Wearing a Religious Device

If you have not read about this you have to watch the following YouTube video about how a Jewish teenager's wearing of tefillin forced a US Airways flight to make an emergency landing.  I am sure that this is not what God intended when saying, "Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children..." (Deuteronomy 11)  The police officer's characterization of tefillin as a religious device is most unusual.