“I Need To Play The Part”
Aspiring rap lyricist Benjamin Baines Jr. decided that in order to live up to his desired gangsta image the best course of action was to live the dream!
TAMPA – A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said.
…About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.’s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration.
When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled “Fear Itself.” The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside.
After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates.
Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book.
Officers found books in the backpack titled “Muhammad in the Bible,” “The Prophet’s Prayer” and “The Noble Qur’an.” He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible.
Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing. Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to “play the part,” the report states.
I often forget which books I’ve hollowed out to hold my boxcutters.
People | Mr. Bingley | 
February 21, 2008 3:10 pm
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Why would he need to hollow out a book when a box cutter will fit so easily between the binding and cover of a hardcover?
that’s a damned good point Bill. I guess he must have read too many spy novels and wanted to play that part as well.
Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to “play the part,”
I’ll bet Tupac thought the same way. Look where that got him.
Look where that got him.
It got him Immortality, baby!
in a dead sort of way.
Look where that got him.
On ice, ICE, baby!
Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing.
“Use Common Sense”
Oh, Sis, that video is PRICELESS!
I read many comments on a Florida newspaper website
about this arrest 99%were saying this guy should
go to jail forever as a terrorist.
Look here,the photos show the book was cut about
ten times the size of the boxcutter and clearly
many pages were not cut all the way through.
He was making a book to hide his marijuania and
got sidetracked,those books were probably in his
backpack for months before he took his flight.
Give the guy a break,just because we can’t catch any
real terrorists don’t arrest 21 year old Americans.
Sounds like the other books were interesting,I would like to read Mohammad in the Bible myself,
and I’m an ex-altar boy Christian.
Mohammed ain’t in the Bible. A knife/boxcutter/corkscrew forgotten at the bottom of a backpack? Fine, take it out and toss it in the bucket with all the other nail clippers. But a hollowed out book to hide it, sorry, no. That’s clear premeditation.
It would be interesting if Mohammed were in the Bible, considering that it was compiled in the second and third century CE, and old Mo wasn’t born until around 570 CE.
Big Mo is everywhere!
*sigh* This happens to me all the time… Except with baby chickens.
Seriously, I gotta’ agree wit’ Bing: a box cutter rattling around in the bottom of a bag with other totally unrelated stuff? Meh. But a box cutter strategically placed combined with all the other circumstantial evidence PLUS the fact that this guy openly admits to beefing his street cred? Yeah… Achem’s Razor, baby, all the way.
Still, they probably won’t charge him with anything substantial. We’re just now gettin’ ’round to prosecuting the terrorists who planned 9/11. And no worries, they’ll get “proper representation” in the court system. [eye roll]
First all,look at the boxcutter in the photo.Its
blade is all rusted.If he intended to use it as
a weapon,wouldn’t it necessary to flip the blade
to the sharp side.
As far as street credibility,he could
have meant that’s why he read those books.Islam
is very “in” among rap.
Thirdly,we don’t know if that boxcutter was really
inside the book or laying in backpack.Cops Lie
for publicity…
Tainted Bill;Do you CE or common era is a term
popularized by Allister Crowley(satanist)in the
late 1800s.This is from his biography “A Magick Life” Just thought I’d throw that up.Was AD when I
went to school.See how the system can manipulate
us and we don’t even realize it.
Oh, give it a break, greg. We got it, you think Mr. Baines is as innocent as a lamb. It’s just that the evidence on hand is slightly (but not decisively) in favor of The Coalition (i.e., there’s something fishy going on here).
You, on the other hand, are making inaccurate and unsubstantiated assertions (i.e., Mo’s in the Bible, and the cops are lying….in that order) in your efforts to spin doctor for the wannabe rapper.
So, how about agreeing to disagree about Benjy’s innocence, and letting the courts answer the question, hmmmmmm?
Besides, if he’s found guilty, you can always claim judicial bias, or some similar application of Victimology™.
I was talking about the title of the books in his
backpack.According to the newspaper one was “Mohammad
in the Bible” I never said mohammad was in the
Bible.Get the wax out of your ears.
I just don’t trust the government they lie
about everything.They need to justify their
existence and fat government jobs.
Once I was pulled overby a cop and accused of
something I didn’t do,and was it like being in “The
Twilight Zone” I hope it never happens to you.
Greg, c’mon. the guy changed his story about the boxcutter; and never once did he claim that it was just lying in his backpack. i think a few of us said we’d give him a break if that were the case, but it obviously isn’t. a rusty blade will cut you just as bad as a nice shiny one; this is real life we’re talking about, not your slasher flicks where it has to be shiny for the camera. hell, a rusty blade will do worse damage if you factor in tenus.
yes, bill is quite aware of ce vs ad, as he is our resident evangelical atheist.
i’m sorry you don’t trust the government; you must lose a lot of sleep at night waiting to hear the ‘thwop-thwop-thwop’ of the blackhacks as they come to haul you away…i mean, it’s happened to everyone who dared to speak truth to power these past dark 7 years, right?
er, ‘tetanus’ me means
I never said mohammad was in the
Bible.
Perhaps, Greg, as you said this:
Sounds like the other books were interesting,I would like to read Mohammad in the Bible myself, and I’m an ex-altar boy Christian.
Which sounds like you put Mo in the Bible as well. Of course, with your terrible grammar and typing, one could read it either way.
And as a devout agnostic, I prefer Anno Domini to “CE” myself, mostly to poke the PC Police in the eye.
Mr Bingley,I also read about Noah”s ark on a mountain on Turkey,and the biography of Emma Goldman .I’m sorry but proper grammar doesn’t equal intelligence.Most rules of grammar were created in the last 200 years.
Please let me kiss your boots and hope I’m
smart enough to be an agnostic.Which is like
being a zero in a world of numbers,you can
be anything you want.At least have the balls to say you’re an atheist.
I’m sorry but proper grammar doesn’t equal intelligence.
No, but grammar is a dandy means of determining the degree of cognition present.
Sounds like you’re a teacher.Cognition? What’s that
got to do with the price of tea in China?
I’m sorry buddy,it’s just the people on the internet are so frigging crazy.You’re okay,I’m
sorry to take it out on you.Peace,brother.We’re
all in this together.
greg, what the heck are you talking about? I mean seriously? I’m glad you’ve read a variety of things, but I’m not sure where Mt. Ararat fits into this, but I guess you do score some points for fitting both noah and goldman into the same sentence. but the grammar bit comes completely out of left field, it seems to me. and while proper grammar may not indicate intelligence per se it is indicative of structured thinking, and high intelligence is useless, hell any level of intelligence is useless, without some sort of structured way of expression. sorry, but anarchy in the mind is as worthless as anarchy of society (although far less dangerous, obviously, since if your mind is a complete mess than it’s generally only you that gets harmed).
i desire no one to kiss my boots; in fact you’re best advised to keep as far away from them as possible if you value your olfactory senses. i don’t think one needs to be ‘smart’ to be an agnostic, but i do think one needs to be a combination of brave and humble to be an honest one for it means that you are admitting that you simply don’t know. now there are certainly the timid folk who are afraid to both admit to faith publicly and also to publicly deny it, but true agnostics to my mind admit to their own shortcomings: they say they just don’t know and can’t know. to my mind, as a christian, that is in fact the first crucial step in becoming a christian, the realization of one’s own limits. my good friend bill, who is an atheist, would see that rather as the first step on the path to his faith, which is grounded in the physical presence and actions of man as opposed to some ‘higher power.’
ah, i see the grammar bit was a reference to trj’s comment. oh well. live and learn. well, read, live and learn, at least.
Whoa.
greg. Dude.
So, Bingster, what IS it about you…?
Must be tied to the lunar eclipse; it’s been like this all week.
It’s also a leap year, Mr. Bingley, and this The Month Of 29 Days. Might be another contributing factor.
Sorry people, but the little”posted by” is confusing.I was addressing Mr.Bingley when I should
have been answering someone else.I’m new to this format.Mr. Bingley wasn’t the agnostic,Sorry…
I got confused about whom I was answering.Sorry Mr.Bingley.12 beers can sometimes do that.
hehe, i’d much rather you be behind the keyboard after 12 beers than behind the wheel, greg.
Wait… lunar eclipse… 29 days in the month… Ohhhh, so THAT’S why everyone is so bitchy! Funny that it’s just the guys.