Brit girl arrested for bomb "joke"
 

BRIT student Samantha Marson faced six months in an American jail last night after joking to an airport police officer that she had a bomb.

The cop was believed to have stopped the 21-year-old on the concourse at Miami International Airport.

A policeman based there said: “Samantha had a small rucksack on her back and was asked by an officer what was in it. She laughed and said, ‘I’ve got a bomb’, and he immediately handcuffed her and put her under arrest.

“She was in floods of tears and apologised three times but the officer was having none of it.”

American airports are on high alert for terror attacks.

The stupid remark sparked a full-scale alert and she was immediately thrown into custody.

Within hours Samantha, of Barnes, West London, was hauled before a judge in handcuffs and remanded to a holding centre packed with hardened criminals.

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’.


“Clearly the Americans did not see the joke. She hardly looks like Osama Bin Laden.”

“But now she faces a long time in jail waiting for a trial which is certain to be a farce.”

Samantha had been in the States for three months with her boyfriend Charlie Schmidt, 26 — a sailor in the US Navy.

She was catching British Airways flight BA206 to Heathrow on Saturday to renew her visa so she could return.

A Miami police spokesman said last night: “This is something we take extremely seriously. Talk of bombs is no laughing matter.”

Foreign Office officials were seeking information on the case.

BA said: “We would strongly advise all passengers not to make any remarks which could be misinterpreted. The US authorities take them very seriously.”



Over reaction or justified?

You have to admit, that was a REALLY stupid thing to say!
Still don't think she should go to jail though. I suspect she's learned her lesson already.

As far as I'm aware the US airport authorities have frowned on people saying the "B" word in an airport terminal before 9/11 (or is that 11/9?!), moreso afterwards.
I assume this was not the first time this lass had travelled to the USA so ignorance is no excuse.
Harsh, but fair.

BA said: “We would strongly advise all passengers not to make any remarks which could be misinterpreted. The US authorities take them very seriously.”

Airhead10 asks Over reaction or justified?

Aviate 1138 says - Justified.


So security men have to now have a degree in psychology to determine in a split second whether the remark is a joke or are they maybe dealing with a psycho.
_ Stupid Brit girl has arrived in the real world, especially as American Security is still smarting from the Washington/UK flight live ammo mistake.

Aviate1138

I believe there have been enough of these kind of incidents where people have been hauled up for making inappropriate remarks to warn you about this. I seem to recall cases at LHR where Customs have marched people off for making so called "jokes" about having a gun/bomb in their possession. In this heightened level of security it seems especially daft to make that remark in the US.

Having said that, the possible penalty she may receive does seem a little harsh. Warning and caution perhaps? May be they want to make an example of her to stop others doing this.

Stupid girl!! The last thing anyone should say around an airport these days is the "B" word, or gun, or SAM or any such similar utterance. A country that confiscates crew tools, eg Leatherman, is bound to bang up someone who says they have a bomb.

What students consider funny, or even the great travelling masses, does not go down well in airport environments, it never did and it never will. The sooner people realise that the better it will be for everyone especially those charged with our security. What was the policeman supposed to do? Say "Yeah, right. On your way love". Headlines next day, bomb blast devastates XXXX airport, policeman arrested for failing to act when suspect said she had a bomb.

All this in the 'land of the brave, home of the free' and 'freedom of speach' :rolleyes:

Yep, the boogey man is out to get ya - and one wonders why ?! :E

If she had looked like osama they probably wouldnt have
touched her.

Let me get this straight, she's 21, stupid, but obviously not a bomber as a quick look in her pack may have discovered ( ok you might want to use the bomb squad for that ) and for her 'crime' of stupidity we need her to spend 6 months in jail.....if stupidity is going to become a jailable offence I think we may need to build considerably more jails.

Another stupid joke!
 

After she is a grownup she will have learned to flip the bird and could be kept in first class lounge.....but only in Brazil!

A silly thing to say indeed.

But a totally disproportionate reaction from the authorities.

A few more tales of American heavy-handedness and people will start thinking twice about ever going there. There are already enquiries being made about holding business conventions in the Canaries rather than Florida because companies are increasingly anxious about the way their guests are 'welcomed' to the USA.

I hope that this silly girl isn't treated too harshly; she should have been marched off to a search area, her luggage checked thoroughly and should then have been given a severe talking to. Six months dodging the dikes in a federal slammer whilst her parents and boy friend worry themselves to death is more like the sort of thing you'd expect from a banana republic run by a fascist dictator.

Land of the free? Hmmm

She should have said:

"no officer, i have some live ammo in my back-pack"

"Alright mam that's ok then, have a nice day"

And about the bigger jail...didn't the brits try that once in historie? i mean they used a whole continent and look what it turned into! :}

If Columbus knew what the place was going to turn into, perhaps he'd have decided not to bother....

Sending Pom crims to Oz doesn't seem to have been a bad idea. Want a few thousand more? We can spare them....

Back to the thread, in that the girl was laughing when she spoke to the cop, it was pretty obviously not a serious answer. So why couldn't he just have said "Lady, I will ask you again, this time you will answer me seriously. WHAT IS IN YOUR BAG?" Or are they incapable of rational thought.

Total overeaction

Perhaps it's bourne out of frustration at a distinct lack of success in arresting real bombers.. So lets take it out on some stupid tourist. Obviously it was a stupid thing to say,but I think that the circumstances in which the comment were made should have been considered. Applying the law in a rigid manner like that doesn't reflect well on anyone. Common sense is a virtue which seems to be missing in a lot of these incidents



Being hauled away to a prison cell from the airport is something you might have to fear in less enlightened parts of the world

But in the land of the free?



I'm sure that Law enforcement officials and the US Justice system could be involved in a more productive use of their time and efforts at present

It seems that discretion,a fundamental part of most Police Officers jobs around the world appears to be sadly lacking in this case.



Sad but not really surprising.

I have never understood why anyone would say such a thing at an airport, the authorities are never going to find it funny. It also gives the impression to the security people that they are not being taken seriously. That's where the crux of the problem lies. The cop has then reacted in an appropriate manner but in their attempt to stop this happening again they are making an example of her.

Guys, you will never stop people making remarks like this, the public are just too stupid to learn not to.

I think this reaction stinks. If they realy want to punish her why not just deport her with the promise that she may never return to the U.S.A.

When are these people ever going to learn, you just don't joke about bombs at any airport on the planet. This is a regular occurence at LHR. Offenders are taken straight to the nick where they are given a few words in their "shell like". Never thrown into jail (not sure if we have the space now)
Pointer and BEagle have the measure of this incident. I hope the Septics let her go, I doubt whether she will ever make the same mistake again.

The "6 months" mentioned in the article is just the delay until trial, which she will have to spend in jail if she can't post bail. Her punishment will probably invlove several years incarceration at the American tax payers' expense.

BAd idea - they send us their soaps in return

Gee, yes she was stupid, but a lack sense of humour doesnt help. Heck, when the Noraid funded IRA were merrily blowing up London/Birmingham/Warrington/Manchester we didnt get all paranoid about bomb jokes. Anyone would think the land of the free was the only placxe to have ever had to face terrorism

Just as well that she didn't say "tweezers" or carry a nailfile.

God forbid that she might have got on the aircraft and queued for the toilet. These terrorists are all the same.

Actually, given the farcical security that is shown up when people drop off the landing gear nearly every week, and the "bullet" incident in the UK, I do wonder whether we might just be going overboard, especially when 9/11 was caused by people who did NOT say they had weapons, and who seemed to be "in order".

What happens if you say that you have NOT got a bomb?

The actual weapons on 9/11 were hundreds of tons of aircraft, and you should NOT give control of such weapons to men with Stanley knives. Neither should you give potentials guns on Air Marshals.

It seems laughable in this hysteria that pilots have been checked for weapons, when all they have to do is crash the aircraft (cunning, eh? How do you get round that?)

I wonder how much of the security is really done for public show (not the terrorists, who are much more intelligent than that), and how much is done properly from thinking from the point of view of the terrorist, with an axe to grind (can you say that in airports), and a "battle to win"? For example, it was pretty obvious, having lived in the USA and the UK, that if one wanted to attack the USA as a terrorist, then the best way would be from within. This is precisely what happened on 9/11. At that time, Sweden would have been a good place to do a similar attack, because the security on internal flights was much lower. Even now, if people are stowing away, they could carry a bomb. 9/11 proved that some of these people do not necessarily wish to go on living to make a point.

This is all pretty obvious stuff, really, but I still believe that the agenda is driven by the political "must be seen by the public to be doing something" rather than doing the right thing (keep real weapons off planes, keep people with knives out of the cockpit, keep undesirables out of the landing gear, etc).

And, I do not believe that anything is "different" since before 9/11. Just the average person's awareness, and perhaps the determination of a few.

Anyway, folk in security, keep up the good work, but keep it real. You have a difficult job to do, and you deserve support. Politicians, well, what on earth are you up to?

Phnuff, whilst paranoid would be unfair the UK authorities have always taken a firm line on silly people and bomb jokes.

I have seen a couple of people given very severe public dressing downs by security staff for making innappropriate jokes over my years of travelling.

This is the way to handle it, point out the error of their ways, if they show contrition then you have succeeded, if they don't then nick them and give them an afternoon in the cells to think about things.