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Where was she the morning they handed out brains?
Posted by civil truth on September 21st, 2007
Or as Fox News put it, Airport ‘Art’ Stunt Bombs.
An MIT student wearing what turned out to be a fake bomb was arrested at gunpoint Friday at Logan International Airport and later claimed it was artwork, officials said.
Star Simpson, 19, had a computer circuit board and wiring in plain view over a black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing, said State Police Maj. Scott Pare, the commanding officer at the airport. “She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day,” Pare said at a news conference. “She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it.”
Well, I guess she did stand out, alright. And she would have stood out even more had she arrived to career day in a coffin.
On the other hand, the Logan airport security force does not exactly win any prizes for alertness, which would be a concern had she been wearing an actual bomb. Ms. Simpson waltzed into the airport to an information desk asking for information on an incoming flight, having not been previously stopped. She then walked back outside, and at this point the booth attendant decided that it might be a good idea to get the attention of a state trooper standing nearby.
At that point, Ms. Simpson discovered that her “artwork” – a battery-powered rectangular device with nine flashing lights (and holding Play-Doh in her hands) – was no laughing matter:
The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her at a traffic island in front of the terminal.
In the words of Major Pare:
“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.” Simpson was “extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used,” Pare said.
***NEWS FLASH***
Well it’s official now, Ms. Simpson has won a 2007 Darwin Honorable Mention, as recorded here:
-
MIT student narrowly escapes death by submachine gun.
(21 September 2007, Boston) The woman later claimed that strolling around an airport while wearing a fake bomb was “art” but this kind of artistic performance is apt to be short-lived. Particularly if you choose Logan International Airport: two of the passenger jets hijacked on 911 took off from Logan.
The student was apprehended at gunpoint, and forced to surrender her flashing circuit board and ball of Play-doh. “She’s lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue,” said police
In honor of her Darwin Honorable Mention, I would present Ms. Simpson with the following consolation prize, which is modeled just below here.
September 21st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Clueless. The guys and I were talking in the office today about this and we all agreed that if she had even THOUGHT of not cooperating, or made any sudden movements… she’d had a bad case of lead poisoning to say the least. In todays environment there is no room for these type of games. This is life and death serious, and its time that people like her pull her head out of her butt and figure out that the guys with guns are not playing with blanks….
September 21st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
LOL
I HAD to call my friends at MIT just to make sure this wasn’t part of some prank, or experiment they are well known for. MIT students do dumb things all the time, in the name of science and research- and to be honest that was my first thought about this. I still have some suspicions. Because NO one in the right mind would do this. Except a student at MIT who is involved with something else…
lol
September 21st, 2007 at 6:09 pm
And this genius is an MIT student, I was led to believe that someone had to be smart to be admitted to MIT. I guess the info I got was wrong, or the standards for admission have been lowered considerably. If this is what passes for a student at an elite school nowadays, this country is in deep _ _ _ _! What are the professors teaching these so called students. MIT is famous for that professor who went into hyper hysterics when the then Harvard president in the spirit of discussion brought up a subject that caused the professor to lose her lunch. Ah yes the weak and emotional teaching the same.
September 21st, 2007 at 6:27 pm
MIT students of all ages are extremely skills smart- book smart…but some have NO COMMON SENSE AT ALL. Nor do they have any clue how actions like this can cause such trouble. She was probably just trying to impress her BF. Really…
She is one of the street dumb students, I say.
September 21st, 2007 at 6:46 pm
uhhh CT?? YOU do realize that by posting about this, we have had over 500 hits in less than 30 minutes??
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 21st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Are you over-reactionaries kidding me? First of all, she made no actions nor statements that were intended to convince people it was a bomb. To prove she’s made a “hoax device” you have to prove intent, good luck with that. Other people’s ignorance and fear caused this uproar. Is it bright to wear something like this to the airport? Not really, but it in my mind that’s a shame, not her fault. Once again, Boston proves itself to be filled with idiots, unable to use the common sense possessed by an ant. In no way did she deserve to have machine guns drawn on her. A swift talking to, and an order to put her ‘art’ back in her car, maybe.
The people you should be looking out for will NOT be carrying anything that looks remotely like an IED, it will be a piece of luggage, or a vehicle, not a flashing board clipped to their shirt. Actions like this don’t serve to protect the country, only to make Boston’s Finest look foolish, again.
September 21st, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Yea Fred? Tell this to the Pallie suicide bombers in Israel.
Who wear vests that they open up right before blowing themselves up. They open them just so everyone can see what is about to happen. Being critical of the reaction of police in situations like this makes you look moronic, sir. With all due respect.
September 21st, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Fred,
Most normal people don’t wear pieces of electronics as part of their every day clothes. What she had could have very easily been a bomb, and the fact that she was asking about arriving planes could have meant that she was looking for a target to blow herself up and kill. She doesn’t have to have a Al Qaeda membership card in her wallet to take part in terrorism. True, most terrorists who have some lick of tactical sense will try to disguise their weapon in order to get in close and maximize the damage. However, not all terrorists are that bright or skilled.
So, I believe that the police had every right to draw down on this girl. She was suspicious and in todays environment, that is unfortunately enough. Had this been a bomb, and the police and others had not reacted the way that they did, you’d probably be on the other side, saying that not only are Boston’s Finest foolish, but that they are incompetent also for allowing her to kill someone.
You my ignorant friend, are a douche. And I mean that with all sincerity…. :wink: :roll:
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:04 am
Being someone who knows a bit about electronics components, it’s pretty obvious to me that this ‘art’ was nothing dangerous. However, most people have no real knowledge about electronic parts or bombs. What most people see for bombs is in TV and movies, and nearly all of those are a circuitboard, with wires and flashing lights (check on all counts here), so I can see where the misunderstanding came from. Plus, how many times will it take for something like this (I refer to the Cartoon Network viral ads using lite-brights here…) happening before some Jihadi decides to use it as a diversion to do something real?
This girl was double-stupid for playing with something that could be mistaken for a type of plastique.
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:28 am
Love your choice for her consolation prize. Stupid kids do stupid things and some survive to understand how stupid they were.
Other kids learn responsibility early, like my son the Marine, who returns tonight for the third time from Iraq having taught stupid al Qaida kids some very direct lessons. This young female is luckier than them – she is still breathing.
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:35 am
I am not going to type a lot, Fred you are as stupid as her.
September 22nd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
The gal is definitely a general purpose — generic?) “twit”, and this Fred Evil fellow has got to be one of those folks who just sort of drift through life with a total lack of awareness of what’s going on around them.
Any security force that didn’t respond to the young woman’s “props” in an aggressive and timely manner would have been profoundly negligent.
Ranba has it right; how many people who are not bomb recognition trained would know the difference between what the twit was wearing/carrying and the real thing?
Further, who in his/her right mind would give the gal the benefit of the doubt, given the potentially explosive results of a miscalculation?
What a twit!
September 22nd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Good to see some old friends stopping by. I don’t have anything to add to the great comments here. Some actions just speak for themselves.
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Why would someone risk their entire future on such a stupid prank? Engineering schools are known to be extremely demanding. Suicide is not uncommon. Perhaps she just flipped out.
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:47 pm
The female model must be very smart.