Ad campaign triggers bomb scare in Boston

[on-ramp]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare/index.html

this story brought Boston to a near stand-still today. The mayor along with the police commissioner at their press conference made it clear that whoever was responsible for this hoax would "get 3-5 years in jail for every device found, this is serious".

however, do you think anything will happen to this ad agency and Turner, Inc? Of course not, they will just apologize and go on with business as usual.

This is a good example of how corporate america has more rights (and thus more power) than the average tax-paying individual. If "you", sir, put out a hoax marketing campaign, you'd be shackled and imprisoned indefinitely.

as indicated, the police and emergency services today were strained to the limit. that means less available resources for other "real" emergencies in the city..

let's start treating everyone the same under the law, whether you are a corporation or the average Joe on the street, no matter how much legal counsel you can afford.

[svandamme]

i don't get it?
a lightboard with a cartoon character flipping the bird causes bombscares??
those are considered "devices"?
how do folks work with "computers" in this day and age, they make buzzing sounds, radiate heat, what's the difference with a advertisement light box??




btw, mayors and police commisioners can't make such threats
they can only threatten to arrest and get somebody in court

the courts are the ones who decided wether or not somebody violated a law and can go to jail over it...

i think that's quite an important point , a cornerstone of democracy and liberty.. not just in the US

[legion]

Heh. It was for ATHF.

[CJFusco]

"The explosion shall be of extraordinary magnitude. Just hang on. "
-Ignignokt

[fintstone]

Originally posted by svandamme
i don't get it?
a lightboard with a cartoon character flipping the bird causes bombscares??
those are considered "devices"?
how do folks work with "computers" in this day and age, they make buzzing sounds, radiate heat, what's the difference with a advertisement light box??

btw, mayors and police commisioners can't make such threats
they can only threatten to arrest and get somebody in court

the courts are the ones who decided wether or not somebody violated a law and can go to jail over it...

i think that's quite an important point , a cornerstone of
democracy and liberty.. not just in the US

Apparently only stoners would recognize them as cartoon characters.

[dd74]

I met a some of the guys who work on "ATHF" in Atlanta last August. Good guys. I hope they still have jobs after this.

[svandamme]

ok , now i understand , if i see anything like this






yeah i'de call the bomb squad too


when i think of suspicious packages, then in my book , something that attracts attention with light and a cartoonlike character flipping the bird, to me would be the last thing on my list , terrorists generally do not want to attract attention to their bomb, at least not prior to detonating it... last time i checked, they generally aren not to creative in terms of how their bombs look cosmetically...

i'm actually surprised at how easely the law enforcement folks let this blow up out of proportion , it's a flat thing with LED's
what Terrorist IED of that proportion , could ever be considered a major bomb? it's not like they use C4 or HE's , terrorist tend to make bombs from diy products, not HE's, because they can make it wherever they are, whereas HE's are difficult to find and smuggle...

homemade explosives tend to be less potent and in a flat package like this , would be a minor thread, especially in the locations where these cartoon boxes hang... up high...


but that's just me.

[fintstone]

It was daytime. There were no lights visible...just a big circuit board with large batteries and wires.

[svandamme]

ok, changes the story a bit, but still is a bit over the top if you ask me
anybody looking up close would see the non illuminated LED's and their positioning in a cartoon

and any bomb squad would see that it's a small package, and probably no big deal,

from the news reports, it seems to me that the law enforcement had a knee jerk reaction and scared more people with the big display of force then the few small packages ever would have scared ( that once the first one was found and taken out, could easely have been dealt with a low key approach )

[svandamme]

Makezine has some close up pics of one of the "devices"

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/02/boston_moonimit.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890











this is ridicioulous... even a 5 year old can see the LED's and the simple AA batteries..surely any law enforcer can see it's a geek device and not a bloody bomb right?

best summed up by a MAKE reader "...anyone can cripple a city with little or no expense. Real bomb not even needed. All that's necessary is pathetic paranoia."

[kach22i]

The outrage is that Ted Turner is in a position to be attacked by right wing nut jobs looking to smear him over a big nothing.

Maybe I don't see this as "news" because I live in a college town and this kind of thing would not suprise me. Kids hang stuff everywhere.

[oldE]

I guess this means they won't be re-broadcasting H.G. Wells' "War Of The Worlds" anytime soon.

Les

[svandamme]

what do you mean? i thought it was beeing played out for real this time
substitute "aliens" with "evildoers" and "alien spaceship spewing fire" with "devices with LED's emitting light" and you're allready halfway there...

[Tishabet]

Mooninite one I'm a hard rap singer
Mooninite two Yo, I'll flip you the finger

[legion]

http://www.live-evil.com/moonquotes.html

Sadness is for poor people! -Err

Err: You all have any eggs? 'Cause I'm totally gonna mess someone's house up! Ignignokt: Yes, eggs or pot, either one.

The innocent shall suffer... big time. -Ignignokt

I think I have a straight six. -Err

Alright, when I say your name, you say 'here.' And we will assume 'here' is short for 'here I am...rock you like a hurricane. -Ignignokt

[URY914]

What bothers me is that these things were distributed in several (11?) U.S. cities. Several other cities besides Boston found them and didn’t see them as a problem. According to some reports they were even discussed on the web in chat rooms and blogs. So other Police depts. knew of them and the public knew of them. Why didn’t Boston contact the FBI and the FBI “connect the dots” and put this whole thing to rest before it got out way of hand in Boston? It goes to show IF someone was to place real bombs all over the country, we really don’t have a communications network among local/state/federal departments that can quickly get the word out to all involved. I realize it would be a big undertaking but that what it will take. There are groups of terrorists that are sitting back and watching this and laughing.

[on-ramp]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/02/supporters_rall.html

regretfully, these 2 guys that did the posting are paying the price today.

these 2 guys were just doing their jobs. this is crazy, if they want to arrest someone, go after Ted Turner , or the marketing exec. who came up with this stupid marketing idea that back-fired.

This is not funny. we have a good Mayor here in Boston,
and if you're not from around here, you dont know how sensitive people are to this kind of BS.

[David McLaughlin]

I did it, now lets just move on.







Seriously though, after the first one was found and inspected, I would have thought that all would have returned to normal.

[Big Ed]

Originally posted by kach22i
The outrage is that Ted Turner is in a position to be attacked by right wing nut jobs looking to smear him over a big nothing.

Maybe I don't see this as "news" because I live in a college town and this kind of thing would not suprise me. Kids hang stuff everywhere.

This is Massachusetts. We only have LEFT wing nut jobs.

[legion]

Originally posted by Big Ed
This is Massachusetts. We only have LEFT wing nut jobs.

Heck if a Kennedy had killed someone on a bridge...