Jules Crittenden has the latest on the obnoxious Beantown “guerilla marketers” who turned my hometown into a giant parking lot last week. One of the two enjoyed the mayhem so much, he filmed Boston’s finest taking down one of the “bombs” he p…

they were clearly intended to look like packages attached to bridges.

pedestrian on February 3, 2007 at 5:16 PM

They were intended to look like a cartoon character from a television show attached to popular places (bridges, comic shops, etc.). They were mistaken for something else.

Every argument you make has been repeatedly trashed.

RightWinged on February 3, 2007 at 2:30 PM

No, every argument they made has you repeatedly insisting that it’s been trashed…but you haven’t actually trashed anything because you haven’t convinced anyone to change their mind about their position.

While a long prison sentence may not be justified, I for one am tired of all the pigeon poo under the bridges in the Boston area and I would like these two to clean it up.

(And how the hell are those things “packages”?) I’m saying there was no reason to shut the whole freaking Hub down other than a ridiculous overabundance of caution.

Pablo on February 3, 2007 at 7:19 AM

Again, are you basing this on what actually happened… or the media hype? Who says they shut down the “whole freaking hub”? Sounds like they shut down specific areas to take proper precautions relating to specific calls.

As for packages… this is my problem, you don’t know. Maybe some of them were in packagas and hadn’t been hung yet. I’m not saying they were, but do you think just because you’ve seen a picture of one or two of the DOZENS of devices, you know exactly how they all appeared.

Again, all you people want do is go in circles. Every argument you make has been repeatedly trashed.

The bottom lines is that you are asleep at the switch, or at best you WANT all of us to be asleep at the switch.

You are (probably) not a terrorist (and obviously are not involved in protecting the lives of others), so you don’t educate yourself in the strategies involved in terrorism. You sit there convincing yourself that YOU have it all figured out and all you are really doing is showing everyone here just how oblivious you are to the reality of a post 9/11 world. So, do us all a favor….next time you want to criticize those whom are tasked with the responsibility of protecting us, preface your remarks with a statement explaining that you believe 9/11 was an anomalous event, and that everything is back to normal.

The ‘google search’ comment was more of an exaggerated example to say how easy it would have been to figure this out. No need to get melodramatic about it.

Are you saying that if the police knew these were cartoon characters that they would have determined that they were not bombs?

They aren’t foreign electronic devices placed on bridges, etc. where they don’t belong.

No, they’re not flat panels with LED’s in the shape of a cartoon character flipping the bird.

BUT THEY COULD BE BOMBS!!!! And isn’t that what really matters?

I keep hearing “Wires! Batteries! CIRCUIT BOARDS!” What’s missing? Well, anything else. Anything at all.

Well perhaps you should have actually followed the live coverage, instead of jumping on the police bashing bandwagon and seen that this is what happened. The bomb squad took the proper precaution and DID DETONATE the first package found.

OK, that being the case, and that one being at the Sullivan Square T station, and knowing that the thing was harmess, why shut down the freaking river, ferchrissakes?

What if some were a distraction? You’d be bashing the police for not being vigilant enough and you know it.

What makes you say that? I tend to blame things on the people who did them, not those who failed to stop them from happening. I expect public officials to act reasonably, something not terribly common in the People’s Republic.

By no means am I saying they should have ignored the devices. (And how the hell are those things “packages”?) I’m saying there was no reason to shut the whole freaking Hub down other than a ridiculous overabundance of caution. And with that sort of caution, they ought to shut the whole Big Dig down and start over. But you’re not going to see that, because this is Massachusetts and that would be politically incorrect, and they’d have to start locking up the criminals responsible for that debacle.

Talk to a couple of bomb squad boys (or their widows) and tell them they are too jumpy about their job. And they will tell you about the men who have been severly injured or killed…while you can second guess them behind a computer the day after.

right2bright on February 2, 2007 at 3:51 PM

I know, all of this second guessing, monday morning quarterbacking, hindsight police bashing is really shocking and annoying. Just because the media hyped something, doesn’t mean the police didn’t follow proper procedure.

RightWinged on February 2, 2007 at 2:57 PM

Good post. We have a family friend that on the police bomb squad they found a device, in a school, that was obviously a fake device. Wires hanging out, a flare instead of dynamite an obvious fake…except it blew up when they moved it with the remote and into the bomb suppression truck. He still remembers the men laughing as he was manuvering the robot picking it up. Actually he was relaxed about it because it was so obvious, but he followed procedure. Enough of an explosion to lose a leg or an arm or put a nice hole in the chest. Talk to a couple of bomb squad boys (or their widows) and tell them they are too jumpy about their job. And they will tell you about the men who have been severly injured or killed…while you can second guess them behind a computer the day after.

What did HandBanana know and when did he know it?

We also now know that a baby’s bottle can be a bomb. So, next time I go to the Mall, I’m calling Homeland Security and the ATF in.

Pablo on February 2, 2007 at 6:29 AM

Dude, you’re proving me right again… you people just go in circles with the same repeated arguments. Sure a baby’s bottle could be a bomb, just as someone else mentioned a car, car stereo, etc. etc.

The difference? They aren’t foreign electronic devices placed on bridges, etc. where they don’t belong.

If we’re going to shut down an entire city over every report of a suspicious item, the terrorists have won.

It seems to me that the proper response is to have a bomb squad guy take a look at one of the things before assuming it to be a bomb. I’m assuming that bomb squads have a capacity to detect explosives similar to that in luggage screening equipment, and that they also have an understanding of most types of bomb construction. The evidence of this being appropriate behavior is that they didn’t blow them up, they picked them up and said “Huh. A lite brite flipping the bird.” and took them down.

As ridiculous as these two guys may be, they’re not nearly as ridiculous as what they’ve been charged with: placing a hoax device. That’s going to be dropped, and I’d imagine that the disorderly conduct charge won’t stick either.

Pablo on February 2, 2007 at 9:01 AM

Well perhaps you should have actually followed the live coverage, instead of jumping on the police bashing bandwagon and seen that this is what happened. The bomb squad took the proper precaution and DID DETONATE the first package found. Once that was done, they moved more swiftly to pick the others up, while still being cautious. Again, what would you be saying if they hadn’t, and some of these had turned out to be real devices? What if some were a distraction? You’d be bashing the police for not being vigilant enough and you know it. (here’s where you actually try to tell me that you’d be on here saying “well, I can’t blame them for ignoring them. I mean, the first one turned out to be not a bomb. That means none of the others are.”)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wcvb/20070131/lo_wcvb/10890113

The first device was found under Interstate 93, and the state police bomb squad was called and detonated the package in Sullivan Square just before 10 a.m. Officials said it contained an electronic circuit board with some components that were “consistent with an improvised explosive device,” but they said it had no explosives.

Several hours later, Boston police said the department received four calls, all at about 1 p.m., reporting the devices. Officials responded to at least nine locations, including the Boston University Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge, the McGrath O’Brien Highway in Somerville, a comic store on Harvard Avenue in Brighton, a location near the intersection of Stuart and Columbus streets, a location near Washington and Water streets and under the McCarthy Overpass in Somerville, according to Davis.

A device described by officials as a pipe bomb was found in the basement of the Tufts New England Medical Center at 185 Harrison Ave.

Anyone else wonder why the calls all came in at the same time, if these had supposedly been out there for weeks?

If this isn’t proof terrorists are winning, I don’t know what is.
JaHerer22 on February 1, 2007 at 3:49 PM

And you still don’t want to do anything about it, here or the middle east, do ya?

while the fear of unproven, shaky “science” regarding “global warming” being a valid thing to be hysterical about.

NTWR on February 2, 2007 at 1:45 PM

I remember a child’s story with a very similar plot line. I think the story is called “Chicken Little”, or something like that.

I’m not ready to become one of those people who live their lives in daily fear and anxiety wondering when it will happen.

thedecider on February 2, 2007 at 12:07 AM

Sorry to be off-topic, but I can’t get over the hypocrisy of the fear of possible IEDs being considered “hysteria” while the fear of unproven, shaky “science” regarding “global warming” being a valid thing to be hysterical about.

Just sayin’.

Sullivan Square IS in Boston, not “far outside of Boston, in fact in a whole other city”. It’s very close to Somverville, but is actually part of Boston.

dandellsun on February 2, 2007 at 10:48 AM

Some people consider Sullivan Square to be part of Somerville, and Charlestown (Boston).

Except for calling you out for having a potty mouth, that stands also.

not2bright on February 2, 2007 at 12:19 PM

You can’t be serious.

Except for calling you out for having a potty mouth, that stands also.

They could have done a google search? The Police department, everytime they see something out of sorts they do a google search?
right2bright on February 2, 2007 at 11:26 AM

Yes, because everyone responding to this was in such a hurry that nobody had time to actually look at what they were blowing up.

They spent $750k on this and not one person was around a computer long enough to see what it was they were actually dealing with? Let’s be realistic; the police, CTU, or whoever else physically responds is a small percentage of the total force involved in these situations.