You know what makes the entire 'suspicious device' cycle from yesterday actually less annoying?
The entire "suspicious device" cycle from today. Because today, every two-bit pundit with internet access and an opinion is weighing in as if they had double-majored in Marketing and Chemistry with minor in Law Enforcement. (Pot? Kettle. Kettle? Pot.)
I stick by the following assertions:
1) The area police didn't overreact.
Next time you look at a photo of one of these things, stop looking at the goddamn LED board for a second and look at the wires and large tube wrapped with electrical tape at the bottom of it. If your job involves looking for bombs, and you see a thing mounted to I-93 that has many of the same components that are used to create a makeshift bomb, I think you have all the reason in the world to be suspicious of it. That these things were hanging in other cities, and here, without incident, for two weeks and change, is immaterial. And say... what if there's other suspicious events happening around the city and the country? Events like, say, the ones mentioned here in a timeline released by the Boston Police Department? It's easy to armchair quarterback this but it certainly looks like there was enough going on yesterday to justify their reaction.
Furthermore, look at the net positive here: several area law enforcement agencies had to work in cooperation yesterday. I'm guessing we had Boston, Cambridge and Somerville Police Departments involved, plus the MBTA Transit Police, plus the Massachusetts State Police, plus the FBI. Had this been an actual emergency... well, to them it was. And what happened? A lot of people were inconvenienced but the city did not become a police state. And God forbid something like this turns out to be real, they've got this experience to learn from.
2) The area police reaction was not "fascist" or one of a hundred other synonyms for fascist that I saw tossed around the interwebs.
Bomb squad gets called for not-immediately-identifiable device. Bomb squad removes & detonates that device and shuts down transit & highways as a precaution. These actions? Not fucking fascist.
MBTA wants to random pick me out of a all the passengers on a train to search my backpack when I'm minding my own goddamn business? Now we're riding into fascist territory. (Note: If the MBTA were truly Fascist maybe the damn trains would run on time.)
3) Area politicians overreacted. Big time.
Once you know that it's a half-assed publicity stunt for a cartoon show, you're only making yourself look like an ass when you keep tossing around words like 'bomb' and 'terrorist' and threatening to commandeer the USS Constitution for the sole purpose of keelhauling the people responsible. This goes for every elected official in any way touched by yesterday's events: there are times to just keep your damn mouth shut.
Thank you for being a voice of reason on this. You're the only person whose opinion on the subject hasn't made me want to start choking people. God bless you.
Posted by: Timmy Mac | February 05, 2007 at 01:39 PM