Star Simpson's first interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare | Hacker News Reader

Star Simpson's first interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare

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22 pointspolvi19 comments

Reading that she dropped out of MIT and that the judge required her to do community service and make a public apology makes me so sad.

Me too. Sad for the country, the world and for human beings. Sometimes (okay, most of the time) it's really embarrassing to be one of us.

She must have had a terrible lawyer. "possessing a hoax device" requires that the person possessing the hoax device intended to scare someone. Since she was just meeting a friend and wanted to impress him (her?), I just don't see the hoax intent. It's like brushing your teeth and shining your shoes before picking up a friend at the airport -- not illegal.

Anyway, if she is appealing, I would like to donate some money to her legal fund so she can get a fair trial.

The "possessing a hoax device" charge was dropped and she was only convicted of disorderly conduct which she explains doesn't require intent.

The real disgusting thing here is the abhorrent conduct of the police and judicial system.

The real disgusting thing here is the abhorrent conduct of the police and judicial system.

This happened in Boston. You know all those movies and TV shows that stereotype Boston cops as a corrupt tribe of violent irish guys? That's really what they are like. Plus, Boston cops like to seem tough on terror since their community supported IRA terror during The Troubles and they feel a bit guilty and conflicted about it these days...

This is a classic case of town vs. gown. The townies won.

Agreed.

Someone that stupid should definitely have faced jail time, not just community service.

Being perfectly honest, her device could be confusing in an airport context, given the fact that you never know who is the person you deal with. I can understand the arrest, but not what has happened next.

The press seems to have been called too early and my guess is that the officials didn't want to look like fools when their sensationalistic "suicide bomber" story - that was supposed to get them promoted - just vanished. "Suicide bomber arrest" was the first thing I ever heard about this story in a french newspaper. If the lies didn't spread so fast, the story wouldn't have gotten so big and the officials would prolly have released her the next hour with no charges at all. Fuck that, I hope she recovers well.

If the lies didn't spread so fast, the story wouldn't have gotten so big and the officials would prolly have released her the next hour with no charges at all.

This is all the more reason to hold the government accountable for their actions. They did not deserve to win this case and ruin Star's life.

Why don't the TSA employees go to jail when actual bombs get past the security checkpoints? That's an actual risk.

Oh right, it blows the illusion of security theater. Never mind. I thought we were actually trying to protect the traveling public there for a second. Silly me.

Geez, the drama.

How has her life been ruined?

She had to drop out of MIT and move out of Boston because of jerks spitting in her face, who think the media gave them 100% of the story that she tried to do a "bomb hoax".

This is what terrorism does - it terrorizes people. The unfortunate deaths on 9/11 were a means to that end.

Americans never had the honor to live in a real dictatorship, i would suggest you guys try it for a few decades, you will learn not to trust the guys making laws pretty fast.

Unless I'm hugely mistaken, American trust in the government isn't anywhere near a high point right now. Unfortunately I can't find a source to back this up, so take it as you want.

if you were the boston police and wanted to minimiZe nuisance calls from the airport, making an example of this seems like an efficient way to do so.

That's just it. They'd prefer to send a strong "don't be different" message. They think if they can coerce everyone into absolute conformity, it will lower the cost of searching out tur-ists.

What really happens is they create a set of protocols that are simple to learn that will allow real terrorists to hide in plain sight.

I think they send a strong "don't waste our time" message.

They also send a "we're incompetent, dangerous (carrying around loaded automatic weapons in an airport terminal is dumb) fools" message.

Ever flown out of Tel Aviv?

Poor girl, really sad to see this.

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