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.
Seems to me they should lighten up.
Face it, in a free society if someone wants to place a bomb, they're going to place a bomb.
Sure it's a stupid stunt, but that's what it was meant to be.
I disagree. Throw the book at them. This was beyond stupid and goes into criminal.
Kids call in bomb threats at schools and disrupt classes, They are held criminally responsible. Whats good for kids is good for adults who should know better.
Who again, is winning the war on terror. Every time we react to something this patently silly, we fairly scream, "LOSERS". The people have paid a lot and will continue paying a lot, while not solving the problem.
I am afraid Bush and company have squandered much of the impetus (righteous anger) of the American people and will come away with little more than the degradation of the GOP and the American reputation.
Since the end of WWII, we have been plagued with an intelligence service that is anything but (yes, even before Clinton/Gorelick) and a determination to do everything possible to not win a war that we so readily enter into.
Muslims outraged
I agree with you, Sarge.
Bill them for the overtime and other expenses and give jail time to these "creative artists"!!!!
I'd bet $10 it was Shake ,, Fry wouldn't have done it... Meatwad probably helped..
"Kids call in bomb threats at schools and disrupt classes, They are held criminally responsible."
Did someone call in a bomb threat? From what I've read they were silly toys and didn't resemble a bomb in the slightest. Well ok maybe from a 1000 yds away with the sun on your eyes.
It was a stupid stunt and the yokels in Boston over reacted. The only thing they haven't done is blamed Bush, yet.
I don't think a reasonable person would have responded in such a manner and my bet the jury won't think so either.
Check out This Gallery of pictures to get an idea of the mess it caused.
If somebody wants to plant a bomb, they're gonna plant a bomb. And if we catch them, we're going to throw the book at them. If somebody plants a fake bomb, if we catch them, we're going to throw the book at them. If somebody plants 38 fake bombs, we're going to throw the book at them over and over again.
Works for me.
broad brush paint time:
BOSTONIANS ARE IDIOTS
Need evidence?
Ted Kennedy, John F'n Kerry.
Bingo.
The fact that they were up for 2-3 weeks in several other cities, with no official overreaction, says a lot. What it says, does not reflect well upon Boston's crack police and overall "homeland security".
And now, they're all full of indignation and bluster, threatening prosecution, as a smokescreen for their own poor reaction.
Yeah... when MacDonalds gives you your HappyMeal with polonium-210 in it... you should laugh it off.
Did the stunt inconvenience thousands - or the inappropriate reaction of Boston's finest?
You're quite wrong, David. Intell has always been a hit or miss enterprise and even the few times in history where intell has been near perfect, it has been misinterpreted.
A good primer on the subject is Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by John Keegan.
You train cops and citizens to look for certain things to identify potential bombs.
You train them to look for batteries. You train them to look for wires. You train them to look for things strapped to vital infrastructure. You train them to look for blinking lights.
These devices had all those things. They were obviously stupid signs, but they had all the checklist items for "BOMB". One could not design these things and fail to realize that fact.
Why the exposed battery pack? Why the exposed wiring? Why design them that way unless you wanted them to have the same characteristics that everybody is looking for in a bomb?
And, finally, why get people used to odd electrical devices strapped to bridge supports and the like? This exact same looking unit could have been strapped to a block of C-4, and could have caused real hazard, properly placed.
Turner'$ got deep pocket$. Course he probably he running an errand for Bin Laddie.
I say send in Detective Assy McGee. He is a no-nonsense renegade cop who will get to the bottom of this!
http://www.adultswim.com/shows/assy/
See #11. I'm sorry if you're from that pitiful state. So is my wife but she and most of her siblings left there over 30 years ago.
I'm going to be even more sorry for us here in NH some day because that's where all of you are going to be coming with the excrement engages with the atmospheric propulsion device. And that will be a disaster for us. Maybe we should throw up a barricade on 93 at the Methuen/Salem line and a few other crossings.
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