February 1, 2007
Crime and Punishment Department
The Authorities React
As I described before, yesterday's big scare about mysterious devices in Boston caused an awful lot of turmoil, but it turned out the devices were part of a publicity campaign for a television show.
Authorities in Boston have issued this statement:
Our investigation has determined that these devices are harmless electronic billboards which were placed in these locations as part of an advertising campaign. Responding to this incident has cost us and the people of Boston a lot of time and money. However, the devices were clearly not intended to harm anyone, and they were clearly not intended to appear dangerous.
In these times of heightened security, to avoid the danger of inadequate reaction, we pursue a policy of overreaction. Because of that and in light of the apparent lack of intent to harm, we have decided to be thankful that this wasn't a real attack and treat it as an exercise of our emergency response capabilities. The responsible parties have been issued citations for placing advertising on public property without the proper permit.
Ha ha ha! Just kidding! No, as you'd expect, the authorities have gone apeshit:
Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were held on $2,500 cash bond each after they pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct for a device found Wednesday at a subway station.
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"It's clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location," Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.
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"The appearance of this device and its location are crucial," Grossman said. "This device looks like a bomb."
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Authorities are investigating whether Turner or other companies should be criminally charged, Attorney General Martha Coakley said. "We're not going to let this go without looking at the further roots of how this happened to cause the panic in this city," Coakley said.
That's quite a charge. Unfortunately, it might be hard to prove to a jury if they're allowed to actually see one of these things:
You can also see one in place on a lamp post in San Francisco at Well Rounded Nerds.
This is a developing story, so I could turn out to be wrong, but so far it seems pretty clear to me that the intent here was to display a graphic depiction of some of the characters on the show.
It looks like the LED lights shut off during the day, so the purpose of these devices is a lot less clear when you find one stuck to the side of a bridge girder. I can understand why the Boston police reacted they way they did. However, just because the police decided to handle these devices as a threat doesn't mean they were inteded as a threat.
Outside the courthouse, Michael Rich, a lawyer for both of the men, said the description of a bomb-like device could be used for any electronic device.
"If somebody had left a VCR on the ground it would have been a device with wires, electronic components and a power source," he said.
Exactly. In fact, any closed container might be a bomb. The bomb squad would certainly treat it as one if you called them out and told them you had a mysterious package.
By the way, hundreds of these devices have apparently been deployed for several weeks in every major city, none of which freaked out this way.
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