OK, I am filing this one in my "what the hell?" file.

As I understand it, the guy tries to board a plane.  He passes a backpack through the airport scanner and they see books, box cutter, papers, lint…wait, box cutter?

So they inspect and find a book with a hollowed out inner compartment (ala Shawshank Redemption) in which a box cutter was concealed.

His excuse?  "Oops! I forget it was there."

Michelle Malkin starts us off:

Whoops. He just forgot it was there!

The Clearwater man pleads guilty, saying he had forgotten about the box cutter.

The X-ray image of a box cutter inside Benjamin Baines Jr.’s backpack caught the attention of federal officers Sunday morning at Tampa International Airport.

But it was the packaging that really jolted them: a hollowed-out book that hid the razor-sharp tool. Also inside the backpack: a Koran, a Holy Bible and rap music lyrics referencing police, drugs and guns.

It was all a misunderstanding, of course–and don’t forget to scream “RACIAL PROFILING!:”

Baines studies various religions, say relatives. They insist he’s no terrorist. “He’s not militant,” said James Layne, a 28-year-old cousin.

“He’s not a crazy blow-yourself-up kind of guy. It’s all a major misunderstanding.”

Butler said his nephew forgot the box cutter, which he used at his former job at the Sandpearl, was in the backpack.  ^{(Ethean Butler, his uncle ~ LSU)}

I have to ask…when he used it at Sandpearl, was that where he stored it?  Not in a pocket?

He recalls his nephew packing the book in a duffle bag that was checked as luggage. The police report tells the story this way. On Sunday, Baines was scheduled to fly Southwest Airlines Flight 338 to Jacksonville at 7:45 a.m., then catch another plane to Las Vegas, where his father lives. He reached security screening at Airside C at 7:30 a.m. An X-ray operator spotted the box cutter.

Another TSA officer found the tool inside a “compartment” within the book.

So, when asked to explain why the hell he had a hollowed out book:

Baines told officers he cut out the pages to keep marijuana and money from being stolen by roommates.

Oh, well, if it was a hidey stash for his weed, well that makes the whole thing MUCH better.

Inside the backpack were the Koran and Bible and the books Muhammad in the Bible, The Noble Quran and The Prophet’s Prayer.

So, was this a racist incident?  The guy had a concealed weapon, not in a  pocket but in a book hollowed out for smuggled, something no honest person in the world would not consider concealed, and in it was a box cutter, a tool that can be used as a lethal weapon.  So, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, and only a misdemeanor at that.

And despite the obvious nature of the crime and the circumstances, yep, his uncle is indeed dropping the race card:

At an initial hearing Monday, Hillsborough court records show, Baines pleaded guilty to the concealed weapons charge. He wasn’t represented by an attorney, said Butler. TSA and airport officers charged him because “he was black and carrying the Koran,” he said.

Yep.  Black, and a Koran.  Nothing else.  Except maybe the concealed weapon. 

I can just see it:  "Honest Your Honor, I didn't know the book was loaded…."

The irony here, is that he likely would be in more trouble if had been caught smuggling in more then 3 ounces of shampoo….

Idiots.

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