $5,000 bail............
............

Two phrases that looked hand-drawn — "Socket to me" and "Course VI" — were written on the back of Simpson's sweat shirt, which authorities displayed to the media. Course VI appears to refer to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's major of electrical engineering and computer science.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_re_us/fake_bomb;_ylt=AkdmciWf6kYFWBcmyK9qio6s0NUE

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I hope she does not get charged under any terrorism laws (utter stupid thing to do but.....).

http://wonkette.com/politics/boston/stoners-media-conglomerate-responsible-for-boston-bomb-hoax-233012.php



edit: did the html thang

Sometimes looking back on news like that it's hard to believe such high-strung paranoia happened over children's toys with cartoon characters on them

I encountered the following. In my small town, greeting someone "Hi, how are you?" is common, but the "how are you" part is rhetorical. There was a particular security guard pre-screening me and my airline ticket while I was waiting in line for the xray security machine. This guard was visibly displeased: "What's the matter? Don't you know how you are?" Struck me as odd.

Overall, the public figures I ran into were courteous and civil, but it seemed like "the rules are the rules." I suppose metropolitan areas tend to be that way more so than the hometown-friendly areas.

We deserve all the criticism we get for being paranoid morans. Well, at least the idiot law-enforcement folks do.

any laws.

She didn't make it for the occasion to freak out homeland security.

Boston needs to give art appreciation courses to cops.

What are you a fucking moran or something?

airport security thinks is a bomb, we are all in danger from their foolishness.

but of course they don't teach that at MIT.

Circuit boards are a ubiquitous part of life-- I'll bet at LEAST 50 percent of the folks walking around an airport at any given time has one or more electronic circuit boards on them somewhere. This is ridiculous.

......by one of these 'ubiquitous' wearers of circuit boards you would of course be telling us you fully understand how airport security was unable to prevent the attack and applaud them for their restraint and tolerance? Please. I think you would be foaming at the mouth that your family was unnecessarily killed due to lax airport security not doing its job.

by a short, balding man with a bomb concealed in his Apple Ipod, I would be "foaming at the mouth" because airport security did not do its job in banning short, balding men with Ipods?

Damn, what sort of object might I be unknowingly carrying that some idiot would think is a bomb? Maybe something like this will be the next thing that gets someone shot by airport security:

http://www.alandra.co.uk/cgi-bin/showimage.cgi?type=thumbnail&id=58

Frankly I think people like you, relentlessly assaulting others with stupid "what if" scenarios in order to further strip our rights and liberties in the name of "security" are a worse threat than the people with actual bombs.

I would rather I or my family die in a bomb blast than have to live on a nation founded on speculative fearmongering bullshit like what you're doing right here.

Spent too many years there...got the scars to prove it.

God Bless The American Empire and all his Paranoid Servants! :eyes:

in Bushes America but this isn't one of them.

Walking into an airport wearing what could be mistaken for a bomb (circuit board, battery, playdough) qualifies her for a Darwin award at the least.

LOL.
But seriously, in the airport, they have you to take your shoes off and inspect your lotions. Showing up with something that has batteries and lights on it is obviously not a smart idea.

Exactly... like a cell phone. Or a PDA. Or a pager. Or a Gameboy.

There are many panicked sheep in this country that would willing to accept having to fill out paperwork 3 days in advace in order to be allowed to go to the airport, with a strip search and body cavity search, and a stay in an isolation booth until your permitted time to leave.

How much longer until we need passports to leave your state (or even town) of residence?

It doesn't look REMOTELY like a bomb. Innards of my CD player looks more like a bomb, and IT doesn't look remotely like a bomb. Only a complete, ignorant, dumbass could even BEGIN to 'think' (I use 'think' because there is NO thought process in this assumption)that this was a bomb.

The utter STUPIDITY of these people is overwhelmingly terrifying.

when it appears it was mistaken for a bomb. Again, this is a place where you shoes has to be taken off and if you have a hand lotion it has to be inspected, and here you are going to claim that something with lights and batteries can not be mistaken for a bomb? Yea, right.

for a bomb. However, in a decently informed society, it NEVER would have been. The media has given us this incorrect and ludicrous idea of what bombs are and what they look like. Almost every precaution taken at airports are completely irrational and easily overcome by anyone who actually planned on attacking.

"She wore the white circuit board on her chest over a black hooded sweatshirt, Pare said at a news conference. The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, and Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said."

I'm no bomb expert but I think an electric charge and some c-4 are the basic needs.

(I don't use bomb here, because 'bomb' is a term that implies and explosive device designed to create death and destruction). You would need blasting caps. C-4 explosive needs decent blasting caps as well (Possible to make at home, but dangerous and not particularly fun), and wouldn't produce much a a bang without a containment system (say, a grenade). 6 ounces of uncontained C-4 is less than what you would use in a grenade (And let me remind everyone, the explosion of a grenade does pretty much ZERO; it's the shrapnel that does most of the work). You can burn C-4 without it ever exploding (it's actually made from fuel tablets that are designed for, among other things, campfires) Assuming it was C-4, at most it would have killed her and possibly burned a few other people(assuming she met the numerous requirements for detonation. It could be more likened to carrying around a handful of M-80's).

Next point- actual C-4 is difficult to make (The binding agents are less easy to work with). Assuming your going this route, C-3 would be easier to make, and wouldn't look like military C-4.

C-x explosives are also much more complicated and require more dangerous synthesis methods than many explosives. It can be done by anyone with a basic understanding of the synthesis process, but overall, there are much better things to do if you're actually sick enough to blow someone up.

Flashing lights are pointless. They aren't needed in ANY explosive device. The only conceivable reason for their usage would be in a timed device where you wanted to let whoever saw it know how close to detonation it was (Also a bad idea).

So, at most all they should have done was ask to get a closer look. A 10 second inspection would be more than enough to determine that it was no threat. Should she have worn it? Well, the ignorance of our system being so overwhelming, I would say no. No point in making the people who are supposed to be protecting us want to shit themselves. The charges are police over-reaction and them trying to make it look like they weren't as stupid as they actually are.

with a thousand people walking around the airport, wearing circuit boards and carrying play doh, because NONE of them could possibly be a real bomb?

A cell phone or CD player has a greater chance of being an explosive device than this. At least then it is concealed, and would actually have projectile fragments that might actually do damage.

The stigma of plastic explosives is, overall, ridiculous. They're impractical outside of tactical operations. There are numerous things easier to make and more effective in most situations than plastic explosives.

Was it a stupid thing to do considering the ignorance of our system? Probably. However, as I stated before, a 10 second look would have easily revealed no threat, and everyone could be on their merry way.

In plain view, with wires hanging out of it?

Terrorists aren't going to be too successful when they're complete idiots.

He was wearing a bomb on his body, and he had a collar around his neck. And that was a real bomb, it blew up and killed the pizza delivery man. So, in answer to your question as to how likely it is someone would wear a visible bomb-I would say it depends on what is the goal of the person wearing the devise is.

Nobody would look twice at a pizza delivery guy. Only if you were up close would you notice any wires.

something around his neck. I don't even know what you mean by "nobody would look twice at a pizza delivery guy," considering he went to the bank, told the bank employee he had a bomb, and asked for money.
Do tell me that you wouldn't look twice at someone wearing a collar bomb.
http://www.komotv.com/news/national/5901066.html

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102916

Watta crocka shit. So much for the land of the brave.

I just saw a suspicious "Light Bright" package in aisle 4:rofl:

she is an mit student, so obviously, not an idiot.

she should know that purposely doing something stupid can get you hurt. she was lucky.

i believe she knew exactly what she was doing, and got the reaction she hoped for.

an mit student knows full well what is acceptable and not acceptable in an AIRPORT.

wanting to be "edgy" can have its drawbacks. she knew what the reaction would be when she walked through doors. maybe she was hoping to get tasered?

i am so tired of people doing anything to get their 15 minutes.

:shrug:

Fuck the morans who can't figure our the difference between a goofy student with a stupid shirt on and a real threat.

situation. It's very easy to say it was obvious not to be a bomb after the fact. Doesn't take many brain cells to do that.
Yet if it was indeed something dangerous how many would be screaming that authorities screwed up yet again if they haven't caught it?

This was a stupid person there to pick somebody up - they weren't even flying according to the story.

this was lame...

Not in the IQ sense, but in the geek sense of being significantly out of touch with ordinary reality and not having much awareness of how other people perceive them.

In addition, a lot of them come from high schools where they were regarded as weirdos and therefore developed a certain thick-skinnedness as far as blocking out negative reactions to their more eccentric mannerisms.

Altogether, it would be *exactly* like an MIT student to breeze through an airport without ever noticing their attire or behavior might be causing a stir.

security. She should be sent to a black site and interrogated. /end Freeper rant.

if she'd had a crystal radio hanging round her neck with headphones and a 100 foot piece of wire trailing behind her as an antenae.

For the benefit of anyone who wonders what the fuck a crystal radio is see here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio_receiver

This is going to be one of those stories that people will barely believe happened in a generation. Utterly disgraceful on the part of the airport workers, police and the DA.

Walked into Dulles (about 1998) with a large unmarked brown cardboard box tightly held together with duct tape (including a loop to serve as a handle).

"What's in the box, sir?"

"Electronics test equipment."

"OK."

Complete with schematic

http://www.doctronics.co.uk/4511.htm

I don't see how charges are merited. A casual inspection would reveal that it isn't a bomb or a hoax device.

In an ideal world, she would have recieved a warning and that would be the end of it. Of course nowadays police will charge you with something for simply occupying their time.

There's a number of articles that use various tactics to paint the situation in a particular way that read like textbook examples of mis-reporting to me.

Once you accept the "fake bomb" part you're 80% of the way toward what they'd have you believe.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1877158&mesg_id=1877158">more....

She is of a darker complexion with dyed hair. I think that counted as a point ( or ten) against her. If she had been the lily white male "stereotype" of a nerd or geek, she probably would have been ok.

wearing and carrying, I thought she should've been stopped and maybe arrested.

Everyone....EVERYONE....knows not to joke around about bombs at airports these days, and ESPECIALLY the airport from which two of the hijacked planes took off.

This was no "accident." This was a prank, unless she has no brain at all. She was wearing something that had those words on the back, but more than that, she had strapped to her front a gizmo (not exactly comfortable while driving, I'm sure), AND was carrying clay...a known item to used in bombs.

If I were at the airport, I would want her stopped and questioned, for sure. No matter what her coloring. And I thought she was lilly white, when I thought that.

(Note to self: Leave the alarm clock at home)

http://www.geekstuff4u.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=488

would have been if she got shot. She got arrested. She's lucky. While her intentions may have been benign, the outcome was less so.

Mz Pip
:dem:

Not trying to be a smart alek but I see the picture of the sweatshirt, the picture of the circuit board, and the picture of the girl, but I'd like to take a look at the play dough she reportedly was holding. Was this verified by either the girl and/or the lawyer? or was this coming from the initial police/press report?

in our new world nothing homemade is acceptable

An Improvised Listening Device!

I'm watching the news, and every jackass on the TV is trying to tell me that it a "fake bomb" that it was a college prank by someone trying to make a statement.

Bullshit.

Here is what I think is the more plausible explanation, but the more plausible explanation doesn't make for a sexy news story.

She made this completely harmless harmless little gadget. Something that spells her name out in lights. It's a gut little attention getter and conversation piece if your going to a social/networking function like say... I don't know, a career day. When it's not activated it just looks like a jumble of wires on a circuit board. At least that what it looks like to anyone who knows anything about electronics.. to the professionally paranoid it looks like a bomb. She, knowing about electronics, recognizes it for what it is. However she fails to realize what it might look like to other people. She probably forgot she was even wearing the fricken' thing when she went to the airport.

Geniuses can be and often are absentminded. Case in point, Albert Einstein was once so focused on prepping for a speech he was about to give, that he forgot to put on his freaking pants. He went out on stage, much to the shock of his audience, and dismay of his colleagues, and delivered his speech in naught but his boxer shorts.

This was clearly a misunderstanding that got blown way the hell out of proportion. Every news show I've seen has been denouncing this chick for pulling a prank. For making a "Fake Bomb" and scaring the hell out of everyone. No one seems to be asking whether she intended the device to be perceived as a bomb. If she did, that one thing. If she didn't, there is absolutely no call for the kind of verbal abuse she's been getting for this. In fact I think the only reason she's being prosecuted, and the only reason the media is running with this "prank,stunt,fake bomb" angle is to save face for being to stupid to recognize the device for what it was.

We as a society have gone way over the fucking line with our constant overreaction to things. This and that recent story of a kid who got expelled for simply drawing a picture of a gun. I mean, seriously. How can you, unless you're Bugs fricken Bunny, hurt someone with a picture of a gun?


I am an artist, and on a recent flight to Vegas I brought my art supplies with me in my carry on. With about 5 or six hours to kill, I thought drawing might help calm my nerves... (I'm not comfortable with heights) My main concern was whether or not Airport Security would think my Gum Eraser was a plastic explosive. Should I have left it at home on the off chance somebody watching me work with it thought I was a terrorist. Why the hell should I? Why the hell should I have to spend 6 hours of my life sitting on my hands, watching "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" because some ignorant fuck could possibly mistake one of the tools of my trade for an explosive?

It's really simple. Here is how this could have played out.

Security: "Hey is that a bomb."

MIT Girl "Nope."

Security: "Well then what the hell is it?"

MIT Girl "It spells out my name in lights."

Security: "Where did you get it."

MIT Girl "I made it, I'm an Electronics Engineering student at MIT."

Security: "Well, I don't know much about electronics, so for the sake of security, I'm gonna have to call somebody in to take a closer look at this thing."

MIT Girl "I understand, better safe than sorry."

Security: "Thanks for not making a big fuss Miss. This shouldn't take long."

... A half hour later.

Security: "Well?"

Airport Bomb Squad Guy: "Well it's definitely not a bomb"

Security: "You sure?"

Airport Bomb Squad Guy: "Yup"

Security: "Okay Miss, you're clear to fly, but please don't wear it on the flight. Just put it in you suitcase. If I thought it was a bomb, I'm sure it would scare the Bajezus out of some of the other passengers."

MIT Girl: "Okay I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean to scare anyone, and to be honest I had completely forgotten I was still wearing this thing."

Airport Bomb Squad Guy: "This was clearly just a big misunderstanding, but be careful miss, some of the guys at these other airports are a bit over the top. This little mix up could have been blown way out of proportion."

MIT Girl: "Thanks.. bye"

Security: "Sweet girl, well I'd better get back to work."


Airport Bomb Squad Guy: "I heard there have been a few complaints about gay sex in the bathroom."

Security: "Gay sex in the bathroom, I'll get right on top of it."


Airport Bomb Squad Guy: "..."

Security: "Awkward"

that'll learn her real good.

Ignorance is no excuse to test a Logan airport security worker.

They've let the real terrorists through the gates in the past.
I think it's personal for them

of wearing a bomb. In case it actually is real.
:rofl:

Okay, it was kind of dumb to walk into an airport with a circuit-board glued to her shirt, but that pales in comparison with the cops here. Arrested at gunpoint? How about practicing the phrase "Could we please examine that shirt, miss?" Chances are, she'd have let them take a look and see that it was harmless. She might still have had to go home and change to avoid freaking out the travellers, but it would have been far less of a waste of time for the girl, the police, and the courts.

Damn MIT students, though. Genius-level college kids with not one tiny bit of common sense. They're having problems with cleaning up the river that runs near MIT because, among other reasons, the MIT kids keep throwing mettalic sodium into the water to watch it explode. A couple days ago they also pulled some kind of grey putty from the river, which then proceeded to, well, blow up. We're breeding mad scientists, I tell you.

how many times stuff like this has to happen before people realize some individuals are mimicking terrorist behavior, so they can sue the shit out of an airline/airport or the cops for mistreating them.