Letters to the Editor
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everyone knows bombs have lights that blink a lot!
Airport security were well-advised to be concerned. Here we have someone wearing something unusual that blinks and has wires and stuff! Everyone knows that when terrorists in movies make bombs they always have blinking lights on them - always visible to the camera. Often there is also a ticking sound and a countdown readout (usually with less than ten minutes to go). It seems likely that when a terrorist eventually tries to smuggle a bomb onto a plane, they will have tell-tale blinking lights in some obvious place on their person.
Seriously, though, I don't see any semiconductors besides LEDs on that solderless breadboard. How was that supposed to work? Also - it's kind of - dare I say - ugly.
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Who the hell is training these guys?
What scares me the most is that the security staff at Logan (presumably TSA) actually thought this was a bomb. Where are the "explosives" and the "trigger"? It exposes the TSA as either poorly trained or just plain incompetent. A smarter (and more human) TSA officer would have checked out the suspect device, realized it was not a threat, confiscated it to be certain, and sent the student on her way. Not only have we lost freedom of movement with the ridiculous security theater we have to go through at airports, it appears we have lost common sense as well. Worst of all, any basic sense of humanity in law enforcement handling of anything purportedly related to "terror" appears to have been washed away. I can't help thinking that Al Qaeda wouldn't have it any other way...
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Are you blinky-light-o-phobes out of your fucking minds?
Oh yes, it "could have been a real bomb!" Or, even worse, it could have been a real man-eating tiger, or a battleship, or some kind of alien people-disintegrator device. It looks as much like any of those things as a suicide-bomb belt, or any other type of bomb. But, "she had unlabelled [?!?] playdough!" Oh, very well, then: open fire!
What's dangerous here is that the Mass Staties surrounded and levelled weapons at her in front of the terminal entrance. The news report says they had "submachine guns." I doubt it; as far as I've seen, State Troopers at Logan carry some variety of M16 assault rifle. So here were the Staties, ready to open fire with high-powered weaponry in a public place--that scares me, not some wearable blinky-star sculpture.
The sensible and safer thing to do, if suspicions were aroused, would have been for a cop to take her aside for questioning, perhaps with another standing by. But no! Force Protection first! Even if it leaves a pile of bodies.
When you graduate, Star, take your fine mind and creativity to some other country, where they'll be appreciated. The land of the free and the home of the brave is dead.
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Ignorant People
Why would someone wear a lighted switchboard and carry play-do to an airport? Art? Has Star been living on another planet the past 6 years and not been to an airport? I assume that since she is from Hawaii that she has been on a plane.
Did the cops over react? I do not think so. It is very easy to whine and complain from miles away, but would you want to sit next to someone on a plane like that? What are the cops supposed to do?
Mind you this is the same airport that the security allowed hi jackers through that killed 3,000 people. We complained that they did nothing, now we complain when they do something! Get a grip people, we live in a dangerous world, where people want to kill you because it says so in the Koran.
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Security guards failed "Introduction to explosives 101"??
I don't know if I should laugh or cry about the fact that our security guards are not able to tell apart a bomb and a circuit board with LEDs and a battery.
It's expected for the media to call this a "fake bomb" because they don't know any better but one would expect security guards to be slightly better educated.
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Only in America
I find it hard to believe that this site and many of the posts listed here are taking the position that the State Police over reacted.
Perhaps if the headline read, 3 Dead and 40 injured at Boston Logan you might think differently. The article could continue, the suicide bomber attended MIT and was known for her erratic behavior and skill in electronics. Classmates, who refused to be named, stated that she was depressed lately, "not like that Korean kid at that other school, but depressed anyway. We didn't know that she knew anything about bomb making, but she was really gifted and a bit of an exhibitionist".
Or perhaps she hasn't been to in airport in about 6 years. She didn't think that perhaps her "fun loving art" could possibly be mistaken by an average person to be something of concern.
I travel through Logan every month, and not a single time goes by that I don't remember that 2 of the 3 flights of 9/11 originated here.
Maybe you would prefer the Police don't respond and your dumb ass gets blown to bits. I personally would prefer that the Police take an inconsiderate little flake into custody, then risk killing more people.
If you are looking for someone to blame, then you should be getting involved in politics, that's what they do best....but leave the Police out of it. They are just doing a job that most of us would hate.
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(paranoia x ignorance) + petty power fetish = grave danger
Wasn't this the same police force that mistook advertiser's lite brite toys for bombs?
This might just be another case of stupidity of people in power getting out of hand, but it happens a lot, in myraid ways. The presumption of danger, the assumption that WE are terrorists is mathematically pointless. If the chances of finding a genuinely dangerous person through a general search of people in certain areas were high, we would be searched in subway stations, in banks, on the streets near big buildings. Not only would this idea go against any notion of civil liberties, of civility, it wouldn't prevent bad things from happening.
Fear mongering is a national sport. Trying to find out who makes the security rules is impossible. Enforcment of the rules is a haphazard mash of institutional attitudes and individuals' moods.
The screeners at airports are not hired for their astute judgment. They are hired because they are cheap and will not question authority or rules. Police and security forces should be better trained and less force oriented, but there are too few cops with too much to oversee and way too much pressure to not the one who lets an attack happen.
The determination to exercise power is made by people not equipped to use power well. The determination that inexperienced, unwise people should have those positions, that these positions should exist at all, was made by people who do not have to go through the security gates - politicians who have private jets and those who have a vested interest in keeping up the appearance of protecting us.