A 19-year old MIT student was arrested earlier today by Massachusetts State Police after walking through Logan International Airport with a simulated bomb attached to her chest. The device included a circuit board, greed LED lights and wires running to a 9-volt battery. In one hand, the woman, identified as Star Simpson, held a lump of putty. When an airport employee asked Simpson about the circuit board on her chest, she walked away without responding. Shortly thereafter, she was surrounded by police holding machine guns. Major Scott Pare of the State Police told reporters:

"She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands, and not make any movement so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device," Pare said at a press conference at Logan. "There was obviously a concern that had she not followed the protocol … we may have used deadly force."

The woman was arrested and police determined that the mock bomb did not contain explosives. 

"She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue," Major Pare said. 

And indeed she is. Ask the family of Rigoberto Alpizar. Alpizar was the 44-year old American Airline passenger who, in 2005, claimed to have a bomb in his carry-on backpack as he ran off a flight that had just landed in Miami. Responding to the bomb threat, two air marshals drew their weapons and told Alpizar to drop the bag. Most importantly they told him to show his hands so they could see that he wasn't concealing a triggering device. When Alpizar did not follow orders, he was shot and killed by the air marshals — as is protocol. There was no bomb in Aplizar's bag. It was reported that Alpizar suffered from a mental disorder and had not taken his medicine.

Star Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device and ordered to return to see the judge on October 29. What kind of penalty will the judge impose? Let's hope the harshest of punishments. Her behavior wasn't just outrageous, it was intolerable. Major Pare told reporters that Simpson blithely claimed that her fake bomb was a "piece of art." 

Tell that to the families of law enforcement officers, and the law enforcement officers themselves, who are involved in critical shootings.

(Photo credit: Bill Brett for The Boston Globe/AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, pool)

 

 

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