MIT Student Arrested For Wearing 'Tech Art' Shirt At Airport

SuperBanana writes "According to a report by the Boston Globe, MIT Student Star Simpson was nearly shot by Logan Airport police who thought she was armed with a bomb. She approached an airline employee wearing a prototyping board with electronic components, crudely attached to the front of her sweatshirt and holding 'putty' in her hand. She asked about an incoming flight, and did not respond when asked about the device. Armed police responded. 'Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device and was arraigned today East Boston Municipal Court. She was held on $750 cash bail and ordered to return to court Oct. 29. "Thankfully because she followed our instructions, she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue," Pare said. "Again, this is a serious offense ... I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport."'"

Comments

Re:"Yeah, those suspicious e-lectronics".

[mroberts47]

People should be smart enough to know not to go wandering around with that kinda stuff like that. She caused an incident that could have been avoided by leaving that crap at home. Anyone with half a brain should know that walking around with bombish looking stuff in an airport is gonna cause problems.

Re:"Yeah, those suspicious e-lectronics".

[SethJohnson]

If its strapped to your chest and has some putty on it (which looks like C4), then yes

Since it didn't have some putty on it, then no.

Seth

More like speaking"Eirf!" to the person next to yo

[FatSean]

Considering that it had lights, a circuit board and some putty...the putty in her hand and not attached to anything else...

When government is malfunctioning, it is our duty to point that out, not to just 'go along' with the malfunction. Yeah she might have guessed that this shirt would cause a problem, but so what? Do you advocate that black people stay out of white suburbs because the cops there tend to harass minorities? It might be the safe route for the minority, but it isn't right for our society. You'd probably tell Rosa Parks to move :P

You know who else made an ass out of himself to prove a point? Jesus. Gandhi. That Chinese guy who was run over by a tank. Just about anybody who committed 'civil disobedience' in the fight for civil rights in this country.

Sure, she could have made better choices for herself, but I think she made a better choice for all of us. Selfless actually.

Re:"Yeah, those suspicious e-lectronics".

[X]

> This dumb-ass girl took a shirt with a bomb-looking device attached to it to a place where you are not allowed to say the word "Bomb"

Umm.. did you look at the picture of it? That doesn't look like a bomb. It's a bread board with some wires in it. You know what looks more like a bomb? A cell phone. Fortnately they didn't arrest everyone who had one of those!