In a greater effort to keep our skies safe, the TSA is now arresting people who use the word “bomb” in any fashion on charges of treatening to bomb or hijack a plane.
At least that’s the way it sounds from this story:
A Paxton teenager was arraigned on a felony charge yesterday morning after he and his family were removed from a plane bound for Hawaii following the discovery of a profanity-filled note referencing a bomb in his luggage examined at Logan International Airport.
Appearing in court with his navy blue T-shirt pulled up over his face, 17-year-old David Socha pleaded not guilty to one count of making a bomb/hijacking threat in East Boston District Court, as his parents and younger sister looked on.
Ann E. Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said the note was discovered by a baggage screener at about 6:20 a.m. when the bag was chosen for a random search. No bomb was found.
Socha was arrested by State Police and his mother, father, and sister, were ordered off United Airlines Flight 171 to Honolulu via San Francisco, which was set to depart at 7:07 a.m.
According to the police report, the note, which was placed on top of clothes in a black gym bag read: ”[Expletive] you. Stay the [expletive] out of my bag you [expletive] sucker. Have you found a [expletive] bomb yet? No, just clothes. Am I right? Yea, so [expletive] you.”
Did you spot the bomb threat there?
Um … neither did I.
Okay, was this a dumb, teenaged stunt, and provocative of any random TSA inspection? Sure.
But that doesn’t mean that any use of the word “bomb,” with no actual threat involved, deserves the SWAT treatment.
”There was no commotion whatsoever,” Davis said. ”But when [we] see the word `bomb,’ we take it very seriously. In today’s security environment, there’s no room for that sort of joking.”
Yeah, if the kid had said, “Hey, you haven’t found the bomb I planted yet, have you,” I can see why they might not want to take any chances. But that’s not what the note said, was it?
David A. Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, said in the months after Sept. 11, 2001, a number of bomb hoaxes occurred at the airport, but now have become more sporadic with the passing of time.
”Putting a false bomb threat in your luggage is not something we take lightly,” Procopio said. ”In the current climate, it’s just unacceptable because of the fear and panic it causes.’
This is not a false bomb threat. This is not a real bomb threat. This is not a joking bomb threat. This is not a bomb threat at all.
Joke about having a bomb? Yeah, that should cause you to miss your plane. Express anger about somebody rifling through your luggage on the presumption you might have a bomb? Sounds like protected speech to me.
This is just some kid who doesn’t see the need for the TSA to inspect his bag leaving an angry note about it. And some TSA and DA types who seem more dedicated to not losing face than doing the right thing.
So, memo to self: do not put any of the following notes in my luggage:
Please be careful with my luggage. There are valuable here that might be harmed by too rough of a bomb inspection.
There is no bomb here. Please moving along.
Dear Mom — I hope they don’t show that bomb, the Lizzie Maguire movie, on the plane.
Looking forward to my stay in Cancun — it’s da bomb!
Stay out of my bag. Have you found a bomb yet? No, just clothes. Am I right? Yeah.
Yeesh.
(via Ipse Dixit)
I remember a Dave Berg strip in Mad magazine back in the 70s where a traveller cautioned his wife about the strict airline security due to the skyjackings (as we began calling them about that time). He then asked what the in-flight movie was. “The Omega Man? Not that bomb!” He was immediately surrounded by fierce security guards, with weapons drawn.
25 years ago, and it’s at least as topical now as it was then. Freaky, huh?
I remember that cartoon very well. In fact, I thought I had mentioned it here just recently, but don’t see it in the Search, so I must have mentioned it in the comments on someone else’s page. Freaky, huh?
(Forgive me if I replaced Heston’s dud with The Lizzie Maguire Movie.)
Aha. Here it is, mid-way down the comments.
Gosh! We both remember it so clearly after a quarter-century! (Although I did attribute the movie title to the man, just to keep my post short.) I wonder if that says something significant about the strip, or about us.
Hmm. Wonder if I can work “the Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam” in here somewhere.
Oh please, please Mighty TSA, please haul someone up on charges for using “da bomb.” What this country needs now si a thurough legal dissection of that phrase, in the fashion of the f*ck breakdown