
Star Simpson speaks out about how MIT treated her in LED case at Logan - kramarao
https://medium.com/@starsandrobots/understandably-cause-for-alarm-1f0929be0615
======
tehwebguy
> So, I went directly to the best place I could think of: the very first place
> I walked to after I was let free, was the Office of the President at MIT.
> (In loco parentis, right?) But I was stopped at the door. She wouldn’t see
> me or talk to me. Liability, and all. The potential cost of giving me any
> legal advice or talking to her directly about anything, would simply be too
> great. So MIT found the protection it sought, while I did not.

Bummer, it seems college sometimes prepares you for the real world by turning
its back on you just like the real world does.

> Star Simpson’s actions were reckless and understandably created alarm at the
> airport. — MIT News Office, Sep 21 20

Ouch, fuck MIT

~~~
lsc
Yeah, MIT kind of has a rep[1] for being particularly unfriendly to students
in legal trouble. Really, it doesn't seem like a very good place for people
who want to push the envelope.

It seems like something a student ought to consider, I mean, that MIT seems to
be more concerned about it's reputation with the legal community than with
it's reputation with students.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz)

------
gravypod
Is this (
[http://i2.wp.com/boingboing.net/images/cfa4827569_20070921de...](http://i2.wp.com/boingboing.net/images/cfa4827569_20070921device3.jpg?w=315)
) the hoodie that Star Simpson was wearing? I could understand the police
being a little suspicious. If you are going to do any electronic project, you
need to hide anything other than your display/LEDs.

I could understand MIT distancing itself from what would have been a PR s
__tshow because of how obviously threatening that device looks.

If anyone is wondering where I found this image, it can be located here (
[http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-
arrested.html](http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html) ).
It seems hard to find a photo of this with any article on the subject. It took
a bit of digging to find that few year old BoingBoing story. This link also
contains more details on the incident that were not covered in the story.

~~~
lsc
I guess I fail to see how that is any more obviously threatening than, say,
gluing a bunch of legos to my shirt. I mean, it's weird, and if the point of
security is to make us all try not to be weird, that's one thing... but I'm
not sure how "weird" has anything to do with "threatening"

~~~
gravypod
To us a bread bored is just a piece of plastic, to the common person it is
something scary.

Would you take a suit case with a bread bored, exposed wires, and a 9V battery
through security at an air port? How about higher security areas than that?

There is a very, very big difference between what was worn and something that
one would associate with being a light up sweeter.

When I heard the story I assumed this (
[http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/8002/products/g513a-ch...](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/8002/products/g513a-christmas-
sweaters-with-lights_grande.jpeg) ) was what was being worn.

There is a big difference between exposed wires, batteries, with blinking LEDs
stuck together on a breadboards and Legos. When going to an area with elevated
tension, security, and crazed guards the gap between "weird" and "threatening"
is quickly closed.

~~~
lsc
>When going to an area with elevated tension, security, and crazed guards the
gap between "weird" and "threatening" is quickly closed.

Yeah, that's kind of my point. Incidents like this aren't about safety, they
are about conformity.

------
IanDrake
Looking at pics of what she was wearing, I think it's sad that she still
doesn't realize she was reckless.

I'm not saying she deserved everything that happened to her, but wearing a
breadboard with a cluster of lights and a 9v hanging off your chest, at an
airport, might be the very definition of reckless.

Ok, I get it, you're a maker. That doesn't give you the right to scare the
shit out of people. Would it be ok for air-soft fans to start a shooting war
at an airport and expect people to understand?

~~~
mquander
It's not super easy to figure out what things other people might be scared of
if it never occurred to you to be scared of them yourself. If I saw someone
walking around with a bunch of electronics draped over themselves it wouldn't
cross my mind to be afraid of them; as a result, I wouldn't have thought twice
about doing it (until this and the other more recently publicized case of
freakouts.)

It's not as if there's a high school civics lecture on the topic of Strange
American Fears, and parents don't tell their kids not to have something that
looks like a bunch of messy electronics, so I'm not sure where she is supposed
to go and figure this out. As a result, it's hard for me to say she did
something wrong.

~~~
Nadya
_> It's not super easy to figure out what things other people might be scared
of if it never occurred to you to be scared of them yourself._

I don't agree with this claim. In fact, I think it's extremely easy to
identify what might scare other people. So much so that it can be reduced to a
single question:

"Is this outside the norm?"

Doesn't matter if it's full body tattoos, 30 body piercings, electronics
plastered all over you, you're lit up like an X-mas tree, wearing a full-body
suit, wearing a balaclava, what have you. Do you see other people doing it?
No? Chances are you're going to raise suspicion and suspicion not only _can_
cause fear but I argue it _will_ cause fear.

Normality is a social comfort zone. Nobody bats an eye at anyone who isn't
standing out from the crowd.

Now before anyone tries to wage some sort of moral war against _me_ for
stating _how things are_. I don't pass any judgement on if this is "good" or
"bad" behavior. However, there is an evolutionary explanation for this:
"People who don't fit with your community are outsiders. Outsiders can be
friend or foe. Be suspicious of them."

Nobody would be scared of what they were wearing if they were at a Hackathon
or some place where "this is normal". But they were at an airport. That isn't
normal for an airport.

~~~
DougMerritt
> Doesn't matter if it's full body tattoos, 30 body piercings, electronics
> plastered all over you

So not only do you agree she deserved to be arrested, you also claim that
anyone with tattoos and/or piercings who goes to an airport should also be
arrested?

Unbelievable.

Civil liberties should not hinge on looking just like everyone else, following
the herd, never daring to be creative, etc.

~~~
Nadya
I'm not sure how you read my post and got that message out of it without
purposefully being dishonest.

 _> Civil liberties should not hinge on looking just like everyone else,
following the herd, never daring to be creative, etc._

You even explicitly went out of your way to ignore what I said.

 _> Now before anyone tries to wage some sort of moral war against me for
stating how things are. I don't pass any judgement on if this is "good" or
"bad" behavior. _

Take your moral war elsewhere, because I'm not interested in this discussion.
I'm stating how things are. _Not how they "should" be_. Not how _you want_
them to be. Not how _I want_ them to be. How they _currently are_. "What they
are" and "what they should be" are not the same thing. Am I being patronizing
enough to make my point crystal clear?

 _> never daring to be creative_

This is a strawman. Dare to be creative at hackathons and art conventions -
not an airport. Ever heard the phrase "time and place"?

~~~
DougMerritt
> Dare to be creative at hackathons and art conventions - not an airport. Ever
> heard the phrase "time and place"?

Remove tattoos and piercings at the airport, really?

> stating how things are

Like hell. Your view of things 100% implies that Star was in fact culpable for
her own arrest, which isn't true, so I don't believe your disclaimers that you
are just neutrally commenting.

> without purposefully being dishonest...

> ...Am I being patronizing enough to make my point crystal clear?

That you're being an ass? Sure.

~~~
Nadya
_> Remove tattoos and piercings at the airport, really?_

Why are you so stuck on one of several examples? Open carrying is legal in
many states. Go for a workout outside a police station while open carrying,
let me know how that works out. Just do some jumping jacks across the street.
Nothing _illegal_ but it will certainly draw some unwanted attention from the
police!

 _> Like hell._

It's what happened and why it happened. She wore something outside of the
ordinary, grabbed unwanted attention, and was arrested. Which part of that is
a false statement?

~~~
DougMerritt
> She wore something outside of the ordinary, grabbed unwanted attention, and
> was arrested. Which part of that is a false statement?

If that's all you had said, then sure, that's just the facts.

My interpretation of your _tone_ was that you were unsympathetic to Star,
while I felt and feel great sympathy to her, and outrage towards the people
who mistreated her.

Somehow a lot of idiots in the world have gotten the idea that digital
electronics resemble a bomb, which is deeply retarded considering that it only
resembles a timer, with no sign of an explosive.

I fault the idiots, not Star, and I am surely going to be upset with anyone
who seems unsympathetic to what happened to her.

