Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Boston Scare Caused By Marketing Mistake
WNBC Television ^ | 02/01/07 | Puppage

Posted on 02/01/2007 5:02:47 AM PST by Puppage

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 221-237 next last
To: Constitution Day

Jumping is useless.


121 posted on 02/01/2007 6:59:03 AM PST by Wormwood (Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderate)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: DB

So... the next time there are six or so calls from all over reporting suspicious boxes that all sound similar, say in various shopping malls, they should just blow it off? Just tell the caller to kick one of the boxes and see what happens?

Yeah... we'd respect that decision here. I'm sure Freepers would be first in line to say "well, at least they didn't overreact". No... we'd be calling them idiots.


122 posted on 02/01/2007 7:00:47 AM PST by Ramius ([sip])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 116 | View Replies]

To: Polonius
The only "hoax" is in the mind of the public officials who overreacted and their enablers in the hysterical media.

heheh.. What a bunch of morons. What sort of bomb squad to they got there in Boston? The things are a big yawn in the NINE other cities where they are up, but Bostonians have a heart attack. BAHAHAHA!

123 posted on 02/01/2007 7:03:01 AM PST by Smogger (It's the WOT Stupid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: DB

That..... was the threat????


124 posted on 02/01/2007 7:03:03 AM PST by stevio (God, Guns, and Guts made America. A politician against any of the 3 doesn't get my vote. (NRA))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Wormwood

Let's leave this primitive rock, because there's nothing but cavemen here.


125 posted on 02/01/2007 7:03:31 AM PST by Constitution Day (hm, that quote could easily apply to this very site sometimes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: Ramius

That's not what I said and you know it.

They should absolutely go check it out.

But they shouldn't go shut down the city without making some educated evaluation of the suspicious item(s). Especially ones that were in plain sight including its internals for more than a week.


126 posted on 02/01/2007 7:04:54 AM PST by DB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: stevio

Yep...


127 posted on 02/01/2007 7:06:40 AM PST by DB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies]

To: longtermmemmory
How do we know what they were? We have drug smugglers using children's dolls and teddy bears.

Gee I guess everything is a potential bomb.

128 posted on 02/01/2007 7:07:53 AM PST by Smogger (It's the WOT Stupid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Caesar Soze
The lesson here is that criminals attempt to hide their bombs using everyday, innocuous objects that do not draw attention to themselves. Magnetic signs with light-up Mooninites do not fit the profile. (If you want to ignore the profile, than yeah, anything could be a bomb. It could be someone you know. Someone you trust You might be a bomb and not even know it.

I wouldn't be so flippant,its said that the soviets used booby traps designed to look like toys,and a one inch wide sheet of plastic explosive in a claymore like device designed to attract attraction especially kids is a real terrorist possibility

129 posted on 02/01/2007 7:10:00 AM PST by Charlespg (Peace= When we trod the ruins of Mecca and Medina under our infidel boots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

--Most TV is either drivel, propaganda, or a sales pitch. I rarely watch it.--

Try the Animal Channel, History Channel, Discovery Channel. There is another channel that shows a lot of episodes on how things are made.


130 posted on 02/01/2007 7:10:55 AM PST by UpAllNight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: AD from SpringBay

I don't know, but a lot of times you can find them with muslims attached.


131 posted on 02/01/2007 7:11:12 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: DB
There's public trash cans all over the place.
One could put big - real - bombs in those and raise no suspicions.

Octoberfest, Munich, 19(80?)...
I and some friends left the festival through a gate, and 15 minutes later, a bomb in a trash container exploded, injuring several people..

If you want to "be safe" then you'll have to clear the streets of everything that could hide something including cars.

Take a look at Iraq / Baghdad.. The biggest bomb threat there is car bombs..
Along with the 2 other terrorist faves, roadside IED's and human bombs, the car bomb is probably one of the hardest to stop / prevent..( Assuming the driver is dedicated..)
In this country, where no one is seriously searching vehicles for bombs, every inch of america is a potentially vulnerable target..

132 posted on 02/01/2007 7:11:25 AM PST by Drammach ("If you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." -- Benjamin Franklin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: MizSterious
Now, at least, the terrorists know that as long as they put a cartoon character (even ones as dubious as these) on their devices, no one will take them seriously. Until they explode.

You mean as opposed to filling an everyday object, like a car or truck, with tons of explosives they are going to switch to small conspicuous signs?

133 posted on 02/01/2007 7:11:47 AM PST by Smogger (It's the WOT Stupid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: Puppage
The 20 or so of these things found in Seattle drew no 911 calls, only raised eyebrows from passerby's who saw them. At least the people of Boston were observant of something not looking right and took action.
134 posted on 02/01/2007 7:14:43 AM PST by NavyCanDo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MizSterious
No, but I've seen the really POORLY drawn "characters."

They're NOT POORLY DRAWN..
They are representations of early computer game sprites..
They're supposed to look like that.. It's the whole point behind their characters..

135 posted on 02/01/2007 7:16:18 AM PST by Drammach ("If you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." -- Benjamin Franklin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Miss Marple
"Had I seen one of these devices, I probably would have reported it myself."

I'm with you on this one. I wouldn't have recognized the image as a character from a cartoon show. Whatever happened to dressing people up in character costumes to advertise a cartoon movie? Putting gadgets with wires and batteries, and nothing to otherwise identify them at sites (bridges, subway stations) known to be terrorist targets wasn't the brightest ad campaign decision.

136 posted on 02/01/2007 7:18:56 AM PST by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway~~John Wayne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DB

Man, don't you understand we are living in a post 9-11 world?

That means governments gets to freak out over nothing, make themselves look like idiots, then arrest those who did little more than post bills on a light post? This is vengance on the part of the authorities for being shown their own ignorance.

With the full support of a bunch of "limited governemnt" "consertvatives". FR is quickly becoming a joke.


137 posted on 02/01/2007 7:22:11 AM PST by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: DB

The whole city of Boston was shut down? C'mon... who's overreacting here? Or did they close a bridge because it was where they were sent to look at one of these gizmos?

Look, I wasn't there. I'm gathering you were, or at least some posters were, and got stuck in traffic jams because of this. Unfortunately it doesn't take much to mess up a city, especially trafficwise.

Here in Seattle, I can imagine a similar situation. If somebody called in a report of some kind of bomb threat to one of the floating bridges in the city I have little doubt they'd close the bridge to investigate. Such a closure would take only minutes to start to affect traffic. An hour or more and the effects would ripple to the other bridges and routes, paralyzing the city.

But remember: WE are the ones that have made it that way. WE are the ones that demand that "the authorities" have a zero-mistake quota. They're not allowed to use judgement. Whenever they do, and they're wrong, we make sure they lose their jobs.

All that police chief, or whoever, is thinking about is what happens if a bomb really does go off, and they had warning but didn't close the bridge. He's seeing the headline in the Boston Herald the next day screaming: "THEY HAD WARNING BUT DID NOT ACT".

I don't blame them. We did it to them.


138 posted on 02/01/2007 7:22:55 AM PST by Ramius ([sip])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 126 | View Replies]

To: mass55th

Especially in a city where one has to cross a bridge or go through a tunnel to enter or exit that city.


139 posted on 02/01/2007 7:23:51 AM PST by Boston Blackie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies]

To: Charlespg
I wouldn't be so flippant,its said that the soviets used booby traps designed to look like toys,and a one inch wide sheet of plastic explosive in a claymore like device designed to attract attraction especially kids is a real terrorist possibility

It's a possibility. But it's not a likelihood.

When it comes to airports, Freepers are up in arms about the inconvenience they undergo at the security screenings. "Profile!" they cry. "Look at past offenders and use that to screen future threats! You have limited resources and they must be applied economically!"

But that lesson doesn't seem to apply here, for some reason I can't figure out. "Don't profile!" they cry. "Anything could be a bomb! Shut down entire cities over anything reported to be suspicious, no matter how un-bomblike it is!"

Claymores are antipersonnel devices, BTW. A smart terrorist wouldn't attach one to a structure many meters above ground level over vehicular traffic; he'd put it close to ground level in an area full of pedestrians. He'd point the "face" towards those pedestrians so the ejecta would hit them, instead of flying over their heads or hitting other concrete structures. He'd also camouflage it, instead of putting glowing Mooninites all over it. And the objects in question weren't big enough to hold a 1" sheet of explosive. Caution was prudent until these facts were ascertained, but after that, someone should've thrown a rock at the thing so everybody could go home.

140 posted on 02/01/2007 7:24:40 AM PST by Caesar Soze
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 221-237 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson