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Laser Painting Could Lead to 25-Year Prison Term
lowy writes "According to this USA Today article, a New Jersey man was charged under federal anti-terrorism laws with shining a laser beam at a jet flying over his home. The Feds arrested him after he flashed a police helicopter searching for the source of the beam. He now faces up to 25 years in prison under Patriot Act charges." It seems to be happening around the country, as our earlier post makes clear.
...if we can save the life of just one airliner, it will be worth it.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
Bush's legal staff just made it up so they didn't have to abide by any law or offer any due process. Basically 'There are all these restrictions of what we can do on us soil and all these restricions on what we can do to prisoners of war, hmm let's house them outside the us and call them something different then we can do whatever the f we want'.
As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
First of all, you can't assume he watches the news. It is every citizens responsibility to be aware of the laws (which is arguably impossible, but I digress).
Second, it is not proven wether people are trying to "take down planes" by blinding the pilots. Until you produce some kind of evidence, it is not proven. There are idiots out there that will just hear something on TV about this and just play around with a pocket laser because they are stupid. I call these people "dumb rednecks". And then there are people out there who are actually trying to take down planes, possibly using lasers to distract/blind the pilots. I call these people "terrorists". Terrorists don't care about the 25 year sentence. Terrorists don't even care if you kill them in the process, if they have made the decision to give their own life to their cause. They don't care about our laws, and trying to scare them by making an example of someone does nothing.
There are no laws forcing stupid people not to reproduce, unfortunately. There would be no Bush daughters, that is a bad thing depending on how you look at it. "Safer to the general public" is a very subjective point of view. We don't lock up senior citizens because they are shitty drivers. We don't lock up kids because they don't know better and do stupid shit. Well, sometimes we do.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
you are dead wrong on both counts.
not suprising for a typical slashdork though.
Common sense tells me that while he may not have intended
Common sense tells me that the laser never hit the plane, never hit the police chopper, and that the story was conveniently put together by prosecuters and a media which has nothing useful to report about the war or terror.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
Wel I guess its poinless, I feel like feeding the tolls:
Please, a laser pointer wont burn your eye instantly. You really have to stare into the beam for some time, nothing someone ever would do.
Please, get a clue! Google or read a book about physics. You are wrong
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.