Posted on 02/01/2007 3:16:22 AM PST by billorites
A furious Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed yesterday to throw the book at the masterminds behind a guerrilla marketing campaign gone amok that plunged the city into bomb-scare pandemonium and blew nearly $1 million in police overtime and other costs.
As city and state attorneys laid groundwork for criminal charges and lawsuits, cops seized 27-year-old Arlington multimedia artist Peter Berdovsky, who posted film on his Web site boasting that he and friends planted the battery-wired devices, and Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown. Both were jailed overnight on charges of placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.
“This is outrageous activity to get publicity for a failing show,” said Menino, referring to the battery-operated light-up ads for the Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” which sparked at least nine bomb scares in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.
Menino promised to sue Turner Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network’s parent company, and criminally prosecute Berdovsky and anyone else responsible for the devices, and to petition the FCC to pull the network’s license.
Attorney General Martha Coakley was put in charge of the case and said the companies behind the promotion would be investigated. She said the felony charge of planting a hoax device could be broad enough to allow prosecution even if the stunt’s sponsors did not intend a panic.
“To do this kind of placement of devices the way it was, an individual had to know or should have that it was going to create the kind of panic it did,” Coakley said last night during a press conference.
Panic was the order of the day in Boston as city, state and federal investigators, police and bomb units raced through the city seeking 38 of the devices, in some cases destroying them as a precaution.
Shutdowns affected Storrow and Memorial drives, the Longfellow and Boston University bridges and Interstate 93, while extra Coast Guard patrols were seen at Rowes Wharf and at commuter ferries.
“I cannot state strongly enough the seriousness of this offense,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley. “Commerce was disrupted, transportation routes were paralyzed, residents were stranded, relatives across the nation were in fear for their loved ones here in the city of Boston.”
In a statement, Turner Broadcasting said the light-emitting devices pose no danger and are part of a 10-city outdoor marketing campaign for the cartoon program. A Boston police spokesman said the company did not have permits to place the signs in the city.
“We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger,” the Turner statment said.
All told, the cost of extra police and activating the city’s anti-terror command center will cost Boston $800,000 to $1 million in damages, an angry Menino estimated.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he was not impressed by the apology from Turner Broadcasting.“I am deeply dismayed to learn that the devices are a part of a marketing campaign. This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community,” he said.
The bomb scare reports began about 8 a.m. when a MBTA worker reported a package with wires and tubes protruding from it that was stuck on a steel girder under Interstate 93 at Sullivan Square Station in Charlestown. The devices, featuring characters with raised middle fingers, had magnetic backs and were affixed to metal.
The reports spread throughout the day to the Boston University and Longfellow bridges, Downtown Crossing, the intersection of Stuart Street and Columbus Avenue, the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, the McCarthy Overpass on the McGrath O’Brien Highway in Somerville and at a comic book store in Brighton.
The discovery of two more devices last night at the Massachusetts College of Art prompted another brief evacuation. By the end of the day, investigators had recovered 14 of the 38 devices believed to be placed in the Boston area and urged the public to report the whereabouts of others.
Just after three p.m., two bomb-sniffing dogs swept through City Hall, spending 16 minutes in Menino’s office. “It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this irresponsible marketing scheme,” Menino said.
I think we got some tokers on this thread...
Chicago police have been picking up these things for a couple of days. Somehow there was no hysteria or panics. Boston needs to grow a pair. It may be too "smart" for its own good.
Must be from the Libertarian wing of FReeperdom...
Not at all. It's amazing how everyone just follows the media account of this like it is doctrine. They are not "devices", they are lighted signs, and they were not placed with the intention or knowledge that they create a bomb scare. People need to look at the signs and use common sense on this one.
We'll see if you're singing the same tune if you are ever the one gettin arrested for accidentally leaving your briefcase on a park bench, or forgetting to discard a 3.5 oz. bottle of shampoo in your luggage before you walk through airport security.
Not hours. They had been in place for weeks.
Everyone who disagrees with you is a toker and you two are God's wisest of men. Is that it?
You're just sore for being laughingstocks (a status that is well-earned, btw).
What does that have to do with your assertion that they were intended to draw out the bomb squads and shut down Boston? Especially when all the police needed to do was perform a little police work (you know, a phone call or two) to discover what they were and who placed them...and then have THEM remove them. Instead what we saw was panic and chaos created by city officials who APPARENTLY did no investigative work whatsoever. And now those officials want to CTAs (having been exposed as total boobs) by transferring the blame to the cartoon network.
Meantime, I'm still trying to figure out the logic of a terrorist who would go around at night in plain view with cameras rolling placing neon lit bombs. "Hey you there, look at me, I'm a neon lit bomb, call the authorities."
It was a advertising gimmick; the expense and inconvenience came when the authorities panicked.
30 posted on 02/01/2007 4:04:53 AM PST by Grut
What they are going to hang the guys for is making them look bad.
C'mon...grow up. Next time I need a viewpoint from the backwards-baseball cap community... I'll keep you in mind.
Dittos. That's exactly right. They are quite obviously not intended in any way to look like explosive devices. It's not my fault if somebody tells the police what I have in my possession might look like a bomb to him or her.
Now if these guys were responsible for the 911 calls, that's a different story.
Don't drop your iPod, you'll be in jail for life!
Menino's an A-Hole.
You ran out of useful things to say on this topic about 100 posts ago. Now you just point at anyone who disagrees with you and shout names.
THAT is why you are a laughingstock.
>Yeah... when MacDonalds gives you your HappyMeal with polonium-210 in it... you should laugh it off.<
Gee, that's an appropriate comparison. (Eyes rolling)
Agreed.
I read the reports Russia was publishing about our initial blitzkrieg into Iraq. It was utter and total fantasy b.s. They were reporting tank loses into the 100s!!! Can't remember if their casuality projects from the first push was over 3000, but I'll wager anything that it was.
I just remember reading the section on tanks destroyed and realized right there they were flat-out making up stuff to support their fantasy expectation of what they (and our media for that matter) thought would be the outcome.
Ivan your hardware is crap, and both Gulf wars proved it.
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