# Aqua Teen "hoax" in Boston **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 31, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326 "2007-01-31T21:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/121 "2007-02-01T15:59:09Z")
[QUOTE=treis] The police chief, mayor, head of the bomb squad… [/QUOTE] Why? For reacting properly? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/122 "2007-02-01T16:06:18Z")
Perhaps the good denizens of Boston expected the LED to count down in dramatic fashion before Jack Bauer snipped the red wire? I can think of a good few things that might look suspicious in my office alone given the vague bomb-like qualities descriped in the linked article. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/123 "2007-02-01T16:08:30Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Why? For reacting properly? [/QUOTE] Freaking out and then charging someone with a crime to justify you freaking out isn’t acting properly. Acting properly would have been to investigate the bomb threat, determine they were nothing close to bombs, and inform the public. Besides, don’t you think the police should have noticed 38 “simulated bombs” that were up for 2-3 weeks? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/124 "2007-02-01T16:14:24Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Why? For reacting properly? [/QUOTE] Felony hysteria and fear mongering. If you get to fabricate unsubstantiated charges against Turner, I can do the same against our silly police and mayor. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/125 "2007-02-01T16:44:17Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] Felony hysteria and fear mongering. If you get to fabricate unsubstantiated charges against Turner, I can do the same against our silly police and mayor. [/QUOTE] Rather than going the legal route, it might be more fun to start a local [Penis Panic](http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/16/81843/6555). Boston city officials seem ripe for that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8baadc/32.png) [@Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicest_of_the_Damned)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/126 "2007-02-01T16:48:37Z")
[QUOTE=treis] Acting properly would have been to investigate the bomb threat, determine they were nothing close to bombs, and inform the public. [/QUOTE] That is exactly what they did, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/127 "2007-02-01T16:52:28Z")
“Informing the public” does not require shrieking “OMG this is a promotional campaign for a TV show and they’re so irresponsible because WE THOUGHT it was a bomb and we’re going to make them pay for us flying off the handle the way police in nine other cities didn’t!” Whatever happened to “Nothing to see here; move along”? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/128 "2007-02-01T16:54:43Z")
I’m sorry, did I miss the bomb identification course that was offered to all Americans a while back? I’m a little shocked that people are so quick to dismiss a strange item on a bridge with wires and a battery. As someone mentioned upthread, there are a host of negative outcomes besides “OMG!1 Teh terrorists R on the attack lol!1!” I still don’t understand why a citizen calling in a suspicious item is clueless. I don’t know what he or she said, but does it matter if s/he said “IT’S A BOMB” or something less effusive? They called the authorities and let them handle it. Again, I wager that even on this board, few of us are familiar with the range of devices that could be used as explosives. Probably the number drops with the general public. I certainly have never seen a bomb except from movies and the news, and I grew up in a military household. As for the city’s reaction, it was a major inconvenience for travelers, but I think they did the right thing by quickly reacting to the situation. Remember, Boston’s been burned before. Those planes that crashed into the WTC departed from Logan Airport. It was also probably opportune to have the crisis folks go through an experience to see how they’d fare. Ultimately it’s embarrassing in some respects, but I think that’s because of how the mayor framed it. If he had taken the approach of explaining that while it was a false alarm, it showed that citizens and first responders worked effectively to find all of the unknown items, and that posting electronic circuit boards on infrastructure is an incredibly dumb idea. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/129 "2007-02-01T17:02:54Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] I’m sorry, did I miss the bomb identification course that was offered to all Americans a while back? I’m a little shocked that people are so quick to dismiss a strange item on a bridge with wires and a battery. [/quote] I think I said already that I would have called it in too, if I’d seen it. But I’m a citizen. What’s being pitted here is the reaction of the authorities. > [@](#): > > It was also probably opportune to have the crisis folks go through an experience to see how they’d fare. Ultimately it’s embarrassing in some respects, but I think that’s because of how the mayor framed it. If he had taken the approach of explaining that while it was a false alarm, it showed that citizens and first responders worked effectively to find all of the unknown items, and that posting electronic circuit boards on infrastructure is an incredibly dumb idea. Looks as if the mayor fared rather poorly. He certainly reacted poorly. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/130 "2007-02-01T17:10:17Z")
This event reminds me of an incident from 10 years ago concerning [stolen traffic signs](http://www.wisecounty.com/themuse/Column11.htm) Granted, I’m sure the people that stole the traffic signs were just up to a little mischief but don’t you think they should have realized a missing stop sign might have serious consequences? I think the people who thought up this publicity stunt should have used a little more caution too. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/131 "2007-02-01T17:20:16Z")
[QUOTE=Nicest of the Damned] That is exactly what they did, isn’t it? [/QUOTE] No they didn’t. They went "OMG! This is a BOMB HOAX! They put up things that totally didn’t look like bombs and even the police said they weren’t bombs but it’s got wires and stuff so it’s definitely a HOAX!!! Even if it doesn’t look like a bomb and the police says so. But it’s still a HOAX! Don’t ask me how this is a HOAX!!! if it doesn’t look like a BOMB!!! and the people who planted it didn’t spread fear and panic by saying that they were BOMBS!!! But instead it was ourselves that spread fear and panic by saying that they could be planted by TERRORISTS!!! And we are totally not dipshits for locking down the city and throwing 2 people whom we know aren’t TERRORISTS and didn’t intend to put up a BOMB HOAX by putting up advertisements that totally didn’t look like BOMBS except to one particular Joe Q Public, whom we are not going to educate on what a BOMB looks like because CSI, Rambo, Speed, and Charlie Chaplin already gives them a good idea of what a BOMB looks like! It has LEDS!!! and WIRES STICKING OUT!!! BOMB!!! TERRORISTS!!! WOooooooooo!!!Yer goin in the SLAMMER!!" That’s what they did. Imagine, if you will, that I wear a parka, when it’s not that cold out. I do so because I’m more sensitive to cold than others. It’s kinda bulky, and it’s not what people normally wear, but I do it anyway. Now, Joe Q Paranoid thinks that’s suspicious, and that I may be hiding explosives under that parka. He calls the cops. Now, he’s Joe Q Paranoid, maybe I shouldn’t blame him for jumping to the conclusion that Parka = terrorist. Maybe. But when the police show up, and determine that I am not in fact a suicide bomber determined to take out McRestaurant, what is the next step? A: “Yep, not a terrorist. We’ve warned him about wearing suspicious clothing, but ah well. Haha. Maybe try something less bulky, eh? Yeah, sucks to be cold, I know.” B: “OMG!!! You were a TERRORIST HOAX!!! What are you trying to do, test out police security HOLES?! HUh? Huh?! Why they hell are you wearing a parka today, huh? You jerking my chain? You think it’s funny, huh? Do ya? DO YA??! You goin down buddy, 5 years, for making me shut down the city 'cause you wuz COLD. Don’t you know that wearing a parka could make Joe Q Paranoid think you’re a TERRORIST? Why do you hate America?” Pick one. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/132 "2007-02-01T17:31:43Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I can think of a good few things that might look suspicious in my office alone given the vague bomb-like qualities descriped in the linked article. [/QUOTE] This isn’t your office. We’re talking about things that showed up suddenly on the supports for major pieces of infrastructure. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/133 "2007-02-01T17:32:21Z")
[Boy, I hope they have good lawyers:](http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/01/boston.bombscare/index.html) > [@](#): > > Two men pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges they created panic by placing “bomblike” electronic light boards displaying a cartoon character with an upraised middle finger throughout Boston. Why the frack are they being arrested when it was not their idea?! Not that anyone should be arrested anyway, but how are they guilty? > [@](#): > > **Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards “bomblike” devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city.** And if the queen had balls, she’d be the king. So what? > [@](#): > > Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis called the stunt “unconscionable,” while Boston Mayor Thomas Menino called it “outrageous” and the product of “corporate greed.” Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, a Boston-area congressman, added, “It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt.” Except that the authorities perpetuated the publicity, and they’re the ones who framed it as “appalling.” > [@](#): > > Twenty-two-year-old Todd Venderlin, a design student at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, saw one of the devices two weeks ago as he left a lounge in south Boston, according to The Boston Globe. He said he was stunned when he saw bomb squads removing them. > > “It’s so not threatening – it’s a Lite Brite,” he told the newspaper, referring to the children’s toy that allows its users to create pictures by placing translucent pegs into an opaque board. “I don’t understand how they could be terrified. I would if it was a bunch of circuits blinking, but it wasn’t.” > > \ > > “It had a very sinister appearance,” [Massachusetts Attorney General Martha] Coakley told reporters. “It had a battery behind it, and wires.” Ooh. I had some jazz here about a thermometer/barometer we own, a flat LED board, with a battery behind it and wires, and the possibility of being arrested for owning/displaying it. But **Tabby\_Cat** made the same point better. But I’d really like to know what risk I’m taking by having that thermometer. Because this is getting Orwellian. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/134 "2007-02-01T17:37:03Z")
[QUOTE=treis] Freaking out and then charging someone with a crime to justify you freaking out isn’t acting properly. Acting properly would have been to investigate the bomb threat, determine they were nothing close to bombs, and inform the public. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but while they’re investigating what they think are bombs, they have to close important pieces of infrastructure, meaning massive inconvenience to lots of people – hence the rage. And the authorities do need to come down like a ton of bricks on the people who perpetrated this stunt just to stop others from trying it. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/135 "2007-02-01T17:39:07Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] This isn’t your office. We’re talking about things that showed up suddenly on the supports for major pieces of infrastructure. [/QUOTE] How incompetent do you have to be in order to miss some 40 simulated bombs on major pieces of infrastructure for 2-3 weeks? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/136 "2007-02-01T17:41:56Z")
[Menino]“Lite-brites…? Whaat do you Mean, Lite-brites? My Gaaad…the city of Boston is under attack! Call out the National Gaaad!!!”[/Menino] [Flunky] “They’re all in Iraq, sir…”[/Flunky] [Menino] “Iraq…!? _shakes fist at ceiling_ Curse You Milton Bradley…!” [/Menino] ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/137 "2007-02-01T17:42:19Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam] I had some jazz here about a thermometer/barometer we own, a flat LED board, with a battery behind it and wires, and the possibility of being arrested for owning/displaying it. [/QUOTE] So what? You own it, you know what it is, it didn’t appear suddenly stuck to an major piece of infrastructure. I’m amazed that people want to make like this is no big deal. Just because you own an alarm clock and you know it’s an LED and not an IED doesn’t mean that an alarm clock can’t be used as an IED. Hell, even a Lite-Brite could be used as an IED, it it comes to that. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/138 "2007-02-01T17:45:21Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] And the authorities do need to come down like a ton of bricks on the people who perpetrated this stunt just to stop others from trying it. [/QUOTE] Yeah, this is sensible. I mean, if people started putting up lite brites all over town, a terrorist might disguise a bomb as a lite brite and the police would never find it. Of course, it would need a whole lotta lite brites. I mean, there would have to be one on almost every street corner, like under bridges and stuff. I mean, those things have to be _everywhere_. As common as the trashcan, as common as a discarded cardboard box (that’s fifty times the volume of a lite brite and can hold far more explosive material). Or, you know, we could put the bomb in the cardboard box instead! .. .. _Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah._ ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/139 "2007-02-01T17:45:42Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Yeah, but while they’re investigating what they think are bombs, they have to close important pieces of infrastructure, meaning massive inconvenience to lots of people – hence the rage. [/quote] No, rage is not justified. > [@](#): > > And the authorities do need to come down like a ton of bricks on the people who perpetrated this stunt just to stop others from trying it. Those people are Turner Broadcasting, not the two poor sods who were assigned to install the freaking devices, which were installed in nine other cities without panic. It was the **idea** which is actionable, theoretically, **not** the installation. They didn’t build the devices. They didn’t create the marketing ploy. If action must be taken, a lawsuit could be filed against Turner Broadcasting, after due process. This is like a public stoning. And my neighbors don’t know it’s part of a thermometer. They don’t know how it got there, either. I live in an apartment building, not a house, so this could be a concern to people in my building or the adjacent one. I wouldn’t fault anyone for calling it in, **but I sure as hell would have a problem being arrested on the grounds that it COULD HAVE BEEN a bomb.** ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/140 "2007-02-01T17:45:48Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Yeah, but while they’re investigating what they think are bombs, they have to close important pieces of infrastructure, meaning massive inconvenience to lots of people – hence the rage. And the authorities do need to come down like a ton of bricks on the people who perpetrated this stunt just to stop others from trying it. [/QUOTE] I still don’t see how they could reasonably believe that people would see [this](http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070201/480/masr11002010417) and think “bomb”. A belief reinforced by the fact that these were in 10 cities across the nation and it took 2 weeks before someone said anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326.md?page=8)