Where's my dinner?
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.
Ping for new article regarding OU and stadium security - mentions threats to other universities.
Thanks for the ping LibertyRocks.
===
Ping backhoe
Just a coincidence of course; Saturday night hooligans out there starting fights; Yeah...that's what it was...that's the ticket.
For someone in Wisconsin, you're either up very late or up very early. I'll bet it's the latter. My sister-in-law has five kids and she gets up about 4:30 AM to get an early start on her work.
Steven Sloan, a former OU professor,...... said people have to accept the reality that school violence, shootings and bombings will continue and possibly increase.
... said the causes for violence in incidents like these are complex and involve a variety of social, economic and other underlying and precipitating factors.
Man, is that guy delusional, or is he on drugs?
I think this is the same Professor Sloan, his first name would appear to be Stephen not Steven:
Stephen Sloan was a professor at OU 1966-2004. He was Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Presidential Professor 2002-04. He is currently a Fellow in the Global Perspectives Office and University Professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Historical Dictionary of Terrorism
(Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements, No. 4)
Sean Anderson, Stephen Sloan
Scarecrow Press, Inc. (1994)
"A reference that provides information on terrorist groups, events, and prominent figures spanning the period
from the Zealot insurrections against Roman rule in first century Judea to the present. Entries on terrorist groups and movements provide information on their histories, programs, and leadership, as well as some discussion of the numbers and kinds of action perpetrated by each group. The introduction discusses essential components of terrorism that distinguish it from other forms of political violence." (Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Stephen Sloan's Books:
http://www.ou.edu/cas/psc/booksloan.htm
The title of the story suggests there is a problem. But weren't we told that the recent OU suicide bomber was just an isolated incident???
Hmmm...
Hey, I'm an Aussie following this story from Down Under and that smell from OU is wafting all the way across the Pacific Ocean.
The stench is unbearable for me 2000 miles away here in Oregon.
I wish we could get some estuarine crocodiles from Down Under for use at Guantanamo...
thank you for expressing my thought
Last night on his weekly radio show, Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville was asked why the team buses did not unload at the usual place for Auburn's game with Arkansas in Fayetteville last Saturday night. Tommy said the buses were rerouted due to security concerns stemming from the bomb that blew up outside the OU game.
My note: Fayetteville is not very far from Norman.
This Sloan character is a piece of work, too, passing off "school violence" as something normal and to be expected. Some kid blows himself to smithereens? "Well, ya gotta look at the underlying societal causes..."
Where's my dinner?
Sounds like John Kerry's acceptable "nuisance level" of terrorism.
Nor anyway to deter the chemisty students from making LSD or meth... < /sarcasm >
It "always" economic. That's what the media loves to say. Why Osama Bin Laden is only a billionaire...
They are worried about "copycats" in a "non-event". Wonder how many in the crowd will even be aware of the potential dangerous location they are entering.
The death threat that Charles Bishop/Bishra made against the Super Bowl was suppressed (and an empty threat) but it was included in his suicide note.
Obviously the authorities do not believe the public has a right to know.
Can anyone find his take on the Unabomber or Eric Rudolph?
Sloan said the public should note the fact that if Hinrichs did try to get into the stadium, he was stopped.
"If Hinrichs was turned away, that is a positive mark in terms of security awareness," he said.
While Hinrichs' individual actions are still being probed, the Islamic community of Norman is on edge, fearful that this troubling event is somehow linked to Muslims.
"Haven't we learned from the bombing of the Murrah Building (in 1995) in Oklahoma City, when the first reports tried to tie the bombing to a foreigner from the Middle East?" Sloan said. "But that proved to be false.
"It is much too early to render a full judgment," said Sloan, who regrets that some people already are convinced this is a conspiracy.
The jury of sketics is still out if there was middle eastern association in the OKC bombing. The FBI also denied using incidiary devices in Waco until it was shown that they had.
The secrets of the Clinton years aren't so quick to rise to the surface.
Was the OKC bombing the act of only 2 people (and no one doubts their involvement) or were there more participants?
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