The day after the mooninite invasion there are far more questions than answers. But there is one question that should be front and center and so far the media has been ignoring it.How could someone install a device 20 feet above a busway without anybody seeing anything?????
Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens may have done the City of Boston more good than harm when they installed those 38 lite brite devices all over the city because it exposes just how vulnerable we are to someone who would really want to hurt us.
Think about it.
Nobody saw or reported anything amiss when these "ads" were deployed. Nobody thought anything was unusual. THAT should frighten Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick far more than what actually happened yesterday. Peter and Sean could have been planting explosives just as easily as the lite brites. Every security measure implemented after 9/11 FAILED in this case and the Mayor and Governor instead of screaming at Turner Broadcasting should instead look in the mirror and ask 'how did we allow this to happen'. Don't think this hasn't gone unnoticed by real terrorist who now could think it would be easier to launch an attack against the city.
Then at the next level there are so many questions to be asked that you almost don't know where to begin. Just take the simple fact that these devices were sitting around for TWO WEEKS before anybody in authority really noticed them. For 2 weeks the Boston Police didn't notice this strange light on an overpass?
or this?
Of course nobody in 9 other cities reported anything amiss either but today city officials nationwide are expressing dismay over the stunt
In the Seattle area, the first device was found Tuesday by a Woodinville Public Works Department crew working on a railroad trestle over Highway 202, said Woodinville Police Chief John McSwain.
"Public Works found it and took it down and didn't even bother to call us" because the device didn't appear to be threatening, he said.
When news of events in Boston began to be reported Wednesday, he said, the Seattle Police Department called and passed on the information about the locations of other devices.
McSwain and other officers removed three more of the devices from various locations, including an awning at a business, in a mini-mall and in front of another business.
The appearance of the devices indicated they weren't too sinister, with one officer describing them as a battery, a light and a cartoon character making an obscene gesture, McSwain said.
Three devices also were found in Bothell, police reported. Officers acting on information from the Seattle Police Department removed the devices and knew the devices were not a threat.
Seattle police also found several of the devices in the city but declined to reveal their location or how many there were.
Police here believe there were 56 devices in Philadelphia similar to the ones in Boston that caused a terrorism scare, authorities said yesterday.
However, the blinking electronic devices in Philadelphia were not discovered until after the ones found in Boston were revealed to be a promotion for a late-night cable television cartoon show. There were no immediate signs of anyone panicking from the Philadelphia devices.
Mayor Street's spokesman, Joe Grace, said one device was found attached to a commercial sign at Sixth and South Streets and there were possibly 55 others. A cease-and-desist letter was sent to Turner Broadcasting, threatening fines for violating zoning codes.
Grace said Philadelphia intended to recoup all costs associated with what he called "a stupid, reckless, irresponsible prank."
"Chicago Police are aware of the marketing campaign locations and have been taking the necessary steps to remove the devices," said Chicago Police spokeswoman Monique Bond. The number of devices removed and their locations weren't available.
"It's behavior like this that can divert the city's first responders from genuine emergencies," said Kevin Smith of the Office of Emergency Management.
The publicity stunt that put a scare in Boston also had repercussions in New York City, where police took to the streets in search of the blinking devices and the marketing firm thought to be behind the hoax is based.
The NYPD had not received any complaints about the devices prior to the Boston scare, said police spokesman Paul Browne. But when the police department became aware of the situation in Boston, it contacted the New York marketing firm Interference Inc., which cooperated and provided a list of locations so the devices could be removed.
Police said Interference gave them a list of 41 locations where they had planned to place the signs — on an awning in the trendy Meatpacking District, on a metal door frame in Greenwich Village, on a fence-top on the Lower East Side — but it was unclear how many were actually dispersed.
Officers went to the various locations amid the hysteria in Boston, and found only two of the devices — both attached to an overpass at 33rd Street and the West Side Highway.
The outfit responsible for planting blinking devices that prompted bomb scares and a wave of road and bridge closures today in Boston scattered 20 of the devices in San Francisco, police said.Paranoid??? Bostonians??? I'm shocked, shocked!!!!
One of the devices was found last week on a sign above a Clement Street art gallery and design store called Park Life. Store owner Jamie Alexander, 37, said the device was 12 inches wide and 15 inches tall, with a blinking, robotic figure displaying a middle finger. It had been attached with magnets.
Alexander said he did not suspect a terrorist plot.
"I thought, 'What the hell is this?' " Alexander said. "I left it up. I though it was cool."
On Sunday, after the device ran out of battery power and stopped blinking, he had a friend climb a ladder and take it down.
Alexander said he could understand some of the anxiety caused by the devices, if only because the one he found had about a half-dozen "D" batteries crudely taped to it.
"But those people are pretty paranoid," he said of the reaction in Boston.
As for Turner Broadcasting? Well they wanted publicity and they got it. Brendon Behan once remarked "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." and since it is unlikely that Turner or Time-Warner will suffer any more than some fines and restitution for this stunt there maybe some executives giving themselves high fives behind closed doors. Millions of people are now aware that Adult Swim exists that didn't yesterday. This story is front page news across the globe from Sydney to London.
This morning the Commonwealth went after Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens but they are nothing more than scapegoats in this. What they have done is show just how very much at risk we all are.
8 comments:
They probably put the blinky device up between 1 and 5 am, when there is no bus, Orange Line, or commuter train traffic through that area. Nobody would be around there to notice since it's neither a business nor a residential area.
I think the more pertinent issue at Sullivan is how easy it is to access the supports for a major highway from the station.
I see your point. The bad guys could plant some nasty stuff in the dead of night and nobody would know.
SO if they are so proud of themselves, why not show their faces?
I think we can say the company, was in the wrong, and the city of Boston was in the right. I so want to 'do an art project' on those two.
I don't think we can see these two guys are in the wrong, and maybe not their bosses either. (though the Globe has some troubling info about the Marketing firm) And I don't think its fair to say Boston's purely in the right. I think the initial response was appropriate but the continued and increasing panic through the rest of the day wasn't justified. Further, suggesting that anyone was trying to incite panic and charging two artists with such is completely uncalled for and really just distracts us from real concerns that should be drawn from these events.
At most, the two artists were guilty of minor misdemeanors like vandalism or trespassing --- certainly not anything felonious like intentionally planting hoax bombs.
Did 9/11 change everything? Yeah, but it was five and half years ago. Time to change back.
Did 9/11 change everything? Yeah, but it was five and half years ago. Time to change back.
There is a guy in a cave that wants exactly that
All you people saying that we should be throwing these people in jail cause it could have been a bomb need to realize that if we live in fear of terrorists they have already won. And from some of the comments here they have won.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
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