But they haven’t charged the guy yet who had PLANTED REAL PIPE BOMBS!
:rolleyes:
-Joe
You thank. I order sometimes get words in the wrong .
I’ve probably spent too many posts on this, but as someone just said a few posts ago, in for a penny, in for a pound.
I would loosely compare the verbage coming from the mayor and some of the other officials to that of Nifong with the Duke rape case. They’re on a witch hunt. They’re not bothering with facts, just spouting sensationalism.
Yes, I think it’s a fine idea that the police and their bomb unit handled this as a bomb threat to start. If their procedures dictated closing highways or whatever, then it should have been done. Their first concern has to be loss of life. That would be followed by loss of property. Somewhere along the line though things like the disruption of public transportation, time, and cost come into play. As I mentioned before, if I have any issues with the early stages, it might be that it seems that they took a long time deciding that these were Lite Brites. Maybe the reports we’ve heard aren’t telling the whole story. For all we know, their bomb team thought there was no threat, but just went through all the motions to be safe. I really don’t want to arm chair quarterback any of their decisions. Their bomb disposal people were the ones who’s lives could have been on the line, not mine.
That’s about the end of what I think is ok though. With the current information that’s available, I don’t see any way that it could be proven that they were attempting a bomb scare or hoax. Trying to bring these guys up on charges for those things sounds ridiculous. It sounds like the mayor and some of the other officials are embarassed and they want a pound of flesh. I think they should have kept quiet other than condemning the ad compaign. They needed to suck it up and take whatever lumps they got for the Lite Brite scare. They had the high ground at that point. They were following procedure and looking out for the public. Now? Well I just saw a headline entitled “Laughingstocks.”
I read that they were released on $2500 bail. That doesn’t seem like much (considering bail bonds), so maybe someone is taking this with the seriousness it deserves?
But…but…
What about loss of face?!
This is what I don’t understand. You are saying that all of this expensive police action was an appropriate response. That costs the state (taxpayers) a lot of money along with the inconvenience, etc. This all happened because these men placed this sign someplace where, as I understand it, they had no legal right to put it. By putting up this sign, were they breaking a law?
Even if the whole thing was an unintended consequence (which I think it was) of a lesser crime, don’t they still have some responsibility? I agree “planting a hoax device” may not be the best description. But I think it went beyond vandalism or littering, especially if they were aware of what was happening and didn’t try to contact the police. I have no idea what the law says though.
Funny, how everyone is blaming TBS, Boston PD and everyone else in sight, without naming the real culprit, our fearmonger-, er commander-in-chief, who has used fear as an electoral device for the last five years.
I don’t think all the expensive police action was an appropriate response in the least. NONE of the other cities where these things were planted had that reaction, after all.
From a distance, perhaps they looked suspicious. But if someone called it in to the cops, as soon as a cop came to investigate, the fact that it was a flat board with a cartoon character on it should have been a tip-off that a million-dollar terrorist bomb alert did not need to be called.
Well, if a lite brite fell off a bridge, the sharp plastic edge could slice off somebody’s face. Felony face slicing, that’s what they should be charged with, because, it coulda happened.
Just to show what Boston’s Finest were dealing with, here’s a picture of what one of these things looked like in situ on a structural member in Cambridge, MA, in the blazing daylight.
Looks just like a terrorist explosive device, doesn’t it?
What does a terrorist explosive device look like, then? Ever seen one? Are they all alike?
They sure as hell don’t look like flat plastic boards with LEDs in the shape of a cartoon character flipping the bird.
Unless there’s been a rash of Cartoon Network character-emblazoned clipboard bombs taking out our troops in Iraq, or strapped to Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel that you wish to tell us about.
I don’t really have the answer for that other than it might just be the cost of doing business while we are at war with terror (band name?). As such, I guess the taxpayers end up getting stuck with the bill beyond what fines can be collected for placing advertising without a permit or whatever crime they actually committed.
Considering that bridge picture a few posts ago, my estimate of how many guys I worked with that would have done more than pull it off the bridge was probably way high.
Maybe they should be happy that they’ve gotten a good unplanned drill out of things?
They may have littered. Oooh! call out the national guard! As many people seem to have said so far in this thread, Boston officials should stop screaming, write them some tickets, and get on with their damned lives.
-Joe
Has anyone posted this yet?
I hope everyone has seen the interview with the two “suspects.”
It’s worth a look.
Fixed that for ya.
That reporter who asked, “If you get sent to prison, are you afraid that you’ll have your hair cut off?” seemed to be getting into the spirit of things.
The guy selling the tshirts posted a Myspace bulletin quoting this hate mail he recieved:
As I understand it, that first device was found well overhead. I couldn’t tell from the brief video I saw exactly what they did (I got most of my news over the radio). Would they actually have gone up first to get a close look do you think or would they have just put on the big suit and sent a robot over to detonate it and examine the wreckage?
The impression I get was that they started off being cautious with the first one and as reports of more of them started coming in, the whole thing snowballed.