Comments on: Interview with guy arrested at airport for wearing an elaborate wristwatch

By: mattdidthat

mattdidthat — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 01:22:00 +0000

“That’s his interpretation. I doubt the sheriff’s department would agree.”

Actually, they do agree. Both Mr. McGann and the ACSO said that’s exactly what happened. From the original article:

“A bomb squad arrived…and determined there were no explosive materials in the watch, Nelson [a spokesman for the ACSO] said.” After that, McGann was arrested.

By: funkyderek

funkyderek — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:04:00 +0000

“But the sheriffs determined Mr. McGann hadn’t broken any laws before they arrested him.”
That’s his interpretation. I doubt the sheriff’s department would agree. It seems unlikely they would decide he’s definitely innocent, tell him so and then go to the bother of arresting him.

By: mattdidthat

mattdidthat — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 23:14:00 +0000

But the sheriffs determined Mr. McGann hadn’t broken any laws before they arrested him.

By: funkyderek

funkyderek — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:28:00 +0000

No, they arrested him because they thought he might have committed a crime, and they released him once they were satisfied he hadn’t.

By: da_phonz

da_phonz — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:20:00 +0000

Exactly

By: MarcVader

MarcVader — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me—

That’s right. Try not to attract attention. Don’t provoke Big Brother. If you do it’s your own fault.

By: Ipo

Ipo — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:10:00 +0000

You greatly underestimate high explosives.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Har har, those stupid lower class people. So beneath us. They’re so simple that they can’t even read the article at the top of the page that says that it was the police, not the TSA that insisted on detaining this guy.

By: Antonio Carrasco

Antonio Carrasco — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Yes, but there are certain things that reasonable people simply do not do–
Yelling fire in a crowded theater. Farting in elevators. Bringing things that look like a bomb to the airport.

If you choose to do things like this, then you must accept the inevitable clusterf*ck that results.

By: mattdidthat

mattdidthat — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:43:00 +0000

So the sheriffs arrested Mr. McGann because he hadn’t broken any laws! Brilliant!

By: Derek Walsh

Derek Walsh — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:33:00 +0000

No, he was arrested even though the deputies were reasonably satisfied that it was not intended to be a triggering device. I can’t really blame them for erring on the side of caution.

By: Tony Bader

Tony Bader — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:41:00 +0000

That is one hideous watch

By: DJBudSonic

DJBudSonic — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:10:00 +0000

Sorry, I am going to call it like it see it. These things are ugly, barely qualify as art, and if he sells any because of his indignant internet-based reaction to a perfectly logical action by the ‘authorities’, Barnum was right.

By: p johnson

p johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:07:00 +0000

my complaint is how do you define “materials to make an explosive device”? I carry a laptop with me on most flights. If I short out the battery it will go boom! so am I in possession of said material? Overly broad statutes like this are all too frequently used as CYA

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:27:00 +0000

He was arrested after it was determined that the watch was not a bomb.

By: class_enemy

class_enemy — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Exactly. I’m inclined to commend the police for their inspired contribution to this exercise in performance art.

By: Derek Walsh

Derek Walsh — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:50:00 +0000

This wasn’t a t-shirt with a picture of a gun, or a 175ml tube of toothpaste, this was a watch designed (badly, oh so badly) to look like an explosive device. Of course he was stopped and of course he was arrested. He was also released when authorities were satisfied that what he had done was merely incredibly stupid and not criminal. That’s all as it should be.

By: scav

scav — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Yeah. People don’t seem to realise that all that is needed for ordinary wires to explode is for them to be glued to a watch or dipped into more than 100ml of water. Or less than 100ml of water in a larger-than-100ml bottle. Or some shoes that you have been wearing without taking them off since you entered the airport.

By: macegr

macegr — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:50:00 +0000

It’s not like the amount of explosive material that would fit in the watch could kill 42 people. More like, damage the wearer’s wrist and that’s about it.

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:42:00 +0000

OK yes, those watches look like bombs. That’s the artist’s point, I’d imagine.

Art can now work the same as a bomb…by looking like a bomb.WHOOOOOOAAAAAA

http://www.animateit.net/data/media/353/ehlxld.gif

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:55:00 +0000

Timex Weekenders with a bunch of crap glued to them? just because you’re an adult, that doesn’t mean your toys have become “art.”

He shouldn’t have been arrested. That was dumb. But it needs to be said: those watches suck.

By: Florian Bösch

Florian Bösch — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:33:00 +0000

Let the war begin… on wires. I call for wire prohibition.

By: andygates

andygates — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 07:39:00 +0000

I like how he’s gone through and had a talk with the TSA before – so hey, using the “secret rules, what we don’t like we detain” model, he’s probably okay to clear until he’s not.

In the UK there’s “wrongful arrest” and I’d be seriously considering suing the overreacting sheriff’s department under that. You can’t just keep someone once you know there was no threat, just because.

By: bolamig

bolamig — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 06:33:00 +0000

If you can’t understand the difference between investigation and punishment, then you can’t have rule of law. This is rule of fear, just as the terrorists intended.

By: bolamig

bolamig — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 06:24:00 +0000

Obama was reelected because we as a country decided that our government should work for everyone, not just the 53% that are lucky enough to have the resources to insulate themselves from the true needs of others. First world problems are problems in the first world.

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:43:00 +0000

What is, exactly?

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:41:00 +0000

Clearly, he would be arrested for attempting to mass murder the whole downtown area with high explosives. I mean, road flares? That’s practically a fusion bomb right there.

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:39:00 +0000

Except, of course, he’s done it before without a problem.

And he said he understood getting hassled by the TSA – as far as the getting arrested bit, though, despite them admitting they knew it wasn’t a bomb? He IS a victim. This should never, in a reasonable world, by an “expected outcome” of this sort of situation.

I don’t care if he was “asking for it by dressing like that” – the response remains inappropriate, immoral, and pathetic on the part of law enforcement.

By: Warren_Terra

Warren_Terra — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:37:00 +0000

There’s mentally ill, and there’s mentally ill. In any case, perhaps I phrased it badly – but look at those suckers the FBI periodically deludes into thinking they’re going to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge or some such, and look at the trappings they acquire for themselves, items taken from the movies no less directly than these wristwatches are.

Look: this fellow decided to traipse through an airport with a big thing on its wrist that screamed to anyone familiar with popular culture “Look! It’s a time bomb!”. The fact that he wanted the thing on his wrist to be recognized as resembling a time bomb (as seen in the movies) doesn’t prove the thing on his wrist wasn’t a time bomb. He could have been making some statement about terror that included an actual act of terror, instead of making some statement about terror that didn’t.

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:36:00 +0000

Hassled is not arrested.