He was charged with terrorism so they wouldn't have to spend a lot of 
time chasing down the next twit who decides to point a laser at an 
airplane. I suspect that once he's spent most of his net worth on 
lawyers he'll be allowed to plead guilty to some form of criminal 
stupidity and do a few months of house arrest.

--rick


Larry Pint wrote:

> It's my understanding that by charging him with terrorism, he can be 
> held indefinitely without formal charges or hearings.  He can also be 
> sentenced without a formal trial and doesn't have the normal legal 
> protections.  And , without those due process checks, it's easy to 
> charge someone.  In the name of terrorism prevention we have forfeited 
> many of our rights.  (In my opinion, way too many.)  It seems to me 
> that anyone charged with terrorism is stripped of all normal legal 
> rights, and the definition of terrorism is so broad and vague that it 
> can easily be applied to too many situations.
>
> My not so humble opinion.  (I am not a lawyer.)
>
> Larry Pint
>
>
> Jay Austad wrote:
>
>> Hehe, no.  That guy that got busted was a total dummy.  Even at 
>> relatively low powers, the dot is visible on clouds.  The guy that 
>> got busted had a fairly high power unit.  Still, at a long range, it 
>> won't cause damage to eyesight, but it will temporarily flash blind 
>> someone.  In any case, he deserves to get charged with something.  
>> But I think charging him as a terrorist is a bit excessive.  Maybe a 
>> reckless endangerment count for each person on the plane, or 
>> something similar.  Either way, he's screwed.
>>
>> Lasers are a fun hobby, and it's idiots like this guy that are going 
>> to screw it up for everyone else.
>>
>>
>> On Jan 9, 2005, at 8:52 AM, Sam MacDonald wrote:
>>
>>> You're not going to be pointing it at air craft are you ;-) eheheheheh!
>>>
>>> Sam.
>>>
>>> Jay Austad wrote:
>>>
>>>> Anyone have access to one of those little devices that tells you 
>>>> the power output of a laser?  Like a Coherent LaserCheck or similar?
>>>>
>>>> I've got a green laser that I cranked the power up on, and I want 
>>>> to test it.  I need to check and realign the crystal also, and 
>>>> doing this with a power meter would be the best way.  Judging from 
>>>> the current draw, it should me outputting somewhere around 40mw.  
>>>> But, if the crystal is aligned improperly, it could be considerably 
>>>> less.
>>>>
>>>> So yeah, this is way OT.  But, considering any true geek totally 
>>>> digs lasers, I figured this is the place to ask.
>>>>
>>>> ~jay
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
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