British woman faces jail over airport 'bomb' joke

[Judi Lynn]

January 20, 2004

British woman faces jail over airport 'bomb' joke
BY PA NEWS



A British student is facing six months in a US jail today after joking with an airport policeman that she was carrying a bomb, it was reported.

Samantha Marson, a 21-year-old student from Barnes, west London, was arrested before boarding a London-bound British Airways flight at Miami International airport, The Sun reported.

Ms Marson placed her rucksack on the belt at a security check, telling a screener: "Hey be careful, I have three bombs in here". Asked to repeat herself, she allegedly made the same statement twice more.

Ms Marson was arrested for making a false bomb report on Saturday and was then taken to Miami-Dade County Jail. She will be released on bail if she can come up with the £2,700 bond.
(snip/...)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-970588,00.html

[Wonco_the_Sane]

1. She must not travel much

That's been the law since well before 9/11. It's a shame, but the signs are posted clearly (in US airports anyway) While I agree with the law the punishment is outrageous. she shoulda had a warning. Don't yell fire in a crowded theater either. :) :) :)

[pnorman]

4. It's hard to feel very sympathetic towards her.

She was asked to repeat that statement (if the facts are correct). There seems to be many indications that airport security is going WHACKO these days, but not in this instance (in my opinion). Still, that's a very harsh sentence for what everyone would recognize as an "inappropriate joke". It wasn't an airplane in mid-flight, or anything like that.

pnorman

[SemperEadem]

32. Ah, that dry, stiff-upper-lip British humor...

like something Vivian from The Wild Ones would do...

[pinniped]

2. This is probably added to the hundreds of other...

"alleged" terrorists attacks thwarted since 9/11.

[Spentastic]

3. She's an imbecile

But I'm not sure that's illegal. I'm afraid I have little sympathy for her.

If you're going to say idiotic things then they'll have unfortunate consequeces.

[Wonco_the_Sane]

5. It is illegal...(US anyway)

[Spentastic]

7. But surely

Loads of Bush voters would be inside?

[missile_bender]

13. Excuse me, cruel and unusual punishment? I know it's Britian

but the principle still applies. Jail time? Please. SHE is the one being terrorized.

[R Hickey]

6. They should let her go and change the stupid law.

The law is an infringment on her freedom of speech. It's an infringment on my freedom of speech, and all of yours, too. These laws against making 'bomb-jokes' are stupid and over-enforced.

The girl was un-informed about the ridiculous nuances of this absurd law. If she'd yelled "Watch out I have a BOMB!" well that's worth sending her to jail for, but this, I don't think so.

A person traveling sometimes encounters unnatural situations, unfamiliar, unexpected questions, and un-prepared, they sometimes say the wrong thing.

I don't think that this odd law has ever prevented one single terrorist act anywhere. I don't think that having airport inspectors repeatedly asking a person "if they packed their own suitcase" has ever prevented one terrorist bombing on or near any airplane, in the entire history of this planet.

[Spentastic]

9. Bollocks

"The law is an infringment on her freedom of speech. It's an infringment on my freedom of speech, and all of yours, too. "

I'm sorry but this is absurd. Would you be as happy with someone "joking" they were going to storm the cockpit? Travellers are responsible for their own behaviour. Making gags about bombs, drugs etc. is inappropriate. There are limits to free speech and I believe that this is one of them

"These laws against making 'bomb-jokes' are stupid and over-enforced."

Now this I do agree with. They should have taken her aside and given her a thorough bollocking and explained why her behaviour was inappropriate.

[Ctuser]

15. What

That would make to much sense. Where is your love of the absurd?
what if you saw someone you knew on a plane and said "hi jack" would you get busted for that?

[Turley]

11. You must be crazy

If it takes the threat of jail to get people to act sensibly, then so be it.

In case you didn't notice a DL flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta was diverted to Ireland the other day just because some wiseacre thought it would be cute to put a bomb note in the WC.

If there was ever a good reason for a no-tolerance policy, bomb jokes in airports are it.

[Peregrine]

14. There is a fricking sign

The girl was un-informed about the ridiculous nuances of this absurd law. If she'd yelled "Watch out I have a BOMB!" well that's worth sending her to jail for, but this, I don't think so.

There are signs everywhere, especially at the security check point that says these jokes are illegal and can get you jail time.

[Enraged_Ape]

21. This woman deserves to be jailed for stupidity alone

Give me a freaking break. There are signs all over the airport saying that even joking about putting a bomb on the plane is illegal and will land you in jail. I've got about a 3rd-grade-level intelligence, and even I know that this is something you just don't do, and God help you if you should be dumb enough to try it.

Perhaps a few days in the cooler will help her reevaluate the wisdom of her actions. In my opinion, she got off easy.

[Nihil]

8. Dibert strikes again!

Today's strip:

[Karenina]

10. IIRC that actually occurred!

No joke.

[el_gato]

12. just another way to keep people scared

when you fly you are treated like cattle
and just wait til they apply these same
types of enforcement on the highways etc.

[Francis]

16. Years before 911

the British have made a point of prosecuting anyone that jokes about bombs on planes etc.. due to the IRA
So if anything as a brit she really should have known better

[TrueStory]

17. The Sun, the Terrorist and the B-word

The original article from The Sun:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004031287,00.html


The Terrorist:

http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2004030432,00.jpg


and the B-word:

"And last night she was facing six months in custody because she cannot pay her bail set at nearly £4,500.

The officer said: “As far as I’m aware she will have been transferred to Dade County jail to await trial.”

Her dad Jim, 75, of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, said: “We are beside ourselves with worry. She phoned at about 3am on Sunday and was hysterical — screaming and upset and in a terrible state. I called the police in Miami and was told that she’d been arrested because she’d dared to say the ‘B-word’."

[Skittles]

18. you don't threaten the prez, you don't make bomb jokes in an airport

these are absolutes and pretty easy to understand.

[TrueStory]

20. The next step: You don't make jokes on the president

and You arrived in the Stalinist era.

[Skittles]

24. there has always been zero tolerence

for threatening the prez and making bomb jokes in airports. ALWAYS.

[TrueStory]

33. I don't know exactly about the special rules in US

but I've been travelling a lot worldwide, and I never noticed that jokes are banned at airports.

I know this wasn't a proper joke, but I don't think is should be punished with 6 monhts jail.

Free speech is forbidden around the president, jokes are forbidden at the airports - you can agree, and you can live with it - but what happens if these zones get extended? What happens if new forbidden categories will arise?

[non sociopath skin]

19. I agree but ...

Yes, the lady was silly. But US Authorities aren't always their own best friends. And, boy, can these people overreact.

An example.

A month after 9/11, I was due to travel to the States to marry my then fiancee who was then due to come to live in the UK. I was then due to travel back to the UK. (At that time I didn't have a US visa so was travelling via the visa waiver system.) We did it this way to make it easier for the immigration folk on both sides.

When I arrived in Detroit, I was unlucky to get a rookie officer who was obviously out to make a name for himself and to get Arnie to star in his biopic. When he heard that I'd come to the States to get married, he assumed - without asking - that I intended to stay in the States and pulled me in.

Luckily, his superior officer had a brain and sorted out the situation within minutes - but not soon enough for me to miss my connecting flight to Louisville. I ended up flying via Atlanta and almost missing my own wedding.

The one good bit was that the officer didn't wait till I was out of the office before verbally kicking the rookie's butt. I suspect that Jim Carey will be starring in the biopic.

So, travellers all, never overestimate their perception.

The Skin

[legin]

22. Should be good for your tourist industry

Appeared in The Sun too. Lots of people read The Sun, even if they don't buy the paper it tends to get passed around at work so people can have quick look at page 3 and read the odd news story.

[legin]

23. Don't quote me on this

but i believe the actual figure for people who actually 'see' the Sun is about 25% of the population of britain.

When i used to work in a laboratory years ago, one of the ladies used to bring in her newspapers, The Sun, The Star, the Daily Mirror, and we would all sit and read them during the tea-break.

So in that work-place, one person bought the newspaper, another 7 people read it, then she took it home for her husband and their grown up sons to read (and their girlfriends).

[legin]

25. And she is a total 'megababe' too

which is an important consideration when one is dealing with 'The Sun' and it's readership.

[legin]

26. And when she gets out

She will sell her story to the highest-bidding british tabloid, and the sensationalist headline will be: "My horror in hell-hole u.s. prison."

If you are going to shoot yourself in the foot, do it properly is what I say, and this is certainly doing it properly.

[R Hickey]

31. And asking people the same stupid question over and over

as if it was going to make the terrorists go away. How can authorities expect someone to not eventually make an absurd reply to their idiotic query.

Just what reply do airport-security big-whigs expect their subordinates to hear from the mouth of a terrorist? For example, what reply would they expect from a female impersonator, carrying three bombs in his/her suitcase?

How about, would he/she reply..."Yes, I have three bombs?"...then giggle empty-headedly, and repeat the phrase, two more times, like some silly bimbo, to an increasingly grave-looking gathering of gun-fingering, jack-booted, air-port employees.

The fact is that no airport employee has ever caught anyone with these stupid questions, and airport security should pursue other avenues that are perhaps instead productive, or at least plausably so.

The question of 'intent' to commit a crime comes to mind with this English girl's case. Did she intend to do harm? If not, what are they doing with her?

[northzax]

27. should they release her on OR?

I'm sure she'll return to the States for trial.

look, this was stupid, but I think it should involve civil penalties. she should have to pay for whatever it costs to search the plane, the terminal, the gate fees, to reassign all the other passengers to other flights, and for their time.

you try sitting on a tarmac for 5 hours because someone made a "joke" other people are seriously inconvenienced by her stupidity. This costs everyone money. I hope she enjoys her stay in Miami.

[truthisfreedom]

28. that is truly weird.

why anyone would joke in that way confounds me.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

29. Now this is just silly

As an experienced and veteran traveller, I must concede that I have no sympathy for her. Even the most juvenile and immature person who has never been in an airport before would have enough common sense not to make a stupid statement like that with customs and subsequently REPEAT it three times when custom officials gave her a chance to clarify her remarks. Unless she has had her head in a hole for the last three months she would have known about the recent security scares and she should have realized that such a statement would land her in hot water.

Six months in jail may be slightly excessive but I think she should have the book thrown at her for her juvenile and imbecile behaviour –she’d even give Dubya a run for his money. I’d say a heavy fine and a few days in jail would suffice –so that she could discover the consequences of her actions

[northzax]

30. according to the article

the six months in jail is simply because she can't raise the bail. This is standard, you can't pay the bail, and you area flight risk (read foreign citizen) you stay in jail until your trial. I'm sure her lawyer is looking to make a deal right now to plead this out quickly and avoid jail time.