Box cutter boy:

Civil Disobedience? Terrorist? Or Security Consultant?

Will the Government prosecute him to the fullest extent? And if they do, is it because a college kid embarrassed the F#@% out them?

 

I think he will be punished because he made fools of them.

Secondly, I read that it took them a month to find the items after he revealed what he had done.

Not only did he make them look like fools... he made them look like BIG fools.

 

We do stand to learn something from him... but, on the flip side of that coin, I hope that they prosecute to the fullest extent possible. Make him an example.

RP

 

Did the box cutters have blades in them? If they did not....then what law did he break?

Silly putty, play dough....again what law was broken?

Now this kid sent them emails explaining what he had done. So clearly he did not have malicious intent. But then again you cannot allow people to perform their own checks of the system.

It is refreshing to see how well time/money has been spent on the Homeland Security Department.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

Stephen McHale, the Deputy Administrator or the Federal Transportation Security Administration was quoted as saying, "Amateur testing of our systems do not show us in any way our flaws."
Now there's an administrator that lacks administrative abilities, but still commands a 6 figure salary thanks to tax dollars. Not only should Nathaniel Heatwole be prosecuted, but Stephen McHale should be fired and Heatwole should be hired to replace him. (Once he serves his sentence of course.)

 

I think it was a combination of all three. He should get a little spanking, but he's looking at 15 years for this! I would think a fine and some community service and some other little crap would be enough. He seems to be a decent kid for the most part and has done a good job of bringing the joke, that is our airport security, to the headlines.

I hope there were'nt really blades in those boxcutters though..

 

My daughter had to take her History project to school today, a four foot model of the Sphinx.

As you know, you cannot even take a fingernail file to school so, what box did dear old dad get for her out of the garage?

The box from the chainsaw he bought last month.

When I dropped her off people were either holding the door for her or getting out of her way.

I'm not even going to mention that her model Sphinx looked like a Thanksgiving turkey except that the eyes followed you around the room. I was glad to get it out of the house.

One of her friends has been staying with us and she made a 'Great Pyramid' out of modeling clay. Forty dollars worth of modeling clay. It looked to me like the World's most expensive Hershey's kiss.

I hope they grade on a curve or it's Summer School for the both of them!

Sincerely,
Thread Drift

(...now back to our regulary scheduled program)

 

I think he should get some form of punishment for running an unauthorized security test. I wouldn't go too overboard on him, but enough to discourage every ****, Tom, and Harry from trying to pull some prank. Say community service for a couple years, and maybe restrictions on when, where and how he travels in that time. Make his life a real pain in the butt while not taking it away. Parole I think they call it.

I remember the story/movie of the counterfitter that played games with the law for several years before getting caught, then he ended up working for them in anti-counterfitting efforts. Tom hanks and somebody, I forget. Hopefully the HSO will take note that maybe more unconventional methods are needed to test the holes.

 

Let’s look at the flip side of this:

Here we have a young person who decided to test the system and the system FAILED BIG TIME. He emailed them about what he did and from what I gather dared them to find it…

This young person basically proved that if he had been a terriost our economy would be in the tank again due to a few more jet liners crashing into big *** buildings…

I think they should do with him like they do with the badass hackers, hire him to work for OUR side.

Now I am for law and order and have always been so. This young person didn’t try to sneak it on and then when he got caught tell them “Only kidding”.

To me it goes to prove that the government should have NEVER federalized the inspectors at the airport. All inspectors that were on duty the day this young person did this should be FIRED with absolutely NO PAY and NO BENEFITS!!!! Because they screwed up BIG TIME and could have cost thousands of life’s.

I think 500 hours community service would be about right for this young kid and he can provide that by teaching the government and community how screwed up the airports are and show ALL the weak spots including weak inspectors of who should be FIRED. This will be a win/win situation…

 

Cool, we're all pretty much agreeing on this

 

I'm kinda with 01 on this one. Give him a slap on the wrist punishment then hire him. But tell the general public that he's going away for a long time to discourage future attempts.

On a side related issue, driving back from Philly this weekend we go into a airport security discussion. As it turns out, I'm the only one among my friends who think this crap is getting out of hand. Everything is a no-no and I fail to see what it will really accomplish in the end, besides a false security among Americans.

If I can kill someone with my barehands then should I be allowed on a plane? How about a wooden cane, thats a weapon. Maybe someone needs to do some serious damage with a huge rubber ***** so that more people will see and understand that anything can be a weapon in the hands of a person who wields it that manner.

The surprise has already been done, and as long as 9/11 is not forgotten then I can't see that surprise happening again. If terrorists high jack a plane it will only be to blow it up. People know to fight back now. If I'm on a plane that gets hijacked I could care less if they have a box cutter or a bowie knife, I am not sitting by and risking something.

Which leads to next thing, and I know it's been hashed out before but pilots with guns. IMO they are already have enough to worry about and be stressed about. I don't want anyone in non-tip-top shape handling a gun on a plane. Lock them in the pilot cabin w/ some food, water and their own potty and be done with it for the flight.

 

Nude Airlines is the answer

Airport Screeners will charged with "clothing" certain passengers

 

\

Thats what Ive said all along!

 

I think the other thing to remember is a lot of people were woke up that fatal morning of 9/11. I would imagine if I had been on one of those planes I would have done what the hijackers told me to do. Reason being is that’s what people would have thought of them and not as terriost ready to crash the jet liners into buildings.

If I were on a jet liner today and seen something going down I would have in the back of my head either do something and die while doing it or sit there and die anyway…

There have been a few incidents where something was happening on jets after 9/11 and many people ganged up on them to take them down. I think most people know that if something is going on you had better be thinking this could be your last hours so you had better do something…

Remember prior to 9/11 pilots were taught to do as the hijackers said and do not upset them. Now pilots are going to try and restrain the morons or just kill them. Personally if I was a pilot I would be packing some serious fire power and I would completely unload a clip on someone that was trying to break down the door. If I found out later the moron had a mental problem then “oh well, so sad, sucker”…

 

Make an example of him. Boxcutter Boy needs to do some serious jail time. Say 10 years. I'd cut maybe 1 or 2 years off if he tells the authorities EVERYTHING he knows (basically acts as a consultant in exchange for a slightly lighter sentence).

Why so harsh?

A couple of reasons. First, if you go easy on him, real terrorists will try to pretend they are just doing a similar prank or experiment. They will build this scenario into their plans, to use as cover if they get caught.

Secondly, IMO there is a chance this kid's motives are not pure as the driven snow. Maybe he went into this willing to sell the knowledge gained from his experiments to the highest bidder. If you let him off easy, expect a bunch of entreprenuerial free spirts constantly trying to hack our security. If they get caught before they sell their info to some terrorists group, they will claim 'good intentions'.

Third, maybe this 'amature' really can't provide much useful information to us about what real terrorists might do. But his little experiment resulted in every plane in the nation being serached and hours of inconvenience for millions of people. Why should he be showered with job offers and celebrity when his punk PITA show cost the economy millions of $$$?

Not saying he deserves life in prison, but his sort of behavior needs to be strongly discouraged.