Star Simpson's first interview on Boston airport LED terror scare

BBtv: http://tv.boingboing.net. In today's episode of Boing Boing tv: One year ago, a 19-year-old MIT engineering student named Star Simpson got dressed to go pick up a friend at Boston's Logan airport. She pulled a hoodie out of her closet, a wearable tech design she'd made with a light-up LED-circuit on the chest. In her hand was a small pink rose she'd crafted from hardened clay, a gift for her friend.

A few hours later at the airport, after an airport employee mistook her sweatshirt for a bomb and the rose for an explosive implement, Star found herself surrounded by 40 armed police who believed she was a suicide bomber. She was arrested for "possessing a hoax device," and an unprecedented media frenzy ensued. Here was the Boing Boing post from that day.

A year later, after a long series of court dates, a Boston judge ruled that Star must perform community service and make a public apology. Star says she intended no harm. She believes the authorities were unfairly harsh with her long after it was obvious she posed no threat, and that legal proceedings were unduly influenced by a prevailing atmosphere of anxiety over terrorism (this just months after a similar case in Boston).

She has since dropped out of MIT, and says the school's reaction felt like "being disowned." She moved out of Boston in part because of recurring threats and attacks from strangers.

Star has finally come forward to tell her side of the story publicly, and she does so on Boing Boing tv today.


If you'd like to make your very own LED breadboard hoodie, the folks at Instructables have just published Star's plans here.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make_a_Breadboard_Sweatshirt_Instant_Wearable...

They're too graceful to say this, but I will: do not wear this to airports. Make a Breadboard Sweatshirt (Instant Wearable Electronics!) -- XJ

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[int3rl0per]

She has my sympathies.

Why is it, that nobody calmed down and just listened to reason? "Look, it's a battery and a few LEDs, it's not connected to anything. It's got a couple of blinking lights, and I'll put it away if you want to." should have been enough. But goddamn community service? For wearing a BLINKING LIGHT?!

Personally, the US of A is a country I will not go near until after the revolution. I'm not looking to get killed by some dumb security guard over, say, a laptop...

[kissmywookie]

The USA needs man up and grow a pair. You realize that in 2001, 42,116 people died in car crashes. That's 14 times the number of people who deaths are related to the 9/11 attacks. Let's review terrorist attacks on US soil...

Sept 16, 1920 - NYC 35 dead

Jan 24, 1975 - also NYC 4 dead

Feb 26, 1993 - NYC again, 6 dead

Apr 19, 1995 - Oklahoma, 168 dead

Sept 11, 2001 - Various cities, 2997 dead.

FACE IT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE IN A TERRORIST ATTACK!

stop being so afraid of everything!

[eligray]

This girl is from my MIT dorm =)

We're CRAZY motherfuckers

[zillsburyy]

stupid bitch!

[ribhkum]

what mildly intelligent person does'nt know that any kind of action at an airport has to be taken very seriously ! terrorist bombings are not funny! is she saying that it did not even cross her mind that it might cause alarm?

[BullyCopThreatenedM2]

We know now WHO was/is responsible for 9/11.

Yet -- individuals still get into trouble for something we KNOW WHO did!

[lwiniarski]

A truly remarkable story of incompetent and corrupt officials creating trumped up charges to further their own careers. How did these people get in positions of authority? How did the media (except for boing-boing) competely get this story utterly wrong? She deserves a formal apology.

I honestly wish she would have fought this more publicly. People need to know the true character of some of our elected officials and sometimes it takes cases like this to bring the truth out.

[ptracy4]

Yeah, those stupid Americans invented the Internet. I'm signing out.

[vonversace]

force to quit MIT, wow.

[hallucinaJason]

words fail me.

This if fucked (excuse my lack of vocabulary. there are some people who should have there right to breed taken away. im terrified. may the people who put her though this suffer.

[megamarsvin]

Normally I'd suggest sue the government for false imprisonment and emotional damages (which I don't think is unreasonable when the police threaten to shoot you for no reason) but in the current paranoid climate in the US she might end up in Guantanamo for protesting too much >_>