The Government should keep up with the damn times plain and simple, if want to wear something I will its not breaking a damn law, people need to get over the scared bullshit living in fear does nothing but make you scared of everything.

If i was her i'd do it again they have no law about led screens so until they do I would do it.

She did nothing wrong, are they going to tackle you if you have a shirt that theys "this is the bomb" on it since that has been used by numerous people and hollywood over the past decade and have even shown movies with that phrase on it after 9 11 on planes

If the government wants to charge people with bull shit they should put said bull shit on the books like all other crap.

utube2007

@jibbly: Fantastically well written.

I can't believe how people can call her idiot/dumb/whatever, even spit on her. It's ridiculous!

What surprises me the most is the amount of degrading and negative remarks she gets on this site.
I must have been naive to think that Gizmodo-posters would actually be decent people.

petterekman

@bonedog73:

"Use common sense people, this is the post 9-11 era. Think about your actions before going into public, hell she's lucky they didnt use the Patriot Act on her and send her off to some torture camp somewhere."

"Use common sense people, this is the Nazi era. Think about your actions before going into public, hell she's lucky they didnt use the SS on her and send her off to some torture camp somewhere."

SHE'S LUCKY THAT IN THE LAND OF FREEDOM SHE WASN'T TORTURED AND THAT SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFUL ABOUT USING AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE IN PUBLIC?

"well, if he wasn't always criticizing the government, they wouldn't have assassinated him - he should have been more careful and everything would have been fine"

everything is NOT fine. everything is fucked up.

nutbastard

Worst ever? What happened when a bunch of nuts took over 4 planes and tried to fly them into a bunch of buildings full of people back in 2001.

fastm3driver

What I'm generally getting out of the comments here is that what America is about right now is Fear, that we should always be thinking about that fear, and most importantly that we should weigh our every decision and action on a scale of fear. If we forget about fear for even one moment and undertake an action not based on fear then we deserve what we get, up to and including deadly force in the heat of the moment. Nothing personal, but you people creep me right out.

Two things: What's the only thing we have to fear? C'Mon history buffs... and also: Explain to me how this isn't the terrorists winning.

Killjoy

This is just fucking retarded.

"Some of them were holding these big devices which I found out to be machine guns later "

Yeah....right....

Nobody in the freakin' universe can be this stupid.

Nathan Drake

I don't care what she says, she went to the airport to cause a scene and succeeded. You have to be really REALLY dense to not realize that a breadboard strapped to your chest is going to look dangerous to the average layman/cop/businessman. Although she also didn't know what a machine gun was... She might just be that dense.

@nutbastard: True, an organized terrorist person probably would be a little
more discreet, and a little less discrete.

//wait for laughter...

But in addition to highly funded, well trained, radical islamic terrorists you also have to account for the random nutjobs who are just plain crazy.

//still waiting...

Skyoodpov

@Jon B.:

"better to be safe than to be..uh..kaboom o.o"

not really. you know as well as i that no amount of security keeps the population 'safe'. so why pay for 'safety' with my tangible freedom and civil liberties when they can never make good on their end of it? you aren't any more or less safe now than you were before 911.

the other thing that's been distorted, and you new yorkers wont like it but 911 wasn't about killing people or destroying buildings. it was about sending a message. if they wanted to kill us, why are there no mall bombings? bombs are not hard to make. simple as pie.

this terrorism boogyman is bullshit. what terrorists? where are they? if they're so intent on killing us... don't you think ONE fucking thing would have happened by now?

nutbastard

Reminds me of that geek in london who was arrested and jailed for carrying around his electronics gear in a subway.

Use common sense people, this is the post 9-11 era. Think about your actions before going into public, hell she's lucky they didnt use the Patriot Act on her and send her off to some tortue camp somewhere.

Terrorists have won, just look at what they've done to our "free" societies. Today most people are willing to give up freedom for "safety".

bonedog73

Not a good idea

Derek Devine

beyond all this overreaction of the government - why do the authorities have such a fucking hard on for airports? theres only one place you need armed security in relation to aviation - ON THE GOD DAMN PLANE.

if someone wanted to blow up an airport, not only would doing so be COMPLETELY FUCKING TRIVIAL they wouldn't draw attention to themselves with ANYTHING.

You can just drive up the airport and go inside.

and again - why airports? we leave our chemical plants unprotected, our schools, our large buildings, our dams, our trains, ALL THAT SHIT, almost zero security. as if security can prevent anything bad from happening anyways.

this whole thing is the result of the fear induced by the lie, the fabrication that theres a bunch of middle easterners trying to blow things up all the time but none have succeeded in 7 years. "terrorism" is just another tool used to apply more contorl over the populations, and a nice scape goat for the next attack our govt ALLOWS to happen in order to perpetuate that fear and further control us.

nutbastard

Was she really expecting the guards to giggle, call her a tricksy hobbitses, and send her on her way? Get a clue, morans!

ShinySideUp

She drives me nuts.

Over-reacting is MUCH much better than not acting at all.

Jones Foyer

You go to MIT, not art school.

Totally deserved it.

Jones Foyer

@nutbastard:

better to be safe than to be..uh..kaboom o.o

Jon B.

For the dumbasses out there...

Sometimes innocent mistakes and oopsies can actually be "probes".

A probe is when you test a security perimeter to see the boundaries of what you can and cannot get away with. And if the tester gets caught they simply say "oops! See it's just X Y or Z item.", which by itself is harmless, but if you are able to get all three together you have something that could be used for nefarious purposes.

So your dumbass should get jumped for wearing a circuit board... not for what it is, but what it could become.

DustyButt

@jibbly: so true, i cant believe how retarded that got. they should have been able to tell in about 20 minutes that nothing was bomb related.

f0rge

Flying out of Albuquerque International this past August, I noticed a ruckus as I was putting my recently x-rayed shoes back on after going through TSA screening. There was a family, a woman (the mom, I presume), a teenage boy (probably 16) and a younger girl being escorted to a table for a police officer to do a "bag check" on the boy's carry on.

As I was organizing myself and half-watching the show, I noticed the officer pull something out of the boy's bag: A gun! How delightful! It was a small, completely black gun, looked like the size of a Walther PPK. The kid freaks out. Says he forgot it was in there and its a fake gun, an airsoft gun. The officer looks it over and agreed that yes, its a fake, its a fake (he repeated this several times to concerned TSA screeners, and presumably so everyone else could hear).

At that point, we had to scurry away to our gate, so I never got to find out what happened to the trio, but if you can get arrested for wearing LEDs on your shirt in the airport pickup lanes, I sure hope they were arrested for carrying a realistic looking toy gun through airport security! The stupidity of some people is astonishing... and boy howdy this family didn't seem like the brightest tools in the shed, to which my girlfriend later suggested that she overheard that they were French.

LastVigilante

Anothing issue, putting the damn project board on the outside of the shirt is just ugly and lazy. If she had pinned it on the inside and poked the LEDs through, everyone would have thought it was a clever and innovative fashion statement.

Let's face it, she got busted for being lazy and tacky.

RacecarBoobTat

@Kaveh:

And actually, the dumb fuck here is the security people. Honestly. what kind of retard thinks that bonafide terrorists or smugglers or whatever boogyman they've invented this week will be indicated by the presence of blinking lights all over themselves?

"our plans are of the utmost importance... we must not be detected or stand out in any way... allah be with you, oh and take this plastic replica gun-hat with you..."

nutbastard

@nutbastard: They're adept at explaining that LEDs don't generally explode.

UofITom

@Kaveh: No her lawyers were NOT the Aqua Teen Hunger Force lawyers. They just told her not to talk. And no, she was not dropping names, both cases have similar base stories: A piece of unknown tech criminalized because of paranoia.

You have the basics correct. The "machine" went too far. That's it. Her being tackled and taken in by state police was completely understandable. Yet when it was clear she was just a naive (or dumb, your choice) citizen that committed no crime or had no intent of committing a crime, they still took a year to drop charges, but only to charge her with something else KNOWING FULL WELL SHE DIDN'T BREAK ANY LAWS.

That's injustice and something any red blooded American should be against.

jibbly

@Kaveh:

she's using the ATHF lawyers because they have the most experience in dealing with LED misidentification. They are to LED panics what Cochran is to obvious murders...

nutbastard

9 years ago, this would've been seen as, at most, cute or peculiars. Unfortunately, and this is an inherint problem of the Government in this country, there is no in-between. It seems the Government in this country always works on extremes. Either right or wrong and no in between. This kid should've been checked out, and when found that she was harmless, perhaps given a slap in the wrist and made her go home and change the shirt or remove that crap from her shirt. That's all. Why the whole drama is what pisses me off. But then again, I wouldn't want to be the one to simply let her go and then her end up being the suicide bomber that took out that terminal in Boston. I don't know. Tough choice to make. Part of me says overreaction by the Feds. Other part of me says, "come on guys...take a damn chill pill and focus your security on the real threats!"

apeguero

She's lucky she didn't get gunned down.

astrocramp

@RacecarBoobTat: Hatorade is sweet. Ain't it? XD

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

Did anyone else hear that her lawyers were the Aqua Teen Hunger Force lawyers? Why mention that? Is that important, or is she dropping 'names' to get the attention of the punk/youth crowd?

Look, freedom, right to bear arms, art... blah blah blah. That's great and all, but she's arguing semantics. We do not live in a day and age where these details carry any weight in front of our country's new reality: fear.

She's either really dumb, or was trying to make a statement, which, in this case was executed in a dumb way.

In her defense, yes, I think the machine went too far, and other people should have the decency not to spit on her. We all make mistakes.

Still… she's smart enough to build an LED thingy, and she's internet savvy, how does she not know this is the reaction she'll cause? It's only been, what, 8 years since we've had this kind of mentality at airports?

Kaveh

So I suppose yelling "FIRE" in a crowded theater is just 1st ammendment protected performance art?

In a related story, does anyone remember the Aqua Teen Hunger Force ad campaign involving the led boards planted around Boston? Now THAT was some over-reacting by authorities.

You want real fraud and terrorism in Bean-Town? Look no further than the Big Dig.

R2

rtwod2

Oh and I forgot to add:

America, fuck yeah!

jibbly

@UofITom: The gov see pass all the intel at 9/11 and look what happened. People learn from their mistake, not loop it over and over again.

Heman

@Waka in Japan: I fail to see the problem many kids be it preteens, teens, young adult/college students, tend to do things to get a reaction. Said kids even 'claim' there was no intention to hurt or scare anyone but I remember doing stuff when I was young just to get a reaction out of people knowing fully well the outcome may make someone scared/surprised. While I can't say she did this to scare or hurt anyone it can be agreed that she knew very well it would get a reaction out of people, it would be ignorant not to know that.

lilaliendog

BTW, Xeniflores Jardin (which is totally not her real name ... obviously) while not only being ridiculously annoying, also roughly translates to Protecter of Flower Gardens.

I can't stand her.

RacecarBoobTat

She didn't cross any security checkpoints, wasn't intending on flying (was picking up a friend from the airport), showed how the device worked to the receptionist, and cooperated with the state police when they took her in.

Yet they still refused to drop the charges when they finally figured out she was just a tech geek because "there was too much media attention". When they did drop the original terrorist threat charge, they made her plea to a lesser charge of "disorderly conduct" - which makes no sense because, as the video shows, they would have used "deadly force" on her if she resisted in any way.

Here's the bottom line: She didn't do anything illegal yet they still charged her with a crime and made her take a plea deal of community service and probation. Had she not taken the plea deal, they most likely would have tried to convict her knowing full well she had committed no crime.

That's not justice that's downright Kafkaesque.

Her original actions might have been naive, but were absolutely not criminal. They should have immediately let her go and dropped any criminal charges against her as soon as they found out the reality of the situation. Instead the authorities pandered to the media's paranoia fueled by the government's own paranoia and propaganda.

jibbly

I would NOT have made a deal. I would not have apologized to Boston, rather require them to apologize to me. Not her behavior nor apparel were criminal in nature, people are just too "afraid" to see past "out of the ordinary" to "safe". Investigate, sure, but then drop it. In the time wasted over her, a real terrorist was noting those flaws in the system.

UofITom

1. Bad choice for her.

Authorities should protect the public by investigating all possible threats. Once they found that the threat is nonexistant they should have let her go with a warning.

Their continued waste of taxpayers money was ridiculous. They could have dropped everything an hour after the incident and saved all of us about 1.5 million dollars in taxes.

nospamsam

@lilaliendog: The problem is not that they were quick about it. The problem is that once it was found that it wasn't a bomb, it took a year of trials and she was treated like a criminal for the whole time by the media and everyone.

Waka in Japan

In thinking further about it, I would hope that the authorities handle future incidents without the need for community service, but I still believe that their response was appropriate AT THE TIME.

They would have been crucified by the press if they had just let her go on her way and it had ended up being a weapon of some sort.

zenpoet

You know what would have totally completed the homemade LCD sweatshirt....A bandoleer strapped accross her chest loaded with pvc tubes painted red, an egg timer and a black turban... Oh oh....someones FABULOUS!!!! But she's from MIT...so what else would you expect.

shaithis

I meant AMERICA of course, not AMERICAN, sorry.

Waka in Japan

Bad choice in 'art' at a 'secure location'. If you feel they overreacted then they did their job to 'secure' the 'location' of any possible threat. For once I am on the side of the authorities.

lilaliendog

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: Hmmmm....wrong pronoun. Whatever. I'm sticking to it.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

I seriously can't believe how paranoid America has gotten.

trstn

AMERICAN, Land of the Freedom

Waka in Japan

Wow. Just...wow.

Stupid all the way around. Wearing something like that was idiotic at best. The reaction by the State Police was a little overboard, but justifiable. They don't know what it is, and combined with the fact that she had a switch in her backpack....she was begging for trouble.

But the aftermath... the press conference, the jockeying between sides, the "We can't drop it now, the press is following it" line....that's where it gets a little out of control.

jayhawk11

You seriously want me to watch this? Both the interviewer and the interviewee are unpalatable morons. No thanks.

peteH

IDIOT chick. And Xeni Jardin has an incredibly annoying name and a face for radio.

RacecarBoobTat

If you're planning on flying, it may be prudent to leave the post-modernist art and teenage rebelliousness at home. That is, of course, unless you don't mind spending the next ten years of your life in Federal pound-you-in-the-ass prison.

sridhar3

Dumb dumb dumb decisions made by her and now being pitched as police state overreaction.

Uh, guess what kids, exposed wires and ciruit boards make for bad attire at any secure location and they did BEFORE 9/11.

James Cooper - Information Architect

So I guess telling TSA guys at Logan that their security is "da bomb" is out, right?

scarbrtj

First: terrible choice of airport garment.
Second: I can't watch more than 30 seconds of that because the alien/Joan Cusack hybrid host is frightening.

BurstAneurysm

I wonder what would've happened if he put a countdown timer on it.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

I can grant that she made a poor choice in apparel. I can further grant that the authorities were right in investigating it.

I do think they went WAY overboard though.

zenpoet

Why would you go to an airport (knowing it's strict security) wearing an LED sweatshirt with wires showing.

I think you'd get tackled ANY major place for that.

ttech10

Homemade electronics pinned to a sweatshirt? What a dumbass.

It's not like it was a mass produced item you could buy in a store like the LED bar graph t-shirt.

Y2KGTP

you want to stop this shit from happening?

join the ACLU!

helldiver

@s0nlxaftrsh0ck:

Did they tackle her? I thought she said they just restrained her arms.

Skyoodpov

@jibbly: I'm gonna have to agree with that one >.>;@

href="#c7860775">ninjamurf: still though they didn't have to drag this case on for an entire year and now have a shit reputation of having people spitting at her and ridiculing her.

The action was pretty just but i think they should have at least "announced" something like "FREEZE!" or something of the sort. Not just tackle the shit out of someone yelling in their face and shoving stuff there.

Also i think it was stupid of the boston state police to actually tackle someone to a ground with a device strapped to their chest. Who knows if it could of been filled with nitroglycerin and exploded the entire place up.

Yeah nice job on "Securing" the possible threat.

s0nlxaftrsh0ck

@xenoastro:

About as easy as it would be to change yours to ours.

:)
(j/k all in good fun)

Skyoodpov

Not too smart wearing something like that to a airport, then again falling empires always overreact to small incidents that make them fall even faster.

Time to start learning Chinese people. :)

wetworker

@fastm3driver: On the moon there is no atmosphere and if she tried to breathe without a space suit she would die instantly.

What's your point?

She was a citizen of the USA in the state of Massachusetts. She had no weapon, no intent for any sort of criminal activity, did and possessed nothing illegal or harmful...

Yet she was forced to take a plea bargain in lieu of being prosecuted for a crime she did not commit.

Why do you hate america? You're making baby Benjamin Franklin cry.

jibbly

@xenoastro: So I should be laughing?

Playstation

christ sake giz.....she had her 15 minutes. let it go.

Mish80921

I think your country is going waaay overboard with the security, it is wouldn't it be easier to change your flag to this !.

[uncyclopedia.org]

xenoastro

@nutbastard: Yeah, but security has a two-fold responsability:

1. To maintain actual security
2. To maintain a sense of security (in others).

I know it's stupid to think that a person with blinking lights would be an actual terrorist, but the general public at the airport would freak, and that's not good.

I didn't know about the ATHF issue you guys are mentioning. My bad. I guess they would be appropriate in this case.

Kaveh

I can't even bring a jar of honey on a 2 hour flight from NE to NY, so fuck everything.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

Never underestimate the ignorance of strangers; especially strangers with even the slightest amount of power.

navvywavvy

Here's a pic of the sweather.

[www.talk2myshirt.com]

Scary looking. I don't blame them for arresting her.

ZzFDKzZ

lets terrorise our own people so terrorist won't have to.
I wonder how someone so stupid could get a job in police forces it sounds to me they were to stupid even for security guard

rrwakc

So basically this is one Star that's not so bright...

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

Let me just make a few points.
1. She is not a terrorist. She is the opposite of a terrorist. She is an "anti-terrorist."
2. She did not have a bomb. She had something that is the opposite of a concealed weapon or a bomb. She had an "anti-bomb."
3. Ergo, she is an anti-terrorist, carrying an anti-bomb.

If the government can't differentiate a terrorist with a bomb from an anti-terrorist with an anti-bomb, what does it matter who she is, what she was doing there, etc.? The authorities should not be distracted by someone who is the opposite of a terrorist carrying the opposite of a bomb.

I live in Massachusetts. They're crazy here. The two artists-slacker dudes and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force ad campaign? Anti-terrorists, anti-bombs. The retired chemistry professor who had his basement lab thoroughly ransacked and who was kicked out of his home for 3 days with no subsequent explanation or charges filed? Anti-terrorists, anti-bomb.

There is not a single Islamist terrorist in Massachusetts. There's no community that could hide one, and this is one of the most racist parts of the country.

There is not a single target in the state of Massachusetts any Islamist terrorist group would want to hit. Seriously, name one.

The Massachusetts authorities are ashamed of themselves because some of the 9/11 bombers used MA as a launching point. They did not target anything in MA. They were in town for one night, they saw one prostitute that night, and within hours to days of their identification, MA authorities spoke to that prostitute. There's no way there are any real terrorists targeting Logan Airport or anything else in this state.

cobaltage

It would be funny if the security let her go because it looks too fake. Or if he pretends to know about circuit board and let her walk. Moment later, GG bridge gone!

Heman

@nutbastard:

Yeah, thats real American. You don't agree with me, get out of my country. 0_o

People don't get that just because you are free to do something, doesn't mean you wont get stopped by the authorities to make sure you don't hurt anyone.

The only thing I disagree with in this story is the fact that she was prosecuted. Being stopped and interrogated when MULTIPLE people perceive you as a threat to their life is not a loss of freedom.

Skyoodpov

She went to MIT. To claim she didn't know they were carrying machine guns, or that these large devices she later discovered were machine guns is either a total lie, or just trying to show she's a bit naive. What it does is just reassert that she's severely stupid.

To go to any public transportation area, let alone an airport, with some ghetto homemade electronics thing strapped to your chest with a battery and flashing lights is about as severely stupid as you can get (and I don't use the term stupid lightly).

The airport personnel and police were acting in an effort of prevention, which is better than waiting until after the fact. If it had been a bomb, then it would have been much worse than taking in a girl who was stupid enough to wear something that could easily be mistaken for a homemade explosive device strapped to her chest.

And as someone already pointed out, the authorities were well w/in their rights of action as for all they knew this could have either been a real explosive device or a probe to see if you could get something like this through.

Having a lack of common sense and good judgement doesn't excuse her complete moronic actions.

twarfel

Oh ya, I totally forgot we live in America, the land where we have the freedom to be paranoid about what we wear for going to jail. I bet you if she boarded a bus or a train or even just walked down the street, nobody would have freaked out, but she goes into an airport with that and all the sudden, its instantly a bomb.

This was obviously more of a case where the "security" had to prove they were actually worth a damn and being useful(random bag checks, give me a fucking break). There was no reason for them to keep trying to bust her for something they shortly after aprehending her, realized was a false alarm. An appology to HER would have been nice for having to go through all that shit. . .

djfoxx64

You all seem to think that there was no airport security or anything before 9/11/01. Some of you probably were all of ten years old at the time. Let me assure you that making jokes about bombs or shit like this in airports before then still would have gotten you a Very Special Interview. The big difference was that back then, everyone expected hijackers to demand the plane go somewhere or that someone be released, rather than just take control and fly it into something. This MIT student was out to start something and got what she was looking for.

Jeb_Hoge

@jibbly: I many countries she would have been shot on the spot. I think she got away easy.

fastm3driver

@utube2007: @petterekman:

I stand by that it was a poor choice for her to do this, but you are right that she did not break any laws. She should have been stopped, investigated (make sure it really ISN'T a bomb), sent on her way with a STRONG suggestion to take the damn thing off so the next copy 100ft up the street doesn't have to do it all over again. Otherwise, she is free to wear whatever she wants, and we are free to have the police stop her and investigate it for the safety of the public.

Skyoodpov

That interview didn't change my mind. I still think she's a fucking dumbass that was purposly looking for attention.

As for some of the ignorant comments on this page:

American Freedom does NOT equal the ability to do WHATEVER you want. HOWEVER you want to do it.

JEmlay

"They were carrying these big things that I later learned were machine guns."
So she's smart enough to get into MIT but doesn't know what a machine gun looks like? Uh...no.

This has to be one of the stupidest things I can think of to wear to an airport. And for all those people saying she didn't do anything wrong you are not allowed to even mention the word "bomb" at an airport, and you haven't been able to mention the word "bomb" at the airport LONG before 9/11. But you think wearing something that actually looks like it might be a bomb is okay? And don't spew that crap about "but it's obviously an LED t-shirt, who could mistake that for a bomb." It's a circuit board...with flashing lights...and wires...and a battery. We'll ignore the fact that she's also walking around with a "flower" made out of something that looks like it could be semtex or C4. "But it's play doh" doesn't work. It could just as easily turn out that she yells, "it's play doh! It's play doh! Look, when I put this wire in it." *BOOM* "Haha, it wasn't really play doh, and now you're all dead." In this case OVER reaction is better than NO reaction. You stop EVERYONE who has ANYTHING that looks like a bomb. EVERY single person. Don't want to get stopped? Don't carry something that looks "bomb like" pure and simple. This isn't the idea of people that want a "military state" it's the idea of people that want other people to exercise a little common sense!

LED shirts may be cute for your sorority party on a Friday night but they are not appropriate attire to wear through the airport.

ninjamurf

given some of the straight up DISTURBING comments here promoting complacency and obedience, i'm becoming severely distressed at what all the yellow bellied, ignorant, gullible, nieve idiots are doing to my country. Please leave at your earliest convenience.

nutbastard

@nutbastard: The hard-on stems from continued terrorist threats on the largest point at which human kind travels from one location to the other, oh and that little "incident" that occured in 2001.

On top of that, having armed forces in the airport is a deterrant to not let loons get ON the plane in the first place... rather then having to shoot someone while inside an object that's 25k ft in the air...

Yes, it was completely crazy to assume a terrorist would brandish their "gear" so confidently. However, any twat who walks into an airport with electrical wires hanging out of their shirt should expect nothing less then a large mans boot on the back of your neck. This was absolutely not just "a sweatshirt"... how she thinks security would think that it was anything else is ridiculous.

Either this woman relishes the attention, or she really is just THAT dumb.

projectmayhem

@gawenzler: She plea bargained because they intimidated her. Period. A naive college student being barked at by DAs and Federal prosecutors will wilt rather easily at any sort of threat.

If she did indeed break hoax device laws, then why not have her plea-bargain to that? Instead, she got charged with "disorderly conduct" because they had to stick something on her. A total waste of time and resources.

Bottom line, she committed no crime, had no intention of doing anything illegal, and cooperated fully with authorities, yet she was forced to plea bargain to a bogus charge.

jibbly

I can't believe the comments here, she did nothing to even remotely endanger the plane or anyone on it, and because the security team can't actually identify danger, her life is overhauled and screwed. and the majority of idiots here instantly blame her!

There is a study on the willingness of people to follow authority blindly. [www.new-life.net] if you find yourself blaming her for being harassed i seriously suggest you evaluate if you would be one of the 65% who would have punished the "learners" to the maximum 450 volts.

isidore_us

@Killjoy: I agree... that thought does give me the willies. But at the same time, it wasn't unreasonable for them to do so. Now, if the goon sqaud tackled just anyone for fun, then I'd never set foot in another airport again.

Imagine the crowd panicking as soon as some weiner looks at the sweater/LED device and yells "BOMB!!!" with no one there to "do something about it"... would that have been any better?

Kaveh

@Kaveh:
The problem is that this police action did neither. There was no threat so there was no security to maintain. Upon overreacting to the situation they've ruined the sense of security that anyone has since they could ultimately be arrested for anything that isn't completely ordinary.

Civil Liberties? Has anyone heard of it?

Upon seeing the shirt, I have decided that anyone who thought that was dangerous should be tried for stupidity. A protoboard(!) wires and led's do not make for a dangerous combination. I mean seriously. If you made a bomb, that you wanted to sneak inside where there are many people, would you put fucking lights all over the damn place? No because that would be retarded.

I don't care how you sauce it up, overreaction by security forces should not be condoned. Just fucking talk to her. If you don't know what a circuit board is then get someone who does. This just burns me that such a thing could happen here.

3choTh1s

@gawenzler:

I don't know the laws, but if the law supports that this WAS a hoax device then I disagree with it completely.

IMHO in order for it to be a hoax, there needs to be a provable INTENT of a hoax. This girl never claimed it was a bomb, acted like it was a bomb, or resisted. She is naive, and pretty damn ditsy, but this SHOULDN'T be considered a hoax.

Again, I don't know the law. I am just arguing the way I think it SHOULD be.

Skyoodpov

I actually knew that girl from the Macteens forums a long time ago, that whole thing was such bullshit...

Josh_Geyer

Some commenters here should take a look at hoax device laws. There's a reason she plea-bargained: she broke a law that was on the books. Period.

gawenzler

Did the authorities go over board? Sure, they did.

Had she been someone malicious and managed to kill an innocent passenger the authorities would be blamed for not being hard enough.

Hoshnasi

so the homeland security officer from harold and kumar wasn't a satire, he must have done some deep method acting for that one.

thedarkhorse

@cobaltage: No, the moral of the story is don't walk into airports wearing something that could very easily be mistaken for a bomb.

Even once it was established that the shirt was not a bomb, it was still unclear whether her she was merely an idiot or she had intentionally worn something designed to be mistaken as a bomb. A hoax bomb threat is something the authorities are rightly concerned about. Maybe she was a stalking horse sent in ahead to see just how security reacts to this sort of thing before the actual bomb comes in.

The point is, there was no way for them to know, and thus they investigated. In the end, it all turns out that she's simply a complete moron.

Improbable

IMHO, not very bright (LED).

Does she deserve the punishment? (Community service will do her good).
Does she deserve being ostracized? (no. But look at the result)

Though I do not like a paramilitary, I also don't like individuals that think it's acceptable to make a point at the expense of others. (think of the passengers waiting or stalled because of this act. Or what if this distracted an agent away from something that was potentially harmful...)

She provoked an over-reaction to an illogical premise through an act of stupidity in light of the subject.

SigmundTheSeaMonster

@Kaveh: "Yeah, but security has a... responsability... To maintain a sense of security (in others). I know it's stupid to think that a person with blinking lights would be an actual terrorist, but the general public at the airport would freak, and that's not good."

You know what would make me freak at an airport? A brace of muscled goons bristling with weapons taking down the innocuous girl standing next to me. That sort of crap does not maintain a sense of security for me at all - quite the opposite, it reinforces the feeling that they can come for anyone at any time.

Killjoy

I kinda get both sides of the story though..

Its one thing that Security should concentrate a little less on scaring the living hell out of citizens and more time concentrating on catching the real bad guys..

but at the same time.. you are an MIT student.. which kinda means you are smart right..? what the fuck are you doing wearing an LED sweatshirt at an airport? I saw that picture of it on this site, and if I didn't know better that thing looks a lot like TNT or SEMTEX attached to wire..

I'm assuming you scored a little less than 1500 on your common sense portion of the SAT..

At the same time however.. i hate 24 hour news organizations with a vengeance.. because what could have been a simple misunderstanding and a slap on the wrist has now become a crises, ripe with anylitical pundit douchebags from FOX and MSNBC castigating her, the same assholes who called in Obama's "terrorist Fist jab". They are vultures.. and all the dumb people out there actually listen to them!

Mith

@s0nlxaftrsh0ck: But sometimes it's better to take a hostile by surprise. imagine if this had been a real threat, yelling freeze would give someone a last chance to use their hands for something. A detonator, perhaps. I think as crappy as it sounds, this was the right action for security to take at the time.

Kaveh

The moral of the story here:

Don't be a non-terrorist carrying something that isn't a bomb and go to Logan Airport, because they might shoot you*, and even if they don't shoot you, they'll take you to court for not threatening the airport with your non-bomb.

* These are the same folks who said afterwards: "She's lucky she's not in a bodybag." Meaning, "If we had shot her dead, we would have been completely justified in killing an person for being innocent of any terrorist intent." You guys can think what you want, but don't go to Logan Airport.

cobaltage

ask anyone who supports our war on terrorism and they will tell you we are winning that war. that is a load of shit when this can happen.

Kenzo287

@Kaveh: "Now, if the goon sqaud tackled just anyone for fun, then I'd never set foot in another airport again."

The good squad known as the (insert any town) Municipal Police Department *do* tackle just anyone for fun. It's kind of annoying being a person who, as you say, never wants to set foot in that kind of environment, when there's nowhere you can go to avoid places where the goon squad will kick you around for fun.

And that was before 9/11.

Killjoy

@Kaveh:
You believe that a tackle could not have set off a bomb, especially a homemade bomb? Again that split seconds hesitation could have saved many lives and embarrassment. Yes tackling her was a stupid move. Guns are easy. Tackle away if you're trained to do so. Bombs are harder. You have no idea what'll set it off cause it could be one of a million things. (pressure switch, deadman switch, acceleration switch, timer, momentary switches, radio in, light switches, shit she could say the magic word, most of which could make the bomb go off if she was tackled)

So yeah talking will get you much farther. You don't have to analyze the entire thing, but you should be able to get a sense of whether or not you should take her in for more questioning.

As for being paid and trained to react, there's a fine line there. There was a overreaction to tackle her and that's exactly what I'm trying to say.

3choTh1s

@Pope John Peeps II: Dad always told me "Son, if you drop out of school, your master plan for the next few decades better be pretty fucking good"

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

Reading the comments on here is so disappointing. People have apparently bought into the scaremongering. As a result we now live in a police state, under the guise of the DHS (aka KGB, Gestapo), where it ok to falsely prosecute, ignore the constitution, and apparently, at least to the Boston police, if she had had the temerity to, say, ask what the hell was going on, shoot her. All in the name of "safety."

Yes, from what it appears, she was rightly detained. However, within hours she should have been released.

We now now live in a state of fear. Not fear of terrorists, but fear of the DHS. Don't wear anything unusual. Don't do anything suspicious, like, say, be of a minority race. Don't drink water. Don't wear shoes. Be very, very careful about what electronics you carry. A laptop can be seized and searched if they don't like your haircut. The terrorists have won.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to being a good little sheep and not calling attention to myself. Heil Bush.

rip

Well it's a shitty situation, but why did she drop out of school? No offence, but that's kind of a loser thing to do.

Pope John Peeps II

@Improbable: I understand the argument, but I don't agree. Unless Logan security gets its training from watching Die Hard 3, they have no excuse for mistaking a circuit board with LED lights for a bomb, because you don't need either of those to make a bomb. The lights on bombs in the movies are so that the audience has something to look at. A circuit board with LEDs on top of someone's clothing is no more suspicious than one of those tacky pins with a Christmas tree on it that plays "Jingle Bells" when you press a button.

But beyond that, two more points, mostly from the standpoint of a resident of this state:
1. When the MA authorities publicize the fact that they made a mistake by targeting this woman (or others in the other cases I mentioned), they make themselves look foolish.
2. Saying something like, "She's lucky she's not in a body bag" after understanding that there has been a mistake is so obviously immature. It's just lashing out in defensiveness and anger.
3. Actually going after someone in court for something like this is a waste of taxpayer money. I don't think the state had a clear interest in pursuing charges against her for showing up at the airport.
4. The fact that the state authorities can get so wrapped up in a case of someone who isn't actually carrying a bomb doesn't exactly re-assure me that they have any idea what they're doing.

I don't think the MA authorities act like responsible authorities. They're actions are all about shame, anger, defensiveness, and retribution for their own embarrassment. Just like when the Boston authorities shut down I-93 during morning rush hour due to the presence of non-concealed non-bombs that had been there for 4 days. The DAs office filed charges against the artist-dudes behind the ad campaign, but dropped the charges WHEN TED TURNER PAID THEM MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. You tell me what the hell they're doing and why.

cobaltage

The plea bargain was to drop the hoax device charge if she plead guilty to the disorderly conduct charge.

A naive college student? Watch any of the coverage on this? She thought the entire this was great at the time. Grinning ear to ear walking out the courthouse. What an idiot.

The whole point of hoax device laws to to prevent probing. The only reason they offered the plea is that the investigation showed her not to be probing.

Or thinking.

gawenzler

WHAT THE FUCK is with this interview style? I feel really fucking stupid watching someone talk to a laptop.

anonymousryan

@3choTh1s: I'm sorry, but faced with the POSSIBILITY of a bomb, you can't expect a security unit to carefully inspect the object prior to committing to a tackle. Talking to someone is fine in many situations, but not when a split second's hesitation COULD mean the los of many civilian lives.

I think many of us can agree that everything that happened after the initial arrest was overblown bullshit, but you can't seriously say that tackling her was a stupid move. If there is a perceived threat these people are paid and trained to react.

No one knew there was no threat until after the fact. but if you wait to assess a threat so thoroughly before taking a suspect down, then there's really no point in having security personnel in the first place, is there?

Kaveh

As always, the overreaction of security zealots and a frightened public is dispiriting, but let's consider the other side of the coin for a moment. As she is an MIT student, I think we can assume Ms. Simpson is smart. We can assume she has heard of 9/11 and is aware that people at airports are very sensitive to those who appear threatening - even if their perceptions are questionable sometimes. She has the right to whatever fashions she pleases. That is not the issue. But surely it must have crossed her mind that trying to board a plane in Boston wearing a sweat shirt with a circuit board, wires and blinking lights on it might provoke a reaction. So why did she do it? Either she was trying to make a political statement (very clumsily) or she was being a jerk. Not that anyone should go to jail for that, but really, grow up.

Thrubeingcool

I don't think the TSA fully understands how a suicide bomber works. They would not reveal themselves with a bomb before they get to the target. They would look and act like the exact opposite of what their real intentions areand not try to get past security wearing a bomb on the outside of their clothes.

dannydutton

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: Planning on joining the mile-high club,eh? ;0)

FiveLiters

@3choTh1s: Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

@Killjoy: I haven't seen that. I must be pretty sheltered.

Kaveh

@nutbastard: I agree with you 100% on this thread. I have nothing further to contribute besides that!

johnnyabnormal

damn i feel sorry for her.

ZetaCrossfire

oh c'mon! she was asking for it. a circuit board with blinking lights strapped to her chest, playing with something that looked like C4, and having some random switch in her bag? if that doesn't scream suicide bomber i don't know what does.

jbhitter24

funny how everyone says "OMG security too tight, all Americans are paranoid"

and when something bad happens they say
"LOL Stupid Americans should've had tighter security"

br4nd0n

to clarify, i dont mind that she was apprehended for questioning. What i mind is that this would have been a non-issue pre-9/11. i dont like that because of 9/11, everyone is so paranoid that some blinking lights have sent them into panic/overreaction.

No wonder the UFOs dont show up on the whitehouse lawn - they haven't figured out a way to make a UFO propulsion system work without blinking lights, and they wouldn't want to frighten us.

nutbastard

Goes to prove even further the sheer stupidity of the American media especially. If I were her I'd be going through each of the media reports and suing for libel.

People saying 'she's lucky she didn't get shot'... well, say no more. Exactly what's wrong with America. Land of the free, but be careful, do something someone else doesn't like and you'll get gunned down.

Onouris

I'm curious what the reaction by people and authorities would have been if she was white and not "middle eastern" looking?

tcrown

I'm honestly a little surprised to see so many people whom I would've assumed to be tech-savvy subscribe to so much fear, uncertainty, and doubt over a piece of tech.

Aneurhythmia

I'm kinda appaled by how many people are actually supporting the authorities and saying how the girl was stupid and such.

It seems a dystopic future is not so far out anymore.

For those who are agreeing with the authorities decision, good luck in your f*cked up freedomless future.

Shure the police should react if they think there might be a security threat in an airport, but they WENT TOO FAR.

It's the same thing that happened when the british police cowardly assassinated some guy in the London metro. But luckly, she wasn't shot down.

Soon enough, if people continue giving support to these kind of actions, the police will be able to abuse and hinder people's right with the excuse they are doing it to "protect the country against terror".

I have nothing against americans, and I do understand some of the security measures, but boy how I'm glad I don't live in such a state of paranoia.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I live about 20 minutes north of Boston. IIRC, she was LOVING all the attention she got and her story kept changing. Same with the Aqua Force gang. We were all supposed to " take a joke " and were, presumably, too stolid to get the subtle humor.
Sorry, guys, not funny. 9/11 hit this area hard ( The agent who passed the bombers through in Portland ME had to retire because of mental trauma.) and we really don't need kids with a sense of entitlement using resources that could be used better elsewhere.
It's one thing to be young and stupid, it's another to be young, stupid and engage in potentially dangerous acts.

drunken marmot

And about the whole "she's smart/not smart" issue: there are 100,000 college and university students in the Boston metro area. Some of these academic institutions are older than the United States. It's not like something like this couldn't have been anticipated. Just like, it could have been anticipated that the sudden completion of the Big Dig which functioned to stave off a corruption probe really meant that some woman was going to get killed by a piece of the roof falling on her car.

College students and young people do stupid things, like flipping over and burning cars after your home team finally wins a major sporting championship. The problem with this situation is that this girl is too smart and too naive to understand that other people are not that smart and don't understand things in the way that she does. This state has always been a combination of outsiders who are the smartest people in the country and residents who have never even left the state. That doesn't mean the state has to lay into one student for no obvious reason whatsoever. They would have been better served by warning the public (meaning, college students) not to pull this shit because the government will freak out all over you.

cobaltage

Can you expect any security at all from the guys who think that terrorists walk into airports like that? All the mistake she did was she didn't pay attention to the sore state of fear the US is in these days.

ypctx

@Kaveh: Mentioning that her lawyers are the ATHF ones was probably because she's in the same city that panicked over some LED advertisements...

Boston is just stupid.

StarChaser Tyger

@br4nd0n: LOL Yup!

This stupid twat was looking for attention and she got it, I don't get why she's so pissed? You silly fucks complaining about liberty and freedom being squashed here are simply children with authority issues, go back to DailyKos, or better yet do what your parents did, get a job!

..and for the last time get of my lawn!

Pwnieboy

@Pwnieboy:
You silly fucks complaining about liberty and freedom being squashed here are simply children with authority issues

You sir, are a fucking idiot. nuff said.

Fused7

Seriously, what the fuck, yes it was REALLY dumb of her to wear that, but she didn't go through security and she wasn't going to fly, she was more than cooperative and in the end it's just fucking PR bullshit for the airport.

Good job america, you're definitely still fucking free and represented in your fucked up government.

I'm disgusted.

Fused7

@trstn: No some of the 9/11 terrorists didn't board at Logan. You doofus, what do you want to defend next, someone yelling Fire at a Movie theater? She's a pinhead and I sincerely hope that she goes and apologizes to all the people she messed over that day. I'm sure many people missed their flights b/c they had ratchet up security sixteen levels because of this pinhead. You want to play this kind of joke, do it in a field away from the city where you bother other people. Anyone trying to make any excuse for this person needs to get a life. She knew what she was doing and she chose to wear that shirt. She could have worn anything else. Quite frankly she got off way to easy.

coolkiwilivin

@Lavallee017:

No, not advice for us. Advice for you maybe.

The real rule is "When you see something suspicious, IT'S NOT GOING TO BE COVERED IN SILLY LEDs SCREAMING LOOKITME LOOKITME LOOKITME".

If you're going to crap yourself over terrorist attacks that are going to happen sometime between rarely and never, please keep it to yourself and stop harassing people that have bad fashion sense.

Caidence

"some of them were carrying around these really big devices..that I later learned were machine guns." LOL.

It does surprise me that she was picked up OUTSIDE the airport...naive college kid made an example of. Handled poorly by overacting news does not excuse the fact that she was wearing an odd computer looking device on her shirt instead of in a bag or in a logical form like a laptop or cellphone.

advice for the rest of us. If you think it might be suspicious looking, then it probably is.

Lavallee017

Dear Star:

You're a moron.

Pretentious little dumbass got what she deserved. Post 9.11 era warrants the protection of airports. Bravo for TSA doing their jobs.

Just goes to show you that really really intelligent people can still be absolute morons.

Lavallee017

shes stupid for wearing that shit... dont fly with diy electronics...

and the feds are stupid for nabbing people who are leaving an airport...

urbanturban666

So i guess its OK for police to shoot any boy or girl waving a squirt gun now? Blame the victim to cover your own ass. sad

matthewlavin

WHAT WAS "BOMB LIKE" about her shirt? where was the threat? a clay rose, a battery or wires? If you are afraid you'll see anything to satisfy your fear.
seriously, all of you who are blaming her are just idiots who need to have a scapegoat. IT IS SAD THAT GIZMODO READERS ARE SO "george bush"

matthewlavin

And she's an MIT student? What a stupid DUMB-ASS! She was totally asking for it! Exposed wires, battery, LED's, a circuit board and playing with "putty" while looking like a total goon at an airport.... STUPID

DucatiGuy

God bless the asshole stupid america bravo

mpar

@urbanturban666:

She wasn't flying, she was picking up a friend L2R

Fused7

@gawenzler:
the first link I found after googling "Hoax device Laws" brought me to the www.mass.gov website, specifically [www.mass.gov] and the first section of the law reads

"Section 102A1/2. (a) Whoever possesses, transports, uses or places or causes another to knowingly or unknowingly possess, transport, use or place any hoax device or hoax substance with the INTENT to cause anxiety, unrest, fear or personal discomfort to any person or group of persons shall be punished by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than two and one-half years or by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than five years or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment."

I don't know when the law went in the books but it seems that simply carrying a hoax device isn't against the law. That said I'm ok with her treatment when taken into custody and all for investigating suspcious individuals. However, when you find out they are no longer suspicious and until there are laws against being stupid...move on

onepointbaum

ladies and gentlemen my knee jerk reaction.....

BigViper

@cobaltage: Amen breother!

Unknown2U

@nutbastard: I agree with you. I can't belive all these people blaming this poor girl. This is not what this country is about.

Unknown2U

this reminds me of the dude who got arrested for wearing a Megatron t-shirt because the robot looked too much like a gun.

Let's face it, airport security is just that. It's NOT fashion police, and shouldn't act like it.

You don't feel secure in your knowledge whether this is an LED light? Fine, take her to the police or someone who can discern between a bomb or a detonator and a frigging LED.

If no such person exists, then there is a problem in your security coverage, not the accused victim. Don't blame them for your own shortcomings.

And to everyone who says the security people were just doing their jobs, NO. They were NOT doing their jobs, they were overreacting. There are certain rules and protocols security is required to follow, just so they can avoid this shit. But they tend to disregard the rules, such as approaching carefully and investigating, and instead go RAMBO on everyone's ass.

And the company that hires them, to save face and to avoid admitting they hire the first overreacting yokel that walks through their door, say they did their jobs, always putting the blame on someone else.

And just like the scared, scarred, victims that you are, you gobble it up and say thank you on top.

JesusDeSaad

Did they compensate her in any way for the damage made? That is shitty! They even made her do public service in order not to go to jail? Stupid people!

DaSmith

Well there you have it, proof that you don't necessarily need to be a fucking genius to get into schools like MIT. Lacking common sense and good taste will get you right through the door too.

thrashanddestroy

Is that the really high chick from Knocked Up?

anfauglir

Wow. That was heavily edited in a strange way. And the video seriously needed a better perspective, watching two people talk to their computers was disturbing and annoying.

Overall, an acceptable interview, but it really comes across that this is further proof that common sense is not all that common.

maztec

that is so fucking ridiculous! this war on terror is total BS!!!

Just like george carlin wisely said once: there is no terrorist threats!! damn!!

total paranoia. Population control by fear...

Ariel_Wollinger

@Lavallee017:

Dear Star:

You're a moron.

Just goes to show you that really really intelligent people can still be absolute morons.

Like Ariel_Wollinger says, this 'war on terror' is a load of secondhand bovine food. Despite banning toothpaste and bottled water, have they found one single incident of someone carrying explosives in toothpaste tubes or water bottles? Or poison or magic dehydrated ninja monkey robots or whatever they think is going to come out of them... Has there ever been one bomb found that was covered in LEDs that didn't have a room full of people sitting and watching it while eating overpriced popcorn?

StarChaser Tyger

i'd tackle her too if i see that piece of crap with wires and battery sticking out. she might as well just stick a chuck of clay on top and print C4 on it. For all the horrible horrible things I've been through in aireport security, I'd actually have to give them this one. and I hope she learned the lesson, and don't try to be a smartass.

diehippiedie

@Kaveh: Yes I can say tackling her was a stupid move. If it had been a bomb tacking her was probably THE STUPIDEST move. So much flawed logic here.

emptee_head

Seriously. Some of you are saying this "looked" like a bomb. Have any of you ever seen a bomb? Bombs don't have a big led display on them ticking down the seconds. Bombs do NOT announce themselves to everyone around them until they explode. Some of you are using the defense that you cannot say the word bomb at the airport. How stupid are you really? That is the dumbest rule in the history of "Security". Do you really think someone who has a bomb will ever EVER say the word "bomb" at the airport? Seriously. It's very sad to me that any of you have bought this.

emptee_head

She clearly just wasn't thinking about the appearance of the device at all. I'm sure that at MIT people just look at it and say something to the effect of "well that's pretty cool." The police were correct in stopping her in the way that they did, but they should have merely examined the device to see that it wasn't dangerous and subsequently warned her that it's going to be taken the wrong way - particularly in areas of heightened security/paranoia. Her actions may have lacked some common sense, but that's hardly a crime. That they charged her with anything is an absurdity and makes me feel entirely LESS SAFE living in the United States of America not because of terrorists, but because I have to fear the government too. (Actually, episodes like this, the Valerie Plame Affair, and the recent, illicit raiding of a basement chemistry lab in Marlboro, MA make it clear that I should fear the government significantly more than the terrorists because I can get in serious trouble for criticizing the government or for doing things that are perfectly legal and within my rights, but make stupid people nervous.)

GarretGreene

This is a prime example of one of the huge problems with technology. People are less and less engaged and have no idea what constitutes common sense anymore. She is lucky that she did comply as there could have been really terrible consequences has she not.

I cringe to think what would have happened if you crossed her with college student who thinks the police are there for her amusement. (think, don't taze me bro). I applaud the MSP for making their statements. You can't that they deal with mentally deranged and unstable people all of the time, so someone strapping a bomb to themselves is not outside the realm of possibility.

BusmanX

"And they were holding these large devices that I later found out were Machine Guns..."

MIT student?

pitpawten