BOSTON, MA -- A Massachusetts college student was arrested at gunpoint Friday after she allegedly walked into Logan International Airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest. Police say 19-year-old Star Simpson had a computer circuit board and wiring in plain view over a black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing.
She was arrested about 8 a.m. outside Terminal C after a Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson approached to ask about an incoming flight. Simpson then walked outside and the information booth attendant notified a nearby trooper.
State Police Major Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport said, "She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day,"
According to Pare, the device had wires connected to a battery, allowing it to light up.
"She also had Play-Doh in her hands," he said.
Simpson was charged with disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device.
Simpson was "extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare said.
Simpson is reportedly from Hawaii and is a sophomore at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Apparently she had a bread board with LEDs that would light up on her shirt. Perhaps I'm too educated, but that looks nothing like a bomb to me.
I'm currently in the process getting emails from the Geraldo show saying "Friends and roommates of Star Simpson, be interviewed about your thoughts on this experience".
The breadboard by itself doesn't look like a bomb to me either.
However, this seems more odd:
"She also had Play-Doh in her hands," he said.
To non-EOD experts, circuit boards, wiring, batteries, and putty conjure up images of Semtex or C4 plastic explosive bombs.
Frankly, walking around an airport these days with a homemade LED message board on your chest and play-doh in your hands isn't very bright.
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If she just had either the circuit board or the Play-Doh on its own I'd say the security people were over-reacting, but having electronics attached to something that looks very similar to a plastic explosive does seem like sufficient cause for alarm. My guess is that the college student did this intentionally as a form of protest.
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To non-EOD experts, circuit boards, wiring, batteries, and putty conjure up images of Semtex or C4 plastic explosive bombs.
Frankly, walking around an airport these days with a homemade LED message board on your chest and play-doh in your hands isn't very bright.
It may turn out that it wasn't play-doh, but something else that would make more sense to have at an airport. When a guy I knew passed away, the cops who showed up there claimed they had uncovered a meth lab ... which turned out to be a dark room for photography.
I'm a bit torn. While walking into an airport with anything attached to your chest is not a terribly great idea, a breadboard was probably so obvious to her that she never would have thought it to be misconstrued as a bomb. Yay Ivory Tower!
Sorry, the ivory tower is no more of an excuse than any other kind of ignorance. It's very easy to see how someone might think that this could be a makeshift bomb.
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State Police Major Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport said, "She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day,"
19 year old art gal doing something for career day? I'm assuming it's a piece of social commentary art that wasn't properly thought through--like if you placed a large wrapped package in the middle of a public building as 'art'. People do that all the time, and while it has an interesting social context to it, it also gets you in trouble and scares the stupid people of the public.
If she wanted to stand out on career day, she could have gone to the event and then put on that particular decoration. The airport security screening area is not a creative performance venue, and you don't fuck with those people.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
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"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Just goes to show that the school you attend is not necessarily a measure of your intelligence.
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BOSTON, MA -- A Massachusetts college student was arrested at gunpoint Friday after she allegedly walked into Logan International Airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest. Police say 19-year-old Star Simpson had a computer circuit board and wiring in plain view over a black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing.
She was arrested about 8 a.m. outside Terminal C after a Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson approached to ask about an incoming flight. Simpson then walked outside and the information booth attendant notified a nearby trooper.
State Police Major Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport said, "She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day,"
According to Pare, the device had wires connected to a battery, allowing it to light up.
"She also had Play-Doh in her hands," he said.
Simpson was charged with disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device.
Apparently she had a bread board with LEDs that would light up on her shirt. Perhaps I'm too educated, but that looks nothing like a bomb to me.
Put yourself in the shoes of airport security. Your primary job is to make sure NO ONE gets on a plane with ANY kind of threatening device (guns, bombs, knives, etc.) You see someone with electronics on the outside of their sweatshirt. You have NO IDEA what may be UNDER said sweatshirt. What do YOU do?
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Darth Servo wrote:Put yourself in the shoes of airport security. Your primary job is to make sure NO ONE gets on a plane with ANY kind of threatening device (guns, bombs, knives, etc.) You see someone with electronics on the outside of their sweatshirt. You have NO IDEA what may be UNDER said sweatshirt. What do YOU do?
Bingo. If she had a flashing LED doohickey that spelled out "Hi, my name is Jane" we'd probably go "fruit-loop" and let her through after a bit of questioning and funny looks. But a bunch of random looking LEDs on a board with funny looking wires is a big warning flag, it's pretty hard to come up with something which screams "bomb!" any better than that. It's one of those common sense things, like not screaming "Hi Jack!" when boarding a plane.
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Spin Echo wrote:
I'm a bit torn. While walking into an airport with anything attached to your chest is not a terribly great idea, a breadboard was probably so obvious to her that she never would have thought it to be misconstrued as a bomb. Yay Ivory Tower!
You know that bread boards can be used in IEDs, right? Electric initiators set off by the board, and ho were security to know what else she had on her?
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Darth Servo wrote:Put yourself in the shoes of airport security. Your primary job is to make sure NO ONE gets on a plane with ANY kind of threatening device (guns, bombs, knives, etc.) You see someone with electronics on the outside of their sweatshirt. You have NO IDEA what may be UNDER said sweatshirt. What do YOU do?
Bingo. If she had a flashing LED doohickey that spelled out "Hi, my name is Jane" we'd probably go "fruit-loop" and let her through after a bit of questioning and funny looks. But a bunch of random looking LEDs on a board with funny looking wires is a big warning flag, it's pretty hard to come up with something which screams "bomb!" any better than that. It's one of those common sense things, like not screaming "Hi Jack!" when boarding a plane.
It was a flashing LED in the shape of a star, actually. And she was just in the arrivals area waiting for her boyfriend, not actually trying to board the plane. Don't get me wrong, I think she was a dumbass for not realising something like that could cause trouble in an airport and I think the police acted appropriately if they had suspicions. I just the media saying she went to the airport with a fake bomb is distorting the situation.
I'm mainly pissed over the fact she got cast as uncooperative because she didn't want to answer questions after she was arrested without a lawyer present. (Not in the article. This is from some stuff that's been circulating my old living group's mailing list).
Spin Echo wrote:It was a flashing LED in the shape of a star, actually. And she was just in the arrivals area waiting for her boyfriend, not actually trying to board the plane. Don't get me wrong, I think she was a dumbass for not realising something like that could cause trouble in an airport and I think the police acted appropriately if they had suspicions. I just the media saying she went to the airport with a fake bomb is distorting the situation.
I had to stare at the picture for a while before I saw the star, then again, it's a lot smaller than real life. On the other hand, airport people will also be seeing it from a distance at first so they probably won't see the star shape until they've practically pulled the widget off her.
As for the media, well, fair & balanced isn't exactly a part of US media these days.
aerius: I'll vote for you if you sleep with me. Lusankya: Deal!
Say, do you want it to be a threesome with your wife? Or a foursome with your wife and sister-in-law? I'm up for either.
Spin Echo wrote:It was a flashing LED in the shape of a star, actually. And she was just in the arrivals area waiting for her boyfriend, not actually trying to board the plane. Don't get me wrong, I think she was a dumbass for not realising something like that could cause trouble in an airport and I think the police acted appropriately if they had suspicions. I just the media saying she went to the airport with a fake bomb is distorting the situation.
I had to stare at the picture for a while before I saw the star, then again, it's a lot smaller than real life. On the other hand, airport people will also be seeing it from a distance at first so they probably won't see the star shape until they've practically pulled the widget off her.
Which is why I think they were perfectly reasonable to detain her. I just think it should have been obvious pretty quickly that she was an idiot that forgot you don't wear stuff like that off the MIT campus as opposed to an active trouble maker.
I'm vaguely amused by the irony that she attached the thing to a "Don't Set Yourself on Fire" t-shirt.
aerius wrote:As for the media, well, fair & balanced isn't exactly a part of US media these days.
You also need to realize, as a security-type person, that your job is not only to stop people with blinking LED bombs from getting onto planes, but also to make sure you catch things that cause the redneck 4 isles behind you go apeshit and start a fight. Sometimes people need to have a form of their free speech stepped on so as to not cause a panic and get people hurt.
Which is why they charged her with a hoax device and disturbing the peace, since a massive panic could have gotten started if some jackass decided to yell "Bomb!" and run away.
Over-reaction, sure, but it's just one of those things. I doubt education levels or intelligence had much to do with it.
Covenant wrote:You also need to realize, as a security-type person, that your job is not only to stop people with blinking LED bombs from getting onto planes, but also to make sure you catch things that cause the redneck 4 isles behind you go apeshit and start a fight.
True. I'm glad the cyborgs have had the sense to stay away from the airport in full kit, as that would cause outright panic. Unfortunately, I can't seem to dig up any pictures of them.
Solauren wrote:She walked into an airport with blinking lights on a circuit board and carrying a plyable substance?
DUMBASS
She's lucky that she didn't run into trigger happy security guards.
Security even admits that she came ridiculously close to death
A Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson — wearing the device — approached to ask about an incoming flight, Pare said. Simpson then walked outside, and the staffer notified a nearby trooper.
The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her at a traffic island in front of the terminal.
“She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device,” Pare said. “Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force.’’
He added, “She’s lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue.’’
The basic problem I see here is they keep reporting this as if she intended this to be seen as a bomb. So far her statements lean towards its art and she was just not thinking when she wore it to the airport.. This shows a better picture of the board on the shirt.
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Am I the only person to note that note only did she wear a weird flashy-light thing along with batteries and play-do (or whatever) to an airport.... but it was the airport that two of the 9/11 airplanes departed from...?
This isn't some random airport in the middle of nowhere, but an airport which had actually been involved in an act of terrorism 6 years ago. Yeah, I think these folks take security pretty damn seriously. Of course, all airport security takes it pretty damn seriously.
Back in the 1980's my Other Half and I were passing through the Detroit Metro Airport. He was carrying his bagpipes with him, and of course security requested that he put the case on the little conveyor belt for x-ray. Well, bagpipes are made of very dense wood, dense enough to show up on x-ray, as well as have metal and bone ornamental bits. So... security sees long, thin, rods of a very dense material...
Armed guys with guns materialize out of nowhere, pointing said guns at us. Other Half was instructed to open the case, whereupon one of the security guys who had, apparently, never seen disassembled bagpipes before, said "What the hell are those?" Said musical instrument had to be assembled and played for the benefit of security, after which they wanted it taken apart and looked down the various bits for whatever these guys look for. After which we were thanked for our cooperation (I don't know about you, but having a loaded gun pointed at me tends to bring out my cooperative side) and let go upon our way.
My point being, this sort of "guns drawn" thing isn't entirely new and what's innocuous to you might in fact be quite alarming to security people. Which is why I am absolutely serious and straight-laced dealing with any form of airport security, or when crossing an international border, or when dealing with the police in their official capacity.
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Setesh wrote:The basic problem I see here is they keep reporting this as if she intended this to be seen as a bomb. So far her statements lean towards its art and she was just not thinking when she wore it to the airport.. This shows a better picture of the board on the shirt.
Well, I'm not trying to say she was out-of-her-gourd, just that this is the sort of thing you should avoid doing. I've done security work before, and I've also been stopped at airline things several times for searches due to the fact I took a lot of glasswork with me through airlines during college. The mix of odd shapes, bizzare hollow parts inside of masiively dense other areas, and the fact that they're all wrapped up would make people edgy. Her shirt wouldn't raise eyebrows anywhere else, I bet, but in an airport? I've been stopped for much less. ;D
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Setesh wrote:The basic problem I see here is they keep reporting this as if she intended this to be seen as a bomb. So far her statements lean towards its art and she was just not thinking when she wore it to the airport.. This shows a better picture of the board on the shirt.
She almost became a Darwin Award candidate because she didn't either realize or care that strapping a breadboard with flashing LED's to your chest while holding a handful of putty in an airport is a *bad idea* in a post 9/11 world.
To compound her suspicious appearance, she didn't even explain what the doohickey was until the cops got there:
The employee asked about the plastic circuit board on her chest, and Simpson walked away without responding, Pare said.
She may think of it as 'art', but such behavior in an airport is a damn good way to commit suicide by cop.
MIT student or not, she's a fucking idiot.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
