Posted on 02/01/2007 3:16:22 AM PST by billorites
A furious Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed yesterday to throw the book at the masterminds behind a guerrilla marketing campaign gone amok that plunged the city into bomb-scare pandemonium and blew nearly $1 million in police overtime and other costs.
As city and state attorneys laid groundwork for criminal charges and lawsuits, cops seized 27-year-old Arlington multimedia artist Peter Berdovsky, who posted film on his Web site boasting that he and friends planted the battery-wired devices, and Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown. Both were jailed overnight on charges of placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.
“This is outrageous activity to get publicity for a failing show,” said Menino, referring to the battery-operated light-up ads for the Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” which sparked at least nine bomb scares in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.
Menino promised to sue Turner Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network’s parent company, and criminally prosecute Berdovsky and anyone else responsible for the devices, and to petition the FCC to pull the network’s license.
Attorney General Martha Coakley was put in charge of the case and said the companies behind the promotion would be investigated. She said the felony charge of planting a hoax device could be broad enough to allow prosecution even if the stunt’s sponsors did not intend a panic.
“To do this kind of placement of devices the way it was, an individual had to know or should have that it was going to create the kind of panic it did,” Coakley said last night during a press conference.
Panic was the order of the day in Boston as city, state and federal investigators, police and bomb units raced through the city seeking 38 of the devices, in some cases destroying them as a precaution.
Shutdowns affected Storrow and Memorial drives, the Longfellow and Boston University bridges and Interstate 93, while extra Coast Guard patrols were seen at Rowes Wharf and at commuter ferries.
“I cannot state strongly enough the seriousness of this offense,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley. “Commerce was disrupted, transportation routes were paralyzed, residents were stranded, relatives across the nation were in fear for their loved ones here in the city of Boston.”
In a statement, Turner Broadcasting said the light-emitting devices pose no danger and are part of a 10-city outdoor marketing campaign for the cartoon program. A Boston police spokesman said the company did not have permits to place the signs in the city.
“We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger,” the Turner statment said.
All told, the cost of extra police and activating the city’s anti-terror command center will cost Boston $800,000 to $1 million in damages, an angry Menino estimated.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he was not impressed by the apology from Turner Broadcasting.“I am deeply dismayed to learn that the devices are a part of a marketing campaign. This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community,” he said.
The bomb scare reports began about 8 a.m. when a MBTA worker reported a package with wires and tubes protruding from it that was stuck on a steel girder under Interstate 93 at Sullivan Square Station in Charlestown. The devices, featuring characters with raised middle fingers, had magnetic backs and were affixed to metal.
The reports spread throughout the day to the Boston University and Longfellow bridges, Downtown Crossing, the intersection of Stuart Street and Columbus Avenue, the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, the McCarthy Overpass on the McGrath O’Brien Highway in Somerville and at a comic book store in Brighton.
The discovery of two more devices last night at the Massachusetts College of Art prompted another brief evacuation. By the end of the day, investigators had recovered 14 of the 38 devices believed to be placed in the Boston area and urged the public to report the whereabouts of others.
Just after three p.m., two bomb-sniffing dogs swept through City Hall, spending 16 minutes in Menino’s office. “It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this irresponsible marketing scheme,” Menino said.
What you said....
Bostonians get excited a little too easily. Funny thing is it was probably a suburban commuter who noticed the 1st one, and older cops and older media then responded in a cascade effect. Meanwhile, any college kid would have known it was a marketing stunt.
Is that "they" meaning Fox & Friends, or "they" meaning the people who set up the magnetic thingies?
Memo to the mayor: The Cartoon Network doesn't have or need an FCC license. It's on cable.
That one whatever-it-is was flipping the bird at people for 2 to 3 weeks and that's not a problem in Boston?
Did somebody call in a "bomb threat"? If so, they need to be prosecuted big time. If not, then it is simply a prank gone wrong. They could get them for littering or advertising without a permit or some other relatively silly ordinance violation but the "bomb scare" was solely in the minds of passers by and the city itself.
If your trying to lug a few suitcases through the airport and a bag drops unnoticed as you continue on and a police officer sees an unattended "package" and calls the bomb squad and they evacuate the terminal, and they take 27 8x10 color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explainin' what each one was to be used against you in a court of law.... should you be held responsible for the officer's overreaction?
Of course, he was acting on the side of caution but that doesn't mean we (as bag droppers) can't goof up from time to time anymore because of the events of 9/11.
But this raises a question: Did anyone complain? And if so, were they blown off?
These devices were designed to look hostile. They were designed with the characteristics that people are looking for in a bomb.
They are, obviously, signs. But the features, such as exposed battery packs, exposed wiring and method of placement, play on the fact that people are looking for just such things in bombs. This was intentional.
If you play around with such things, the state is going to come after you with all the wrath it can muster. As well it should. This sort of idiocy we don't need.
We have to agree to disagree on this one.
This was a stupid stunt.
At the least someone should pay for the problems it caused.
It wasnt funny taken in context with the way the world is today.
His only issue is how much it cost not how much his police overreacting cost the citizens caught up in this gaff.
Its pretty obvious that a threat was perceived.
Perhaps that perception was proven false, but it was a perfectly legitimate perception. Otherwise why hide these things where a real bomb would have caused real problems.
They could have just as easily just been left on a curb somewhere.
No, I missed that.
These things were not made from a Lite-Brite. They were made with LEDs wired into place. You can tell that just by looking at them. No way you are going to get the kind of brightness you need from a couple of D-Cells through a Lite-Brite.
The design of these things was not accidental. They were not cobbled together by some dumb kid. They were designed to attract attention from people who have been trained to look for bombs.
You play with fire, you get burned. Burn, baby, burn.
I suspect you will find that the problem with the intelligence services is the same thing that is infecting all of our society -- the rampant proliferation of lawyers and their blind adherence to the letter of the law instead of the spirit. eg.: JAG.
Depends, was the officer's name, Obie?
Honestly, tho. If, on my daily commute to work, I noticed something new that looks like that out of the corner of my eye, especially if it was tucked under an underpass or taped to the support of a bridge and hadn't been there the day before, I would certainly call it in.
It's nice seeing some sense injected, by someone with professional training, among all the knee jerk "hang the Turner people from the yardarm!" stuff. Thanks.
OK, I'll cop to that. Hollywood conditioning it is. Nevertheless, these devices were designed to play into what the public is looking for in a bomb. That is what makes them an effective advertising device.
If you pull such stunts, the state is going to be very, very angry with you. As well they should be.
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