Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Not #1 in the Boston hood, G

You either didn't read the whole post or didn't understand it...but he was on topic...

He was talking about freedom fighters or people who protest against the government (its just a nickname I don't know if I agree with it). These are anti social people who do these type of stunts all the time...

The Iraq war is just an excuse for them to go out and do stunts like this all the time...it happens everwhere you just don't always read about it on CNN

Well, yes,I did understand what he was doing.

I also understand that any thread containing comments about the war in Iraq get deleted,and it would be nice to keep the discussion about the reaction by the autorities to an advertising campaign.

Thank you though for your snarky response.

One of the problems in the USA is that we have 2 large groups of people:

One who thinks they can do what ever they want and if it blows up in their face they think a simple - I didn't mean it or It was a joke - or Freedom of speech will make everything alright.

Then another group who craves to live in fear and/or be sad. They tend to go overboard and try to make the rest of us live their fear/sadness.

Americans needs to grow a set

since i've been obsessed with the analogy since i read it in the new yorker, malcom gladwell's discussion about puzzles and mysteries comes to mind.

Think about it. Now any freedom fighters planning an attack in Boston will create an electronic sign diversion, then attack targets somewhere else. The Boston Police Department must assess the threat and conclude how dangerous it is instantly before turning it into a Chinese Fire Drill the way they did. It's hilarious how idiotic this exercise was. They shutdown the T, BU, Copley Square, etc. on a BPD hoax. Failing to assess a future threat quickly will tie up resources which would otherwise be paying attention to other possible attacks from freedom fighters.

It's all moot anyways, what the hell is Boston, the founding city of American Freedom, doing supporting the Christian Crusade Against Islam and the U.S. genocide in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, etc. Why is Boston, the city which started the American Revolution, supporting the U.S. and Nazi-Zionist invaders committing genocide in the Middle East.

The world has turned upside down.

BRIAN MCGRORY

Bad hair day in Boston

By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist | February 2, 2007

Here's the column I was going to write for this morning's paper.

I was going to write that if Deval Patrick and Martha Coakley had any guts, they would have put a couple of troopers on an airplane bound for Atlanta Wednesday night and arrested the head of marketing at Turner Broadcasting.

They would have dispatched troopers to New York to bring back the owner of Interference Inc., the genius firm behind the guerrilla ad campaign that brought our city to its knees.

If they weren't going to do that, then it was only because they knew the chairman of Turner was going to appear in Boston yesterday with a pair of half-million dollar checks -- one for the city, the other for the state -- and a heartfelt apology to every inconvenienced resident.

I was going to write that it's certainly laudable that we're vigilant and -- given what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and Boston's incidental role -- understandable why. In this day and age, you can't hang circuit boards with dangling wires from sensitive structures like bridges and buildings. But weren't we all getting a little carried away when Thomas M. Menino and Patrick would only talk inside the Cone of Silence all day?

Most of all, I was going to write that it was a bush league overreaction by Coakley to arrest those two 20- something artists Wednesday night and make them scapegoats for something that was obviously out of their control. It was unconscionable that the two guys, Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky, spent a night in jail.

The stunt wasn't their idea. They were told where to put the light boards. They were paid a mere $300 apiece for their work, and they haven't even received their checks yet.

I was going to write about how I was chatting in the lobby at Charlestown District Court yesterday with a nice woman who identified herself as Berdovsky's surrogate mother. While she waited for him to post bail, she described how Berdovsky came here as an exchange student from Belarus, was granted political asylum, and has lived with her family for most of the last 10 years.

"He is a sweet guy, very funny, great with kids, great with animals," she said. "He's the most peaceful guy you could imagine."

She said her name was Betty Rich.

Rich as in wealthy?

"Like I wish I was," she said.

Her husband, Michael Rich, served as their lawyer. In the lobby, he said of Berdovsky: "Wonderful, unique, brilliant, artistic, creative."

Josh Kastorf approached us and explained that the reason his friend, Stevens, had laughed during the arraignment was that "he was trying to show people he was OK."

The authorities, I was going to conclude, owe these guys an apology.

But an odd thing happened on the way to clarity. Berdovsky and Stevens made bail. They appeared outside the courthouse in front of the news media. Everyone prepared for what would undoubtedly be an expression of contrition. Instead, they got in front of the cameras and talked about hair, not any kind of hair, but "haircuts in the '70s." Seriously, they wouldn't talk about anything else.

They were asked if they were sorry.

"Do you guys have any hair questions?" Stevens replied.

What was it like to spend the night in jail?

"That's not a hair question," Berdovsky answered. And so forth.

Ah, an on-camera gag -- how clever. They probably even considered it art. Instead, it was sophomoric, a thumb in the eye to the public at large.

Finally, someone asked Rich, their earnest lawyer, if he was embarrassed by his clients' behavior.

He was, certainly, but responded, shrugging, "They're performance artists."

Perfect. So make idiocy a crime and let them perform about a thousand hours of community service because last night's formal apology was, literally, an afterthought.

Then let this whole strange episode be over, because nobody, nobody came out looking particularly good.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist.

It's funny how since it's cartoon and comic book related all the internet nerds think these guys are heroes. My guess is if this was an ad campaign for Wal*Mart, Microsoft, or some Republican politician the internet would be calling for heads to roll claiming littering, trespassing, or whatever else.

I do think treating this as a terrorist or bomb scare case is completely ridiculous though.

Average_Joe wrote:

Say I'm a terrorist and I'm watching this. Now I've got an idea. If I ever want to plant a bunch of explosive devices all over a city, I'll just a big smiley face on them and everyone can say, "Oh, they're just a harmless marketing campaign," and be done with it.

Welcome to the age of terrorism in the USA.

This is a terrible argument, Joe. The paradox is that if this hoopla had never been made then a would-be terrorist would not be watching this ridiculous dialogue because it would not exist. If, according to your argument, the issue at hand is only about said terrorists getting ideas from a publicized threat, then the police should have never made such a big deal. Follow me?

Welcome to the age of logical thought.

Eric B. wrote:

This is a terrible argument, Joe. The paradox is that if this hoopla had never been made then a would-be terrorist would not be watching this ridiculous dialogue because it would not exist. If, according to your argument, the issue at hand is only about said terrorists getting ideas from a publicized threat, then the police should have never made such a big deal. Follow me?

Welcome to the age of logical thought.

It might not be very clearly stated but the argument is sound. The point I make is not that some terrorist is going to do this and get away with it because he painted a smiley face on it. I do not consider that a realistic scenario. I thought that was obvious and felt no need to explicitly state it.

The point is that it is monday morning quarterbacking to slam these people because the device did not "look like" a bomb. What does a bomb look like, exactly?

Consider the situation. You are the mayor and you hear that the bomb squad is looking at some unidentified electrical device under I-93. Nobody knows what it is yet because they haven't even blown it up yet. Oh and by the way, there's half a dozen more under bridges, tunnels, etc. They had a number of electrical devices strapped to sensitive, mass-transit areas like the underside of I-93, under bridges, etc. They had to react strongly and react fast. Nobody on the bomb squad or in the Mayor's office watches cartoons on Turner and even if they did, are you going to take that kind of chance considering where these things are planted?

Could they have reined it in faster? Of course. Welcome to the age of inefficient bureaucracy.

These are a bunch of hard-working, serious people who, like it or not DO have to deal with the very real possibility that someday someone is going to plant a bomb in a tunnel or some other sensitive area that could kill a whole lot of people. It's easy to snicker at them the day after when all the facts are in.

The prosecution rests.

You still don't get it...

He was telling you about there motivations...he was keeping his thread on topic...

Don't you think there motivations are important to the overall case...

Now the original post did go a little over board in expressing his own opinion...but in no way did it deviate from the original point behind the post...

He/she was just describing the motivations behind the advertisers...anybody who has ever lived in a major city has these types of things happen all the time...

The Boston authorities over reacted

but oh well i have no idea why I am defending someone else's post that's probably the saddest part...

If this was Boston they would have called in the airforce and carpet bombed Boston Common..

Man who threatens police station turns out to be harmless

By Dan Gibbard

Tribune staff reporter

Published February 2, 2007, 12:27 PM CST

A man who threatened to blow up Kenosha's police station and told officers he had poisonous goo smeared on his body turned out to have a backpack full of toiletries and clothes, and the "poison" was a mix of hair gel, shampoo and possibly yogurt, Kenosha police said today.

The saga began about 4 p.m. Thursday when the 33-year-old Kenosha man walked into a gas station, asked directions to the police station and said he was going to blow it up, Kenosha Police Lt. Ronald Bartholomew said. After he left, someone called police.

The man then went to a TCF Bank branch a couple of miles away and repeated his story. Again, someone called police, and two special tactical officers who happened to be nearby went to the bank and managed to get all the customers evacuated to a nearby grocery store, Bartholomew said.

The officers pointed rifles at the man and ordered him to drop the backpack and lie on the floor, which he did, but only after telling them the goop he had smeared was some kind of caustic substance, Bartholomew said.

The man was placed in a protective suit and taken to the hospital, where the gel was determined to be a harmless mix of toiletries and food.

He also told police he had killed his wife and child, which turned out to be false, Bartholomew said. A bomb-squad robot X-rayed and then tore apart the backpack, finding nothing but personal effects, he said.

The man was taken to a mental health facility for evaluation, and police declined to release his name. He had not been charged with a crime by this morning, Bartholomew said.

Those stupid police! What is wrong with them? Couldnt they tell that this guy was harmless. Hair gel and yogurt don't even LOOK like something that could "blow up" a police station. And using a robot to tear apart his backpack. What a waste of time and money over nothing. If this was in Seattle they would have sent him on his way.

What a stupid overreaction by another bunch of idiot cops.