decide to put it into a briefcase if not for the purpose of making it look like a movie bomb?
Have you ever seen a briefcase? A briefcase doesn't fit in the palm of an adults hand, and a 'movie bomb' has at least some semblance of an explosive.
police are on one hand being mocked for thinking it was a real bomb
They should be. If you're in law enforcement, you need to be able to tell the difference between an explosive and some wires, a transistor and a circuit board. The teacher's should be fired for not immediately contacting the child's parents.
[–] sreggin_llik ago
police are on one hand being mocked for thinking it was a real bomb
They should be. If you're in law enforcement, you need to be able to tell the difference between an explosive and some wires, a transistor and a circuit board.
Context matters. My statement was a summation of what others are claiming the police thought. They clearly didn't think it was a bomb, which is why they charged the guy with basically being an idiot and trying to scare people.
[–] flimflamedthezimzam 2 points -2 points 0 points (+0|-2) ago
If that frightens you because you think it looks like a bomb you're either an idiot or a coward. Society has no business catering to people that ignorant about basic electronics. Go drive your minivan back home to watch daytime TV and please continue being irrelevant.
[–] sreggin_llik 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago (edited ago)
How convincing it is is irrelevant. What matters is intent. If I wrap hotdogs around my torso and walk around in public with them under my shirt, it's pretty clear that I'm trying to act like I have a bomb. When people call in bomb threats, there usually isn't even any fake device yet it's still a criminal act.
When I was a kid making incendiary devices, I had to learn that once something resembles an explosive, people understandably lose their shit and no amount of explaining the differences between black powder and modern gunpowder or the necessity of an effective pressure vessel for a bomb were going to matter a bit to the people responsible for ensuring public safety who had discovered my work. And they were right, I was being a dick with no concern for how others might perceive things and deserved what I got.
Maybe if you shaved the neckbeard and left your mother's basement every once in a while, you would develop some kind of understanding about how to act in public.
[–] magnora ago
I really hate this reasoning because some people are actually in to electronics and love taking them apart and deconstructing them to make them work in new ways. Tons of people do that sort of thing. There are tons of problems with this fishy and largely manufactured story, but that is not one of them.
[–] sreggin_llik ago
But that's the thing.... this isn't even interesting. It's a fucking clock in a pencil case. What kid would think that's fun except for the connotations attached to such devices?
[–] magnora ago
A kid who is in to electronics? I took apart electronics and did stuff to them for fun when I was a kid