Circuit Boards + Soldering Iron == Terrorist?

Search and Seizure asks: "This week, the local police contacted one of my co-workers and informed him that they had been contacted by the FBI who requested that they investigate his apartment. According to the police, while his apartment repair staff were checking his smoke alarm, they had noticed suspicious looking items in his kitchen and had called the FBI because they suspected that he might be a terrorist. What do you do when your landlord suspects that you might be a terrorist and reports you to the FBI?" If the law comes a-knocking, always remember that you can politely ask for a warrant. "The police officer went on to explain that my co-worker had two choices:

1) Let the local police take a look and explain what the 'suspicious' items were for.
2) Don't let the local police in. The police will let the FBI know, and they will use 'Homeland Security' to come in and do a full search.

He opted for the less drastic choice, and showed the officer the digital camera guts, his in-progress circuitry to take automatic pictures, the tethered balloon that he was going to hook them up to so he could take overhead pictures, and the beer keg that he used to store his beer.

The police officer accepted his explanations and it appears to have turned out okay, but the whole situation is a little disturbing.

What rights do we have to experiment and create in this age of paranoia?"

Comments

Well

[mattboston]

If "your friend" hasn't done anything, "he" shouldn't have anything to worry about. BTW, why are all these stories about someone's friend??? Maybe they're really about you and you just won't admit that you're one of the terrorists. Screw the Patriot Act, track down his IP address and arrest him.

thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

As a bomb making terrorist I've decided to develop a history of electrical repairs to cover.

Thanks slashdot

Re:Rights?

[Hungus]

There may have been no seizure but had he refused it possibly would have become an illegal search. I do encourage people to know the constitution and the rights it is supposed to provide and protect. And then I want all teh christians out there and especially Baptists (of which I am both) to remember as individuals we have no rights and are to fully allow such searches and seizures w/o argument (even though in myself I would be one of the first to fight back I need to learn to become less.

And no this isn't meant as a troll or a flame though I am sure if modded it will be listed as such.

Re:Hysteria

[Halfbaked Plan]

Aw, comeon. Everybody knows that a bomb detonator is a 555 chip with a really big timing capacitor.

I suppose the cheapos would just use some junk opamp or comparator instead of the 555, but they don't really count!

Re:Rights?

[jrockway]

> ADD [adultadd.com] isn't a joke, it's a serious problem. Treat it as such.

God damn it. I forgot what I was going to say. Hey! Shiny object!!

Re:Hysteria

[hey!]

Since you are obviously expert in all things bomb-detonator, what does an "average" bomb detonator look like?


*sigh*

I really miss the days when people still understood irony. Perhaps I should give some more obvious clues like this:

*** WARNING: THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS IRONY ***The above paragraph was ironic.*** END OF IRONY ***

As it happens, I completely agree with your point about energy dependency and its poisoning of our policies, and don't see how my original post could be taken as a defense of the mistreatment of Arabs. *** WARNING THE THIS SENTENCE CONTAINS IRONY *** Next time you should read a post more carefully before using it as a platform for your soapbox. *** END OF IRONY; THERE IS NO MORE IRONY IN THIS POST; FEEL FREE TO READ CARRY ON READING CARELESSLY. ***