Posted on 10/21/2005 2:27:41 AM PDT by LibertyRocks
Additional bomb scares have increased safety measures by Scooby Axson
October 19, 2005
After the Oct. 1 explosion outside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and three additional bomb scares on or near university campuses in the following two weeks, OU officials are taking extra safety precautions.
OU Department of Public Safety officials said officers will take additional security precautions at Saturday’s game against Baylor University, the first home game since Oct. 1. OU President David L. Boren sent a letter to season ticket holders explaining the stadium’s security measures.
“Your safety while on the OU campus will always remain our top priority,” Boren said in the letter.
“I don’t expect any problems this weekend, and we will prepare for the games just like we have for the past four or five years,” said OUDPS Lt. Robert Voeller.
Voeller said normal game operations will be conducted, and he declined to go into detail on what will be different about security for upcoming football games.
Some differences fans can expect to see are more officers, cameras that won’t be recognized by the average fan and in some cases, fans being patted down.
The differences are a response to the Oct. 1 incident, in which an explosion in the South Oval killed Joel Henry Hinrichs III fewer than 100 yards away from a packed Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
OUDPS Sgt. Gary Robinson said the biggest problems police officials have faced in the past with stadium security were ticketing disputes, people being unruly, alcohol violations, lost children and medical calls.
“We will respond to any calls to services,” Robinson said.
This and similar incidents have put authorities and university police across college campuses on high alert for potential threats.
Steven Sloan, a former OU professor, said there is a possibility of a copy-cat syndrome in each case, but people will probably come up with their own conclusions.
“Do not confuse school violence with terrorism. The former will certainly terrorize the student body,” Sloan said.
Sloan is a former OU professor and now a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, who has authored two books on terrorism.
“I think you can see a climate of opinion where individuals are looking for answers that can affirm their own suppositions that somehow Muslim extremists are involved in some kind of conspiracy,” he said.
Sloan said people have to accept the reality that school violence, shootings and bombings will continue and possibly increase.
Sloan said the causes for violence in incidents like these are complex and involve a variety of social, economic and other underlying and precipitating factors.
While OU continues to assess ways to keep students safe, other universities around the nation are coming to grips with their own bombing scares.
Three other universities this month have had incidents in which suspected explosive materials have been found near students.
In an off-campus apartment complex in the Westwood section of UCLA on Oct. 7, the Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Squad investigated an “improvised explosive device” found near campus. UCPD did not respond.
“We suspect juveniles had something to do with this,” said Los Angeles Police Department Officer April Harding. “We found two grenades taped together, and the bomb squad was called. One of the grenades was detonated and the other one was bogus.”
No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing, Harding said.
A maintenance worker at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta was making morning rounds Oct. 10 when he picked up a suspicious two-liter soda bottle and it exploded in his hands, said Amelia Gambino, Georgia Tech assistant vice president.
The male freshman residence halls were soon evacuated, and the maintenance worker was treated at a local clinic and later released.
Shortly after, the Atlanta Police Department bomb squad was called in to detonate two other devices found on campus.
The Atlanta Police Department initially called it “a potential terrorist act,” but backed off that stance during their investigation.
Gambino said there are no plans to change Georgia Tech’s security measures.
“Right now, there is no reason to upgrade security and to change what we are doing. We will continue to tell students to be on alert,” she said.
Gambino said because Georgia Tech is a university that deals with engineering, there is no way to deter students from an interest in explosives.
“I am sure there have been some homemade devices students have made in the past, but there is no way to go back and check how many students have been caught trying to set them off,” Gambino said.
Georgia Tech freshman Theodore Hollot, 18, turned himself in to Atlanta police after admitting to throwing three bottle bombs out of his dorm room window. He now faces a felony charge for possession of a destructive device and a misdemeanor charge for reckless conduct.
A suspicious backpack was found at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., Oct. 15, and authorities were immediately called.
“Someone saw a backpack, and it looked like it didn’t look belong on campus,” said ECU Police Chief Robert Stroud.
Stroud said his department took precautionary measures and called in the bomb squad.
The backpack contained no explosives and people in nearby buildings were told the coast was clear, Stroud said.
“There was some sort of copper piping in the backpack, and it belonged to a construction worker working on campus,” Stroud said. “The K-9 unit reacted because of the copper odor from the backpack.”
Stroud said ECU very rarely has incidents like this but did have one last winter.
“Someone left a message that they were going to blow up the library,” he said.
The bomb detection unit was alerted, but it was a false alarm.
“We let the students know it was a false alarm, and we realize that students and faculty are frightened about that sort of thing, but we have to take every call like that seriously, whether it’s a false alarm or not,” he said.
There's a job for you. Feeding crocodiles at the zoo. Bush is right, there are jobs Americans won't take.
This is really frustrating. It seems there are some very real dangers out there, because all of this added security is not going to come at a low price. I don't believe they'd be adding all of this stuff if it were just about some depressed student committing suicide. I don't believe they'd spend all this money simply because of "school violence," I don't care what Prof. Sloane says (and by the way, there's that name again!).
LOL--maybe we should send you an emergency shipment of clothespins! I live nearby, and the more time passes, the more it reeks. But I have extra clothespins--I can share. :)
How many other "lone suicide" bomb blasts have there been?
Now why would OU need to take precautions when it was nothing more than 1 suicidal kid detonating himself outside a packed stadium?
Exactly... and it wasn't just OU either...
From another related thread:
http://www.kotv.com/main/home/eclips.asp?clipid=1266
The above link originally posted by OKSooner is a news clip which covers the new security procedures at OU. At the end of the clip they state that Texas Tech has announced new plans via newspaper and TV, Missouri has developed a DVD, and Baylor has something prepared to be played on their Jumbotrons. Not sure about other ones, but that's 4 universities that have announced security procedures dealing with evacuations.
Oh yeah. The kids in our neighborhood always play with grenades. /sarcasm
Ping to this article... OU Daily reporter is stating LAPD told him the devices in Midvale on 10/07/05 were GRENADES!
You've done some outstanding research on this--thanks for continuing to post what you find.
Thanks for the info.
You're both very welcome. (o:
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