Amy Alkon
MND
November 18, 2012
Via David Burkhead, the TSA has now taken to arresting people with artsy homemade watches and shoes. The nitwits at the Oakland airport said his watch could be used to make a timing device for a bomb.
Um…any watch could be used for that — especially digital ones. This watch, as Burkhead suggests, was probably some form of steampunk art — a sort of Jules Verne style that hamburger clerks hired to man “security” would surely have no idea of.
This is not grounds for taking a man’s freedom.
From the AP story:
Geoffrey McGann, 49, of Rancho Palos Verdes was taken into custody Thursday night after he tried to pass through airport security with an ornate watch that had switches, wires and fuses, according to Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.A bomb squad arrived within five minutes and determined there were no explosive materials in the watch, Nelson said. The checkpoint was closed while officers secured the area.
McGann was taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin where he was charged with possessing materials to make an explosive device, sheriff’s officials said. He was still in custody Friday night and could not be reached for comment.
McGann told Transportation Security Administration officers that he’s an artist and the watch is art, Nelson said.
While no actual explosives were found, McGann was carrying potentially dangerous materials and appeared to have made alterations to his boots, which were unusually large and stuffed with layers of insoles, Nelson said.
A profile for a person named Geoffrey McGann on the website LinkedIn.com lists him as the owner and creative director of a media production company called Generator Content. He attended the Art College Center of Design in Pasadena from 1984 to 1987, according to the website.
These idiots, idiots at the TSA. This is a guy who makes commercials, not bombs. Here’s his profile from his website.
A question: Will this be enough? Creative dudes getting arrested for having creative watches and funny shoes? What will it take before people start to realize they could be next? And that the degradation of our rights and the sheeplike, blinking acceptance of that paves the way for more and more degradation of our rights?
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