k wrote:
Decius wrote:
She's extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare told The Associated Press. "And she's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."
The quote above is a Massachusetts State Police Officer publicly threatening to murder an MIT student who accidentally showed up at the airport wearing an electronic art project. She has, yet again, been charged with carrying out a hoax. Remember kids, anytime a Massachusetts police officer is confused, its your fault for confusing them, and not theirs for being fucking stupid and paranoid, and you are likely to go to prison or worse if it happens.
[ Yeah, this is a massive over-reaction and the quote above is extremely disturbing evidence of the mindset of law enforcement personnel (not to mention a lot of citizens).
The proper reaction might have been to approach her and inquire about the electronics. The fact that it has blinking lights on the exterior seems like a good indicator that it's *not* a bomb. In fact, airport security just provided a valuable lesson for anyone who might actually try to do such a thing... send someone in with a "fake bomb" as a smoke screen. Der-doink, Boston.
She probably should have known better than to go to an airport like that. I'm really not overly concerned about the chilling effect on Makers and hackers in this case. Again, the reaction was disproportionate, but even in a relatively sane society, you ought to expect an impromptu interview with a cop if you go to an airport with hastily constructed electronics on your shirt.
The genuinely sad truth is that if they'd shot her, a large proportion of the country would think it was the right reaction, and an even larger proportion would briefly reflect that it's a sad and wrong thing, and then promptly forget about it.
Side note, not relevant to the above, as an "art project", I think the hoodie sucks, but maybe it's just not my style, like Dali or 99% of comic strips.
Actually... that looks like a bomb to me. Like a suicide bomber. I tend to side with the cops here, which is strange and doesn't happen often.
She's stupid. She's lucky she didn't get shot in the face.
