watch your wires: you might be a terrorist
ow, you can be charged with misdemeanor disturbing the peace (not too outrageous for a protest action), plus felony “false report of location of explosives” and “hoax device” if you happen to have wires attached to your fingers when you do it. the march of creative prosecution in america continues.
if this really was interpreted as a bomb threat by the boston police, and there wasn’t a several-block immediate evacuation, then you really should be careful going to boston for the democratic national convention – you could be dead before the police decide to rprotect you from the obvious (as in, standing in full view on the sidewalk) threats, let alone the sneaky ones. on the other hand, as i fear, if this was a case of finding any charge that might stick to silence a political protest, then the terrorists have won. and we did it to ourselves.
as disturbing as that is in this land of the free… more disturbing [to me] is this quote from the police…
So if Previtera didn’t mention a bomb, what exactly constitutes a bomb threat? “It can be implied, with fingers and wires — especially in a heightened state of alert, as we are,” says Officer Michael McCarthy, Boston Police Department spokesman. And McCarthy thinks this is common knowledge, even if the wires are accessories to a costume. “Mr. Previtera should know better. He’s a young adult educated at Boston College from a wealthy suburb. I’m sure he knows wires attached to his fingers, running to a milk crate, would arouse suspicion outside a military recruiters’ office [when he’s] dressed in prisoner’s garb. If he has any questions as to why people think he may’ve had a bomb, then he needs to maybe go back to Boston College to brush up on his public policy. Or at least common sense, but they can’t really teach that there.”
[via metafilter]
update: i couldn’t resist the irony… emphasis is mine.
Like other totalitarian movements, the terrorists seek to impose a grim vision in which dissent is crushed, and every man and woman must think and live in colorless conformity. So to the oppressed peoples everywhere, we are offering the great alternative of human liberty.