BTW Sgt. JD Nelson of the Alameda County Bomb Squad is not some rookie. He is the explosives guy on Mythbusters.
There quite possibly could have been a reason why Sgt Nelson thought this went beyond a piece of art.
There quite possibly could have been a reason why Sgt Nelson thought this went beyond a piece of art.
The facts of the case so far are:
1) Dude is outfitted in camo, watch that looks like an IED timer, and shoes rigged out like the "shoe bomber".
2) Dude gets pulled aside and claims it's all art.
3) Dude gets arrested.
Getting flagged for questioning because of (1) seems straightforward to me.
How it went from (2) to (3) is less clear, and it might be prudent to hold off the hand-wringing for now.
I'm betting X * Y * Z is still much larger than W.
And lets not forget that they could have easily break his shoes and see if he was actually hiding something inside those.
The fact is that he was arrested for having a wierd outfit. If somebody believes that this guy who has been an artist for many years, flies a lot and registered his domain in 1995 is a actually a terrorist they are delusional and shouldn't be in charge of any kind of law enforcement.
It's not possible to know that yet. It may never be possible, if the TSA withholds certain information, or that information never becomes part of the public record.
I tend to think there is more to this as well, including plenty of Gestapo ass-hattery from the police and the TSA. I just wonder if part of the art project included being arrested. We may be witnessing a piece of performance art.
Unfortunately every member of the TSA cannot be an expert in this man's artwork to understand what he actually had in his posession. Suspicious watches (and protruding wires!) are one of the things they are trained to look for as all of the 9/11 hijackers had digital casio wrist watches. So yeah, honestly I think confiscating the watch and stopping him was a good move. Maybe even denying him his flight would be sane.
What does it take for you guys to agree that someone shouldn't get on a plane, a backpack full of c4!? The idea is to stop the disaster before it happens, and at this point all we have are vague clues. Not to mention the fact that for economic reasons, each TSA officer is going to be a layman who probably isn't well versed in electronics.
Combine this with the fact that it looked like he "hid" it under his coat... This guy needs to use some discretion when flying, I'm sorry!
As much as I disagree with the erosion of our civil liberties, wearing a watch that looks like a bomb detonator onto a plane is not a smart move. Sure, us HNers would know the difference between art and a real device. The general public does not, and we cannot expect them all to gain our same level of competence with electronics.
Finally, the TSA stopped someone that was actually suspicious.
What's totally unreasonable in any context is the fact that this guy was CHARGED WITH A CRIME, and is now sitting in jail on $150,000 bail. He will have to go through a lengthy trial process and potentially serve jail-time. Unless the facts are contrary to what the article presents (which is possible), this is totally unreasonable.
Are you seriously satirizing the idea that the line should be drawn at items that are actually dangerous?
Mainly, because a terrorist would not walk by the TSA with a gun, bomb, knife, or whatever now. Unless they were just an idiot. Most terrorism is organized. So they would have a plan. They send people in advance to take pictures of the airport and find other entrances. There are ways into the secure areas of airports if you look.
That's why at an airport every employee has the task of challenging people. Every single employee is always watching for suspicious behavior.
So if it is a terrorist attack, the TSA is not going to see a bomb. They might see a tiny hint of something to come, but no one is going to walk by the TSA with a WMD. They are more sophisticated than this and have other ways of getting them in.
If there is no penalty for trying to board a plane while with lookalike dangerous items, then there is nothing to deter one from "probing" the screening for weaknesses, and the system is worthless.
Everyone who has a timer/watch/cellphone does, which is the point of why this is so ridiculous. If you arrest everyone who has all the materials necessary to make a bomb minus the explosives, everyone would be arrested.
Now it does take skills which most people don't have; but this isn't about skills it is about physical kit, and purely in terms of the physical stuff needed I'm almost certain you could buy it all at the airport in the "secure" part (e.g. travel clock).
I don't know what's worse...
The idea that knowing how to blow stuff up qualifies you to profile folks as potential terrorists or that being consulted for a TV show qualifies you for anything.