Boston's police are in the news again, as is MIT; as it happens, some friends of mine are close to the 'hoax bomb at Logan' situation, and I find that some facts need to be set straight.
First of all: Building an LED-equipped sweatshirt to grab the attention of prospective employers on Career Day is a really good idea. Juvenile? A little, sure. But markedly less juvenile than comparing Star Simpson to the 2004 post-World Series Boston rioters (nor the presumably trained policemen who fired 'nonlethal' projectiles into a crowd of students, killing one). Less juvenile than persisting in referring to a light-up sweatshirt as a 'fake bomb,' clear evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Less juvenile than writing...
How much do you want to bet Star's got a trust fund, and that her parents are aging hippie types?
...in a major Boston newspaper. (Admittedly not one with any kind of reputation for journalistic seriousness - but check out those circulation numbers.)
Second: Yes it's a bit weird that Star was at Logan to meet her '42-year old boyfriend.' It's also none of any journalist's business, nor is it relevant to this ridiculous story how old Tim is.
Third: The real story is of course the fact that you can walk into Logan with (an object shaped like) a boombox and not even get noticed - indeed, that you're expected to walk around carrying unmarked pieces of luggage - effortlessly avoiding security, but a circuit board attached to a single 9-volt battery is enough to bring out the automatic weapons. Star embarrassed some cops, and the state is going to attempt to misapply this hoax-bomb law to punish her for it. The shirt obviously isn't meant to even look like a bomb; hell, I failed my Circuits class at MIT and even I can tell that it's nothing of the sort. Can I imagine a paranoid cop making a mistake? Absolutely.
But the paranoia is the problem, not the shirt.
When the Bad Guys want to blow up a major transportation hub, I guarantee you, they sure as hell won't send a 19-year-old Hawaiian girl to do so in broad daylight with a battery strapped to her chest.
Personally I think Star made a dumb mistake. But under no circumstances should that mistake ruin her future; the ignorant reactionaries braying for blood (c'mon, three fucking editorials in the Boston Herald?) are making things worse. The city looked foolish during last year's Mooninite 'crisis'; it looks foolish now. Let's not compound things by turning this into a threat-to-America issue. Only the dignity of Boston's security forces is being threatened this week, and the threat is entirely to itself.
