Bizarre, Criminal law

The Watchmen: California Artist Arrested After TSA Spots Curious Watch

Geoffrey McGann, 49, is an artist and the creative director of a media production company called Generator Content. It appears that he was too creative for those folks at TSA. The California artist was arrested at Oakland International Airport because security officers did not like his unusual watch which they said looked too much like a timing device for a bomb. The watch had ornate switches, wires, and fuses so the bomb squad was called and the security checkpoint shutdown. Even after the bomb squad determined it was not a bomb within five minutes, however, McGann was arrested and charged by Alameda County Sheriff’s Department with possessing materials to make an explosive device.

McGann repeatedly explained the watch was a piece of art but it turns out that a bomb is in the eye of a TSA beholder. The police also noted that he appeared to have made alterations to his boots, which were unusually large and stuffed with layers of insoles. Sort of like an artist or someone with bad feet (or an artist with bad feet) would do. The police also noted that he had no extra clothes for the trip.

Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, insisted “He does do art kind of stuff, but what reasonable person would bring a watch like that into an airport and think that’s OK? You may have a toy gun as art, but would you bring it to the airport?” Now that sounds like some solid police work. The answer to the question, Sgt. Nelson, is that a free person would wear such a watch since he is not a terrorist and it is not a bomb.

Source: LA Times

43 thoughts on “The Watchmen: California Artist Arrested After TSA Spots Curious Watch”

  1. https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/its_time_to_overhaul_the_transportation_security_administration )

    It’s Time to Overhaul the Transportation Security Administration

    By John W. Whitehead
    November 19, 2012

    “Here’s the bottom line: in the so-called name of security, Americans have been subjected to all manner of treatment by the government—especially the TSA, including being treated like suspects, and then to top it off, we’ve been asked to pay for the humiliations and degradations heaped on us, so that corporations can make a profit. Something has to give. To start with, it’s time to say no to these flagrant abuses of our taxpayer dollars and our rights.”

    My guess? TSA abuse is here to stay. But I’d love to be pleasantly surprised.

  2. That’s the ticket!

    If he had worn that one there wouldn’t even have been an assessment by the bomb squad. He would have had a bag thrown over his head and been on a flight to some Eastern European country we still rendition to within about a half an hour.

    Great choice.

    I focused on this one immediately but the Nixie is way more panic inducing and subversive:

    http://fashionablygeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/18-e1346042131370.jpg?cb5e28bout:Tabs

  4. Blouise, Exactly! Maybe hes a Performance Artist, or aspires to be. That watch isn’t art that’s for sure. If it was Performance Art he succeeded brilliantly “I title this work ‘Security Theater Theater’, let me show you it”. Though after seeing the watch I’d call it Performance Art-less.

    These watches on the other hand would have elevated his performance greatly:

    http://www.google.com/search?aq=&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS480US480&q=steampunk+watches&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=UDCrUNyQL42A9QTbrYGQCg&biw=950&bih=768&sei=VTCrUKLwApHm9gSA1oHQAQ

    Maybe I haven’t put snark behind me after all.

  11. Blind Faithiness and the rest of youse guys and girls,

    As usual here, we talk past each other. I was not saying that you, BF, were paranoid. I was simply saying that you had detected that we were in the equivalent to 1984, and gave you the chance to spin further on the idea. I was playing straight man, or at least trying to do so.

    THINK HOW MUCH SIMPLER LIFE HERE AT JT’S WOULD BE IF WE JUST SAID “HUH?”, AND NOT PLAY CAN YOU TOP THIS. “Whaddja mean fella”?

    You know our endless game of asking ourselves: WTF did he mean, was in against me, for me, beside me, over my head, what do I say in reply to keep up my rep.

    I think that the game here gets tiresome. Or do we come here just for the reason to get it up through a few comments and back to IRL?

    I prefer to listening to personal reflections to repartée.
    There are no Dorothy Parkers here or H.L. Menckens either.

    I see teenagers playing the same game: He who is quickest in wit, gets the greatest number of admiring glances,etc.

    We are no longer teenagers, or are we?

  12. Clearly a watch is a danger in this day and age. Why isn’t he just using a smart phone to tell time like the rest of us?!

  14. Uh, what? I’m not quite to the dystopian world of 1984 yet. There are plenty of cases where an individual has written something on the internet in jest or that is taken the wrong way, reported to authorities by someone, and been visited/jailed by those authorities.

    The guy that posted lines from ‘Fight Club’ is a prime example.
    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387730,00.asp

    Being wary of the way the world and internet are trending is not the same as paranoid delusion, I don’t believe. If saying ‘bomb’ in the airport gets someone questioned today, who’s to say that writing bomb on twitter in the airport won’t get you questioned tomorrow?

    Did you have a real question?

  15. If this guy now fakes a suicide death because of this trauma we would know this was a marketing ploy. Nothing sells like an artist’s death.

  18. Blouise,

    Watch out. Being ticked off before a big holiday will get you accused of “being testy as in testicle”.
    Just quoting AY. Ask him to explain.

  19. AY,

    Just think how many lonesome fathers get arrested. Guess you were lucky. Did you make that or a later flight?
    I’m sure the birthday present of you was appreciated.

  20. http://www.geoffmcgann.com/

    Here’s his website. He seems legit. If you read the story from the LA Times, his shoes were supposed to make him “look taller.” They also didn’t like his shirt and he didn’t have any extra clothes in his backpack for a “day trip.”

    “McGann also was wearing a military-style shirt with a tourniquet band built into each sleeve. The shirts are available for purchase, but are not especially common…”

    When you add it all up, it didn’t add up,” Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, said Friday.”

    WHY would anyone who actually WAS a terrorist do these things? It’s the people who don’t appear to BE terrorists who are dangerous, TSA clowns…

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