Don't We Look Ridiculous When We Over-React

Suspicious Devices in Boston Turn Out to Be Ad Campaign for Cartoon

This is a case where our fears (and the fear-mongering of the Bush administration) and our lack of sound security procedures make us look ridiculous. I'll make my case so that anyone with a sense of panic over potential terrorist threats rips off a nasty-gram in response.

Let us look at the facts.

* - These packages were similarly located in nine different cities.
* - The Boston police and MBTA police over-reacted to the presence of a package, and then to all of the packages located afterward.
* - Instead of isolating the areas where packages were located, then choosing one site where the packages were found to use proper technique to exam it, the Boston authorities sent out a massive army of bomb and homeland security forces to the tune of $750,000 (at least that is the ridiculous cost cited by Mayor Menino of Boston).
* - CNN, which is part of the Turner broadcast group, went reporting this as a possible terror threat when the Cartoon Network, another Turner broadcast group entity located right down the hall, was the cause of all this ruckus. One would think that someone from the Cartoon Network would have run down the hall screaming "It's a publicity stunt!"

We have become so fearful that when we over-react we look for someone to blame. But let's look at the potential harm--psychological, sociological and political harm--that our over-reactions can cause, and did cause in this instance.

First, we scared the hell out of hundreds of Bostonians, and then the panic was sent across the nation as sensationalized headlines and sound bites.

Second, people began panicking right from the start. The MBTA police, one of the worst trained group of police I have ever seen in action, sent out the panic call. The Boston police, fire departments, bomb squads, state police, and others responded. An x-ray was taken and showed some wiring... but no evidence of an explosive. That was reported in the news shortly after the "packages" were found. So, instead of doing a thorough examination of the package using numerous possible technologies (including the low-tech solution of opening the package when the x-ray showed no explosives), they repeated this same procedure for every single package. However, if they had treated the first package in an appropriate manner, they would have been able to find out that it was a marketing ploy.

Third, let us examine the realities of the MBTA security. These packages were placed in the various locations NINE DAYS AGO!!! There were thousands of people, including MBTA employees, MBTA officers, MBTA electricians and railway maintenance workers, cleaning people (and this one is a laugh), as well as hundreds of homeless people using the MBTA subway stations for warmth and shelter, that saw these packages on each of those nine days. Now that we know that our security measures are a joke, how must we feel? Given that such was the case in nine other cities across the nation, doesn't that state the case for the entire nation?

Fourth, the fact that a package can cause such a panic speaks to our paranoia and unreasonable approach to these problems. In my own experience, I have left a brief case and a package of clothing on the MBTA when I was commuting from Lynn to Quincy for over a year. During that time I saw many articles, packages and items left on the trains, in the stations and on the buses. If every package, article or item left on the "T" (or any other rapid/mass transit system) is going to be treated in this manner, what is going to be the psychological effect? Will ridership decrease because it is no longer perceived as safe to use these system? Will people refuse to work for these systems because of the perceived threat? Will we spend millions on training transit cops on how to x-ray and blow up packages left on the seats of our trains and buses?

Fifth, what ever happened to all that DHS grant money that was supposed to go to beefing up security? Why wasn't there enough security cameras, complete with personnel to monitor them and recordings to look at to determine how these packages were left behind?

Sixth, why are the folks in Boston trying to prosecute the guys that were paid by CNN to leave these packages in the various locations? Are we now saying that anyone that leaves a package behind--on purpose or by accident--is subject to prosecution? Won't that lead to a tyrannical state of affairs that resembles the fascism of Nazi Germany, Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy? Didn't we fight a world war to end fascism and defend freedom?

Seventh, why have we allowed this to happen to ourselves? We have gone overboard and our over-reaction is costing us our freedom, our way of life, and our future as the land of the free. We must get in touch with what Mr. Bush's fear-mongering and war-mongering has done to us.

I have family that live in the Boston area. In fact, several of them were in Boston because my brother was undergoing surgery on the very day this incident happened. As much as I love my family, I do not spend my life consumed by paranoia to the point that I don't want them to live full and vital lives. They do not want to live under such conditions of fear and over-reaction either.

My background in security and in the military tells me that we are doing a lot of things wrong, wasting a lot of money and are endangering the very foundations of what makes our nation great.

Boston temporarily closed parts of bridges, subway stations, an Interstate highway and even part of the Charles River on Wednesday after the authorities found what the police described as suspicious devices at nine places.

But the devices, which included circuit boards, turned out to be part of a marketing campaign by Turner Broadcasting to advertise a cartoon television show, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

Wednesday night, Peter Berdovsky, 27, of Arlington, was arrested and charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. On Mr. Berdovsky’s Web site, photos show people putting the lights on a bridge, a hospital, a bar awning and a clothing store.

Turner Broadcasting, part of Time Warner, issued a statement saying, “The ‘packages’ in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger.”

The statement said the “outdoor marketing campaign” had “been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia.”

The company said it was informing the local and federal law enforcement authorities here of the sites of its “billboards” and added, “We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino was in no mood to accept the apology.

“It is outrageous, in a post-9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme,” Mr. Menino said in a statement. “I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.”

The devices are dotted with blue and purple lights and are shaped like “Aqua Teen” characters, mooninites. One character, Err, seems angry, with slanted eyebrows and what appear to be raised middle fingers.

A film based on the cartoon is to be released this year.

Police officials in Atlanta, Chicago and New York said they had not noticed the devices or received complaints about them.

But in Boston, the discovery of the devices unleashed a sense of chaos as law enforcement officials vaulted into their emergency response mode.

From the time that the first device was found around 8 a.m., hanging from a steel beam under Interstate 93 at the Sullivan Square subway station, more reports of sightings kept trickling in. They included on the Longfellow and Boston University Bridges, in a room at the Tufts-New England Medical Center, on an overpass in Somerville and at intersections here and in Cambridge.

Explosives experts removed the device at Sullivan Square. Northbound Route I-93 and Storrow Drive were briefly closed. A Coast Guard cutter blocked off a section of the Charles River for several hours. Officials from the F.B.I. and the Homeland Security Department were called in, as well as bomb squads, and extra police officers were deployed around the city.

“This has created an enormous inconvenience for people in the city,” Police Commissioner Edward Davis said at a news conference about the same time that Turner was acknowledging responsibility.

At the news conference, Mr. Davis, Mr. Menino and Gov. Deval L. Patrick said no explosives had been found and urged calm.

“There is not a reason for anyone to panic,” Mr. Patrick said. “But there are reasons for us to be vigilant.”

He called the objects “hoax devices.”

After the involvement of Turner Broadcasting became known, Mr. Patrick said in a statement: “This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community. I understand that Turner Broadcasting has purported to apologize for this. I intend nonetheless to consult with the attorney general and other advisers about what recourse we may have.”