[IP] Re: Stupidity Meets Overreaction in Beantown Bomb Scare

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: h_bray@globe.com
Date: February 2, 2007 5:13:33 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Stupidity Meets Overreaction in Beantown Bomb  
Scare


Mac Daniel of the Boston Globe explains that there was good reason  
for local cops to react more aggressively than police in other cities...


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/02/02/ 
device_location_was_factor_in_reaction/

Excerpt:

In six of the nine other cities where the Turner Broadcasting System  
guerrilla ads were installed, they were not placed on or near major  
highways, bridges, or transit hubs, as they were in Boston.

Law enforcement officials in other cities and in Boston said  
yesterday that the difference helps to explain the vastly different  
responses. While no one had reported the magnetic lighted signs as  
suspicious in the other cities, they caused a bomb scare that  
paralyzed parts of the Boston region for much of Wednesday.
"I think Boston reacted the way they did because someone noticed the  
devices and rightly thought that they might be dangerous," Atlanta  
Police spokesman Joe Cobb said in a telephone interview. "I would  
think that we would have reacted similarly."

And one other thing:  Why did Bostonians suddenly freak out on  
Wednesday, when the signs had been up for weeks?  Because they hadn't  
been...

Berdovsky told police that late Monday and early Tuesday he and the  
other man charged, Sean Stevens, put up 18 of the signs.

It's not clear if these were the signs that were spotted by worried  
citizens.  But if they were, the Boston reaction suddenly makes a  
good deal of sense.


Hiawatha Bray


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