Quoted: Quoted: She wasn't wrong, but she had to apologize? This is one of those times a little bit of common FASHION sense would have gone a long way for her

What a fuggin' ugly-ass shirt.

Dumb bitch making a "political statement". The wrong one.

She got off easy...no bullet holes.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: She wasn't wrong, but she had to apologize? This is one of those times a little bit of common FASHION sense would have gone a long way for her What a fuggin' ugly-ass shirt humanoid.

Fixed it for yah.

Quoted: Would this have caused that much of a stir in 1999 or 2000? -X

Way back a long time ago (approx. 30 years) my parents and younger siblings were boarding a flight out of SFO to Heathrow. My  youngest brother, who was about 9 y/o at the time, was fascinated by electric motors. He tried to take a 9 volt battery and a small electric motor on board the plane to keep himself busy during the 11 hour flight.

From the reaction of security you would have thought that he was wearing a suicide vest.

Yeah, airport security was a cluster fuck, even way back then.



eta But this girl was trolling for a reaction.

Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot.

Agreed.

She wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds in Israel.

Quoted: She wasn't wrong, but she had to apologize?

Welcome to George W. Bush's America, where it is more important to make weak people feel strong than to fix the fucking problem.

Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot.

Because we live in such dangerous times?

Quoted: Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot. Agreed. She wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds in Israel.

WTF does Israel have to do with it? This is America not some ideologically dissonant free-fire zone.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks she should have gotten a bullet.

If you reach the point people are fleeing the building and the person is walking around with Clay, wires, batteries and a hoody - things have already progressed to far.  Surrounding her is just giving her more victims.

In an unnamed middle eastern country we woudl have simply read the obit in the newspaper.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot. Because we live in such dangerous times? Anybody showing up with what was obviously suppose to represent a bomb on their chest is a threat. Shoot them.

Circuitboard = BOMB!
I'll notify the local computer store.

ETA - It's really amazing. It's like a bunch of savages sticking their hands in fire because they can't figure something out.

Haven't you people ever heard of context?

We aren't talking about a sign hanging off the side of a building with a known cartoon character on it.  We aren't talking about Halloween.  We aren't even talking about someone walking down the street with a home made shirt with lights on it.

What we are talking about is a person, wearing a black hooded sweat shirt, with a clay type substance, circuit board, batteries, and wires wandering around an airport.  She didn't answer a simple request as to what she was wearing.  This is known as suspcious behavior.

Her rights weren't viloated.  Had she answered a simple question from a person who was part of the AIRLINE not the .GOV it would have been a none issue.

For those of you from Rio Linda:
her rights < public safety

For those of you from Rio Linda: individual rights < false sense of public safety

Let's be be clear.

Since when is being a gadfly a crime?

If you yell fire in a crowded theater, are you just a gadfly?

Quoted: This is the best nation on Earth. Somehow.

Except for within airports.

I'm kind of stunned here that after 9/11 anyone here is complaining that this dumb bitch got in the shithouse for creating a situation where she shows up at an airport wearing an electronic device acting suspiciously.  What the hell were the cops supposed to do?  What am I missing here?

that's like wearing pork chop drawers in a lions den...............................

She is a performance artist. That was her performance. She got exactly the reaction she wanted.

I'm surprised no one is complaining about the female flight attendants that pounced on a much larger Richard Reid who was trying to light a fuse on his tennis shoe.

Some of you anarcho-libertarians need to get a grip. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

She is ONLY alive because of the professionalism of the police that confronted her.

Umm, 9Volt battery + some wiring+a momentary switch+blasting cap+explosive = bomb, right?

That sounds very close to what she was showing. They wouldn't know that it was only silly putty/play doh/regular clay and no blasting cap until they investigated.

No over-reaction on the part of the police, they did right. She is a dumbass.

Quoted: She is a performance artist. That was her performance. She got exactly the reaction she wanted. I'm surprised no one is complaining about the female flight attendants that pounced on a much larger Richard Reid who was trying to light a fuse on his tennis shoe. Some of you anarcho-libertarians need to get a grip. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. She is ONLY alive because of the professionalism of the police that confronted her.

Game, set and match.

Quoted: Quoted: as i recall, she had an unexplained block of clay in her hands, and was kneading it while acting strangely, which attracted the attention to her. Star Simpson, 19, was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and approached an airport employee in Terminal C at 8 a.m. to inquire about an incoming flight from Oakland, according to Major Scott Pare of the State Police. She was holding a lump of what looked like putty in her hands. The employee asked about the plastic circuit board on her chest, and Simpson walked away without responding, Pare said. link this idiot did it on purpose. she knew that it might be as a bomb, and is now continueing to try to get out of trouble for her stunt. Okay, THAT makes more sense.  In that case, to hell with her.

LOOK OUT!  IT MIGHT BE AS A BOMB!



ETA:  Bitch is lucky to be alive.

I'm glad everybody is so comfortable walking around scared shitless of shit that we do to ourselves more than foreigners do.

Seriously people, we're becoming a country of vaginoids.

Quoted: Would this have caused that much of a stir in 1999 or 2000? -X

I think so. She did it in order to get attention. If I were standing in line and saw something like that, I would wonder as well.

Quoted: Quoted: I'm glad everybody is so comfortable walking around scared shitless of shit that we do to ourselves more than foreigners do. Seriously people, we're becoming a country of vaginoids. Who's scared shitless? She walked into an airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest. She knew what she was doing. She even made a first amendment claim, knowing what she was doing. It's no different than if she walked in with a AK. Fake or not.

Unless, of course, she had a government employee badge. They can be trusted with guns.

The one thing that just bugs the shit out of me is the stupid idea that bombs have all sorts of blinky lights, and rings or buzzes before it explodes.

Who the fuck would build a bomb like that? Why would you need too?

They sure as hell don't look like that in Iraq. When was the last time in Israel that they stopped a guy with a suicide vest that had blinky lights all over the outside? Huh? When?

Quoted: In all seriousness, showing up at an airport with a device with wires and a battery is STUPID. (yeah, I know it's a proto-board with a couple of LED's & a 9V battery, still STUPID)

this is an interesting statment..

i fly every so often. i'm a geek basicaly, my carryon contains.. LOTS OF WIRES AND BATTERIES, GPS devices, shortwave recievers, wires and more wires. i have evdo devices with wire extensions, and add on mini antennas, i have ipod mini earphones, i have extra batteries for my laptop and surefire, i have my surefire, i have small screwdrivers, i have more batteries and wires..

i put them separarted into gallon freezer bags and pull em out and put em in the trays that go through the scanner.. you should see the odd looks as they pull em out and turn the bags over.. but never any issues...

in my limited experience.. the bombers where their wries, batteries and bombs under their coats and shirts so's to get amongts the most innocents before going to see allah.. they doint wear blink leds on their shirts or carry circuit boards blinking away..

my opinion? there is very little common sense in this country... and we loved to be terriried..

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I'm glad everybody is so comfortable walking around scared shitless of shit that we do to ourselves more than foreigners do. Seriously people, we're becoming a country of vaginoids. Who's scared shitless? She walked into an airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest. She knew what she was doing. She even made a first amendment claim, knowing what she was doing. It's no different than if she walked in with a AK. Fake or not. Unless, of course, she had a government employee badge. They can be trusted with guns.

Clearly

Police chief's arrest is a major jolt to sleepy Northern California community of Blue Lake

The head of the tiny force, accused of drugging and sexually assaulting his wife, collected enough guns at headquarters to arm a small platoon. He also allegedly kept unregistered guns at home.

By Eric Bailey
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 4, 2008

BLUE LAKE, CALIF. -- — Just beyond the reach of the North Coast fog, this little community of 1,150 basked until recently under the protection of a police force of just four officers.

Four officers packing 31 submachine guns.

The Blue Lake police force was armed on a par with a big-city SWAT team. And no Blue Lakers knew until Police Chief David Gundersen's life began to very publicly unravel.

In February, Humboldt County sheriff's deputies arrested Gundersen on suspicion of crimes in his own bedroom.

Prosecutors have charged him with 33 counts, alleging that the chief repeatedly drugged his wife, a Blue Lake police sergeant, and forced her to have sex.

As investigators dug deeper into his private life, they discovered Gundersen's guns.

At home, he had a weapons cache that included a machine gun and a James Bond-style pistol with a silencer, both unregistered.

At police headquarters, he had enough weaponry to arm a small platoon.

Gundersen, 53, advertised his love of guns on a MySpace page for "Gundy Bros," with a photo of a machine gun, the words "LIVE, LAUGH . . . LOVE" and the offer of "Weapon Systems/Sales and Services." In all, investigators seized 111 weapons -- nearly a quarter of them from his home.

The chief behind bars, the police force mothballed, City Hall under fire -- this was a seismic scandal for a bucolic town tucked peacefully in the Humboldt County redwoods.

But Blue Lake is handling it with a mix of civic reflection and gallows humor.

Some residents are talking of running a whole new slate of council candidates.

A local playwright is using Gundersen's submachine guns as a plot line in his next production. At the venerable Logger Bar, a stand-up comedian lobbed one-liners about high-powered weapons and sleeping pills ("Honey, isn't it time for your nightcap?").

"This is like trying to picture Barney Fife with a submachine gun," said Al Clark, owner of Blue Lake Video.

The town that Dave Gundersen was hired to protect is a sleepy place five miles up Trinity Scenic Byway from the coast. The old lumber mill sits rusting. Today the biggest businesses are Mad River Brewing Co. and a nearby Indian casino.

With plentiful sun and warmer temperatures than at the coast, Blue Lake has drawn retirees, artist types and commuters to Humboldt State in nearby Arcata.

Gundersen arrived in 1999 after a short run in nearby Trinidad and a controversial stint in the high desert San Bernardino County city of Adelanto, where he was accused of theft (police union leaders attributed it to small-town politics).

In Blue Lake, he made an immediate impression.

No one thought the town had much crime until he arrived. But the chief bombarded the City Council with statistics showing an increase in vehicle break-ins, burglaries and other property crimes.

City leaders now figure he was inflating the numbers to justify a ballooning budget, Councilwoman Karen Barnes said.

Detractors say they never liked his style.

"He wasn't the warm and fuzzy kind of small-town cop most wanted," Councilwoman Marlene Smith said.

"He's a classic passive-aggressive kind of guy -- the type to smile and then stab you in the back," said Michael Fields, artistic director of Dell'Arte International, a critically lauded local theater company and performing arts school.

Gundersen drew Fields' ire by calling the company's annual summer festival an unwelcome police headache.

The police force also took to stopping the school's foreign-born students on the street, a practice Fields saw as racial profiling.

Dave Beebe, 59, got crosswise with the chief a couple of years ago over an improperly suspended driver's license. The county grand jury looked at Gundersen and his department's tactics, but nothing substantive came of it.

Still feeling wronged, Beebe filed a lawsuit. It was dismissed, but he now feels that he's won.

"It's too rare in life you get to see karma firsthand, but that's what I feel has come around," Beebe said. "Spousal rape and machine guns in this little burg? That's just ridiculous."

Clark, owner of Blue Lake Video, remembers how Gundersen conducted a "sting" at his 50th-birthday bash. Clark hired four bands, supplied six kegs of beer and invited 300 friends. Gundersen wrote him up for putting out a donation jar to offset costs.

"He comes in like a hotshot big-city gunslinger," Clark said. "The man was not a good fit for this town."

Earlier this month, Gundersen went to court in a jail jumpsuit. He pleaded not guilty to all counts. The trial is scheduled for June 30. If convicted, Gundersen could face up to life in prison. For now, he remains behind bars in lieu of $1.25-million bail.

His attorney, Russell Clanton, contends that seeds of trouble were planted by the chief's former wife, now a Humboldt County sheriff's office dispatcher, who he says has plotted to poison Gundersen's relationship with his current spouse.

The result, he said, has been a "witch hunt" that has prosecutors, the media and disgruntled Blue Lakers piling on.

Clanton said that each weapon was acquired "by a verifiable and legitimate route" -- mostly from gun manufacturers at steep discounts or for free -- and that the department had reason to possess them. With a tribal casino and schools to protect, he said, the chief's weaponry hasn't been seen in the "proper context."

Paul Gallegos, Humboldt County district attorney, counters that the proper context is "an unhealthy trend toward paramilitarism" by some police departments. As for the submachine guns, which can fire 800 rounds a minute, "I am still waiting to hear a rational, reasonable law enforcement explanation for the apparent irrational, unreasonable exuberance in collecting such a supply," he said.

While the case has been proceeding at the county courthouse in Eureka, Blue Lake's two remaining officers, both rookies, have lacked the legally required command structure to be allowed on patrol. Relegated for weeks to paperwork and dog catching, both were placed on paid administrative leave.

Sheriff's deputies are filling Blue Lake's law enforcement void for the next year under a $200,000 contract. Some residents believe that arrangement should be made permanent, but the council recently decided that a revamped police force would be best -- as long as a decent chief was at the helm.

"However we achieve it, we need that little Mayberry thing," Councilwoman Barnes said.

In the meantime, critics are questioning why the City Council didn't step in more decisively long ago.

Council members respond that they knew nothing of the gun cache until they read about it in the paper.

At a tense City Hall meeting soon after Gundersen's arrest, City Manager Wiley Buck told the council that Gundersen rationalized the submachine guns as valuable bait with which to barter with other cities. Two of the guns, Buck said, had been lent to nearby Rio Dell in exchange for traffic-monitoring equipment.

Though some of the machine guns weren't properly registered, the only weapons charges against Gundersen are two counts for the unregistered submachine gun and secret-agent pistol he kept at home.

He also continued to draw a paycheck while behind bars -- until the council finally terminated his contract May 5.

For locals such as Al Clark, it was about time: "Most people I know say it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Quoted: Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot. Because we live in such dangerous times?

In a Post 9/11 World™, we can't be too careful.

Quoted: Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot. Because we live in such dangerous times?

Because that is the appropriate response when you believe you are facing a suicide bomber.

Quoted: She knew exactly what she was doing. She's lucky she didn't get shot.

+1

Quoted: good thing it wasn't me, I'd have been thrown in jail for contempt of court when I told the judge to suck my cock.

...or more likely pissed yourself.

Quoted: Quoted: Batteries + circuit board + blob of clay = C4 bomb to anyone that has seen a movie. She was the stupid one. I think we found the root cause of the problem. In my day to day affairs, I am continually utterly fucking shocked by the number of people who think TV movies are 100% real.

Supplies found in an IED "factory" in iraq;




Well known pic of a breadboard job using a cell phone as a detonator;


My training on such things is fairly limited, consisting of a responder awareness course all firefighters / paramedics in my area had to take as well as a childhood interest in model rocketry and things that go boom. I'd run a pretty damn high index of suspicion if faced with someone posessing a battery, circuit board and block of putty-like substsance in a sensitive public venue. How would such a response be wrong?

Quoted: Quoted: She wasn't wrong, but she had to apologize? Fellas, this country is going down the shitter QUICK.   Now where did I put my V mask....   -X

It's all klinton's fault *rollseyes*

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot. Because we live in such dangerous times? Anybody showing up with what was obviously suppose to represent a bomb on their chest is a threat. Shoot them. Circuitboard = BOMB! I'll notify the local computer store. ETA - It's really amazing. It's like a bunch of savages sticking their hands in fire because they can't figure something out.

Many people are not computer/electronics nor explosives experts, or even have enough experience with either to be able to tell, "Oh, it's a harmless circuit board." or "HOLY SHIT IT'S A BOMB!!!" just by looking at it. This bitch was walking around an airport with a black hoodie with a circuit board, wires and lights on it, which is unusual to say the least and downright stupid in an airport, and to non-High and Mighty electronic whizes, does resemble a bomb.

Should security have ignored her completely? Or go ask her, "Hey WTF is up with your shirt?", LIKE THEY DID? If she had, you know, answered their questions the worst that would have happened is that they'd tell her to pack it away, or Heaven forbid, turn it off

When you wear a strange electronic device strapped to your chest, act strangely, and do not cooperate with airport officials trying to talk to you, YOU COME ACROSS AS VERY FUCKING SUSPICIOUS!, and in an AIRPORT no less. After they found out it was not a bomb they should have tased the bitch for being a dumbass.

Shoe, fuze, trying to light it................oops, I guess that WAS a bomb.

I wouldn't blame any cop that would have capped her ass, especially with that freakish hairjob she has.

She's a college student with the mentality of a 6 year old, either she knew better and was being a smartass,or she is mentally challenged and needs remedial common sense classes.

Quoted: The one thing that just bugs the shit out of me is the stupid idea that bombs have all sorts of blinky lights, and rings or buzzes before it explodes. Who the fuck would build a bomb like that? Why would you need too? They sure as hell don't look like that in Iraq. When was the last time in Israel that they stopped a guy with a suicide vest that had blinky lights all over the outside? Huh? When?

They used to just hijack planes and land them somewhere else too.....

You think the terrorists might not think, HEY they don't stop people with kids toys that look like it might be a bomb.....

Nah, they are stupid and would NEVER do such a thing.

Once again, SHE WAS ASKED ABOUT ITAND JUST WALKED OFF.  That nullifies ANY objections anyone has to her treatment.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Trooper should have head shot her on the spot. Because we live in such dangerous times? Because that is the appropriate response when you believe you are facing a suicide bomber.

+1

She is a very lucky girl.  

Even though the outcome of this incident was the desired outcome, some of the respondents in this thread seem to have slipped back into a 9/10 mentality or have a serious case of Monday morning quarterbacking.  If not both.

Quoted: She walked into an airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest.

I have seen pictures of what she had on her chest, and nowhere in the picture was anything that even remotely resembled a bomb.  It didn't even look like a "TV Bomb".

Wires and components on a breadboard are no more a "fake bomb" than a rubber tree and a crescent wrench are a fake F-16.

Quoted: Quoted: In all seriousness, showing up at an airport with a device with wires and a battery is STUPID. (yeah, I know it's a proto-board with a couple of LED's & a 9V battery, still STUPID) this is an interesting statement.. I fly every so often. I'm a geek basically, my carryon contains.. LOTS OF WIRES AND BATTERIES, GPS devices, shortwave receivers, wires and more wires. I have evdo devices with wire extensions, and add on mini antennas, I have pod mini earphones, I have extra batteries for my laptop and surefire, I have my surefire, I have small screwdrivers, I have more batteries and wires.. I put them separated into gallon freezer bags and pull them out and put them in the trays that go through the scanner.. you should see the odd looks as they pull them out and turn the bags over.. but never any issues... in my limited experience.. the bombers where their wires, batteries and bombs under their coats and shirts so as to get amongst the most innocents before going to see Allah.. they don't wear blink LEDs on their shirts or carry circuit boards blinking away.. my opinion? there is very little common sense in this country... and we loved to be terrified..

But if you can't realize the difference between properly packing electronics and wearing them attached to your shirt in an attempt to elicit a response, then you're feelings about too little common sense applies works both ways here. She did this as an attempt at attention, and then acted shocked when she got it.

If you want to make a political statement, then by all means go for it, but don't act surprised when it backfires. That is a risk that you take when you decide to make a big splash.

Quoted: Quoted: She walked into an airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest. I have seen pictures of what she had on her chest, and nowhere in the picture was anything that even remotely resembled a bomb.  It didn't even look like a "TV Bomb". Wires and components on a breadboard are no more a "fake bomb" than a rubber tree and a crescent wrench are a fake F-16.

Well, before I make such a mistake, could you look at the pictures of circuit boards and 9 volt batteries used in the manufacture of IEDs in Iraq that I posted a few posts above yours, and explain to me why I shouldn't be suspicious of someone holding a putty-like substance and carrying a nine volt battery hooked to a device meant to allow the closing of a circuit?

Here, let me show you why I'm a bit confused;

what she had on her, along with the putty she was carrying (a circuit board and a nine volt battery);


Components used in the manufacture of IEDs in Iraq (including circuit boards and nine volt batteries);

Some one should have done up a poll.

1.  I think that I will hire her when she graduates.

2.  I think that I will pass on hiring her when she graduates.

3.  I think that she won't make it to graduation.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: She walked into an airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest. I have seen pictures of what she had on her chest, and nowhere in the picture was anything that even remotely resembled a bomb.  It didn't even look like a "TV Bomb". Wires and components on a breadboard are no more a "fake bomb" than a rubber tree and a crescent wrench are a fake F-16. Well, before I make such a mistake, could you look at the pictures of circuit boards and 9 volt batteries used in the manufacture of IEDs in Iraq that I posted a few posts above yours, and explain to me why I shouldn't be suspicious of someone holding a putty-like substance and carrying a nine volt battery hooked to a device meant to allow the closing of a circuit? Here, let me show you why I'm a bit confused; what she had on her, along with the putty she was carrying (a circuit board and a nine volt battery); www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/mit.jpg Components used in the manufacture of IEDs in Iraq (including circuit boards and nine volt batteries); i134.photobucket.com/albums/q115/tommytrauma/story.jpg i134.photobucket.com/albums/q115/tommytrauma/arm_rest_ied.jpg

You're right, I guess.  All that's missing from her flashing LED display is, well, actual bomb components of any kind.

There are hundreds of millions of circuit board in the world.  I have over a dozen prototyping boards exactly like she used.  I have several hundred LEDs, and probably a dozen 9 volt batteries in my battery box.  None of which looks anything like a bomb.

A bomb needs some sort of explosive in sufficient quantity to be more than just a noisemaker.  It needs an ignition system, and depending on the explosive it may need some sort of container to keep it under pressure during the initial part of the reaction.  

She had...electronic components.  I don't even see putty, I see tape used to secure wires on the protoboard.  Could you point out this "putty"?

She had a baseball sized blob of putty with the "circuit board". It warranted being checked out. Which is what happened.

She then ignored requests and commands to stop.