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.
>>They were designed to attract attention from people who have been trained to look for bombs.
Please go read Caesar Soze's post #48, and get back to us on that.
I never realised so many adults watched cartoons.
Show me one picture of a bomb that has lights on it. Do Terrorists wearing bomb belts stroll through Isreali checkpoints with flashing LEDs "Bomb here, bomb here"
Don't be stupid. Bombs don't EVER, EVER, EVER have lights on them advertising themselves. Not once, not ever. It only happens in the movies.
Looks like you did, semi-concurrently to my post.
Has it struck anyone funny that the liberals, who are shouting so loudly, overreact when they see a blinking light?
Listen folks, this isn't 24 where every bomb has a digital countdown clock. If they were bombs, they would have looked like bombs--not some kids toys.
After listening to the radio for five minutes, I knew this was a scam, or a scavenger hunt, or something silly. As soon as I got home and saw the picture, it proved it.
I can just see the weenies on Comm Ave marching one way to end the war, and then stampeding the other way if they see a rat cross the street.
And then they would sue the government for not warning them about the rat, or preventing it---without infringing on the rats rights.
Boston is full of very smart dopes.
Aqua Teens is certainly no "Simpsons," but I enjoy the twelve minutes of humor they provide per episode.
Adult Swim, which is non-kid-friendly cartoons on late at night on Cartoon Network, is pretty popular. They've got a show on now called "Metalocalypse" that's I find pretty funny. It's a send up on metal bands. Also, South Park is very political, and often friendly to conservatives (very friendly to libertarians). And the Simpsons is enormously popular/successful.
I'm not saying Boston over-reacted but you can't charge people with crimes they didn't commit.
If I were a citizen of Boston, I would like to see a break down of these costs. Are we paying somebody to turn on an emergency management software program? Are there special people that only get paid when there is a crisis? Bomb squad? K-9 Handlers? Or do these people collect salaries and only alter their job descriptions when a crisis takes place and maybe rake in a few extra hours of overtime? Or would we be fining these people for merely raising the mayor's blood pressure for a few hours?
Serious question, what's the basis behind this estimate?
Once upon a time, people thought that no one would ever fly a jetliner into a skyscraper.
If I were a terrorist, which I am not, I would strap harmless devices all over the place for a while, to get people used to looking at harmless devices strapped all over vital public infrastructure. Then, when it is time for the attack, the harmless devices can be replaced with harmful devices.
If, on one of my expeditions to place harmless devices all over the public infrastructure, I am stopped, I can howl bloddy murder about police over-reaction to my silly publicity stunt.
The pictures I saw looked like signs, you know flat with flashing lights on them? I gotta say that I haven't seen too many bombs other than the standard stuff the military had like claymores and grenades and of course pictures of the unibombers handiwork, but I can assure you that claymores and grenades don't have flashing lights on them., and the unibomber didn't decorate his work to look like an advertising sign either.
What if someone builds 38 devices that are not "fake bombs," don't look like "fake bombs," and were never intended to be "fake bombs," and the local idiots in charge overreact when a couple of morons think the (obviously not bomb) devices are bombs?
I fail to see how making these signs actually brighter with LED's as opposed to D-Cell batteries makes them any more frightening. If anything, the fact that the designers were trying to make them MORE visible (with the image of a glowing cartoon character, mind you) would lead me to believe these things weren't dangerous, if I was spotting them on my commute to work.
Welcome to the police state were advertising signs are automatically assumed to be terrorist weapons of mass destruction, and corporations are blamed for liberal politicians and their police force complet stupidity. These signs obviously posed no threat as they were only thick enough for the led's and battery that powered them. It was obvious that there was little room to put in a sufficient amount of explosive to kill anyone. On top of that Cartoon Network sent messages before hand telling them of their existance.
That is total, unadulterated rubbish. Stop being an apologist for the STUPIDIST people in the country. That is the idiocy we don't need.
You really should try to keep track of your bags in an airport. There are signs all over the place telling people to report suspicious unattended packages and suitcases. What do you suppose is going to happen if your suitcase is unattended? Your carelessness is going to inconvenience a lot of people.
But you should not be liable, because you had no intent to cause a problem. The difference is the intent. You were just going about your legitimate business and wound up causing a problem unintentionally. Unless you conduct was outrageous or negligent, there is not problem.
But this was not accidental. These things were put all over the place intentionally. They were designed purposefully. There is intent in spades. That is the difference.
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