Bomb Scare

[Lusipher]

Danubus wrote:
Screw her civil liberties.


Please leave the country or kill yourself, kthx. The idea an American truly believes this is sickening

If it means saving the lives of others then yeah fuck her civil liberties.

[AlmightyTDawg]

Where that discussion always comes up short is the inability to a) quantify the number of lives that would be saved as a result of a given policy (on the side of the budding fascists) and b) qualify the degradation of our "sphere of rights" that stems from the logical extension of a given overzealous act to others (on the side of the ACLU groupies). Thus no one convinces the other.

Simply put, if you are always willing to trade off lives for liberties, I hope you don't ever do anything countermajoritarian - because that's a one-way argument to 1984. And what happens more often than not are that the liberties are lost and there is no tangible benefit; take this situation - there was no threat; probably not even one rising to the level of cause that would justify what was done.

That said, sometimes the assertion of rights is just daft, and the Darwin-awarder in me doesn't cry too hard. Simple life lesson - you don't futz around at airports. I think it's stupid, but it is what it is. It's not about being "right" at an airport. It's about being so far away from wrong that everyone's blood pressure stays at merely fuming levels.

All in all, this is just a miniscule blip on the radar screen. I'll go argue basic federal court standing principles or executive authority/privilege or "non-punitive regulatory measures" 365 days out of the year before this. It's a cut-and-dry case of overreaction, but it's in a setting where the authorities are likely going to get leeway to overreact. Next.

[NESchampion]

Seriously, no one is that stupid as to wear wires and a bunch of other electronics into a god damn airport.

So you'd have no objection to the same things happening to you if you were carrying any of these items:

Cell phone
Cell phone charger (extra suspicious with all those wires)
Pocket Planner
Remote car key
iPod + earphones (lights, wires, buttons: that requires at least a warning shot)
Laser Pointer

Now granted this student probably wasn't acting with consideration for the intellectual caliber of the airport security guards, but I still think jumping straight to threats with MP5s is a bit excessive.

Nope; I'd have no problem if I had all those things stuck to the front of my shirt and wired up in the same manner as her.

[Charlie]

100 Percent Pure Bull s h i t .

[Rotku]

Please keep the personal remarks out of this.

[Rotku]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Zak, NES, etc

"Better safe than sorry" (conditions apply).

Assuming this is a once off incident, I certainly see nothing wrong with them doing their job. Okay, sure, it doesn't take the smartest carrot in the garden to work out that it wasn't a bomb; but personally I would prefer them to stop the very occasional person, thinking that they are carrying a bomb, than let someone through who is carrying a bomb. Keep in mind, that this air port alone lets through 27 million passengers each year.

However (having quickly looked at the first few paragraphs in the article) if she does end up getting charged, then that is going too far. They should have searched her, seen it clearly wasn't a bomb and let her through. With any luck, hopefully she got enough of a scare not to do something stupid like that again and the airport staff are embarrassed enough that they take a few extra moments to think next time.

[JaydeMoon]

Everyday, thousands of people roll up to the airport in a known, proven bomb carrier:



I'm glad when I'm parked next to the airport for two seconds too long, the angry safety vest guy only tells me to move along.

Some LED shirts. Calling your ugly light up shirt art does not preclude it from being a homemade version of one of these, so her own words do not refute the possibility that it was a home-spun geek item:









Sometimes, people just don't think. The girl with the shirt didn't think. They have to prove she had the intent to fool people that she had a bomb. That's the crime, bomb hoax. Last time I checked, we weren't (supposed to be) putting people in jail merely for being stupid.

Sometimes, people just don't think. Let's all agree that the average security checker guy isn't going to know what a bomb looks like. But let's also all agree that the guy with the submachinegun should have a better idea.

Reckless endangerment? An automatic weapon that they claimed was miliseconds from being used is a huge threat to the safety of everyone around. If you aren't properly trained to make a realistic call on a bomb (when your JOB is bomb response, basically), how can I be sure you have the training to fire that weapon without spraying bullets all over the place?

To be fair, I don't think they really were that close to firing it. I think that was a stupid statement the representative made so he could scare everyone else who might think to wear a light up shirt to the airport from doing so. "ZOMG, We war dis close to keeeeeling har!!!!! Joo don't wan to dai!!! Don't be like har with blinkee shart! Dis is seerus bi'nezz!"

Suspicious item? Yes. Overreaction? Yes.

What are you gonna do?

Sometimes, people just don't think.

[Rotku]

Nicely put.

[Burt]

Last time I checked, we weren't (supposed to be) putting people in jail merely for being stupid.

This doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Jail for stupid people...we could call it "America".

[JaydeMoon]

Then you'd belong in Texas.

[NESchampion]

Then you'd belong in Texas.

I was going to say Washington, D.C. myself, but whatever works.