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Art Project Causes Atlanta Police To Close Highway and Call Bomb Squad
McGruber writes: Yesterday, a ridiculously huge commotion and massive traffic jam occurred when Atlanta Police closed the downtown connector (Interstates 75 & 85) and called out the bomb squad to detonate a "suspicious device" taped to a bridge. Today, Georgia State University officials announced that the suspicious device was a student camera, "one of 18 used by students in an art project and deployed at various locations in the city." PetaPixel has additional information about Solargraphy, the style of pinhole photography apparently being done by the Georgia students.
Just with the help of the bomb squad.
It's not every art student who gets to say their project brought in a bomb squad! (I'd say that's normally the domain of freshman chemistry students.)
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Government officials who are paranoid should not be governing the sane. It would be more beneficial to society to send them away to receive treatment for their conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2...
While bringing in the bomb squad and blowing shit up was an over reaction, people have to be fucking morons to think that NO reaction is going to (or should) occur if they do stupid shit like this.
Students responsible to be arrested and tried as terrorists in 3..... 2.... 1.....
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Thing 1: Didn't anyone think to take a picture of the device and ask if anyone knew what it was?
1a) Doesn't anyone know what a pinhole camera looks like?
Thing 2: Where does GSU get off attaching private property to public infrastructure? That's a known no-no. At a minimum, you notify public works first so that things like this don't happen. There was no ass covering done here.
As a result, the bomb squad, the police, and the university all end up looking foolish.
Who thought it was a good idea to mount something that looks like this on top of a bridge overlooking a heavily trafficked highway?
http://i.imgur.com/wSIN2fp.jpg
FFS! More graduates from the Jack Bauer school of counter terrorism.
If you see something, say something.
I sometimes ask revealing, often ignorant-seeming questions. Maybe they're harder to answer than you think.
I'll be the first to complain about the stupidity of zero tolerance policies and curtailments of civil rights in the name of the war on terror (or war on drugs), but that is clearly surpassed by the stupidity of duct taping a box to a transportation chokepoint without telling the people who own and operate it.
Being an anonymous hacker...watch list.
Reading slashdot...watch list
Building an art project that results in the bomb squad being called out...oh yeah, you better believe watch list!
I think an unfortunate result of this overreaction is that concerned citizens may now want to think twice before calling anything in to the police. If you call something suspicious in, the police WILL call in the bomb squad, and shut down the city.
Of course the real blame should be on whoever in the police department decided to go all 9/11 rather than just taking a look at it and figuring out it was harmless.
At least it wasn't a Mooninite. No telling what they would have done then.
Given almost all of these are false positives, random items discarded in public REALLY require the bomb squad to come blow them up, every fucking time?
Anyone could have just looked at this thing for 10 seconds and been 100% sure it's not a bomb. How do these morons get the job if that can't make that distinction?
It seems like common sense to me that if you're going to do something like this, let the authorities know what you're doing so as not to cause this kind of a response!
I think so. I don' t think any of the 911 planners knew who much their actions would kick into action deep seeded anti freedom views from inside western governments.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
If that was the case, there would have been a 10 minute shootout and very large explosions.
Not surprising. A few days ago, this nine year old kid was suspended for making "Terroristic Threats".
Specifically, he told one of his classmates that he had a magic ring forged at Mount Doom and he could make him disappear.
http://fw.to/kSQ7iAQ
It is only reasonable to shut down the freeway if the [probability that the object is actually a bomb] * [the damage caused by it exploding] costs more than [the damage caused by shutting down a major Interstate during rush hour]
Considering that the chance of it being a real bomb is incredibly low, that even a soda-can worth of high explosive can't do that much damage (especially since it was placed on a decorative rail, not supporting column), and that a whole lot of people were delayed by the shutdown, the police's response was entirely unreasonable.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I've made a lot of these, and actually this has always been a fear of mine, they easily look like a pipe bomb. Yeah it was an over reaction, but the reality is, it looks like a bomb strapped to a bridge, I would expect no less.
Don't the police ever feel like fucking idiots when they keep doing shit like this, because they are fucking idiots.
This is why I don't hide any on bridges
I cannot turn in my assignment because the bomb squad blew it up. Hope that wasn't their senior project.
First, Atlanta DOT is relaxed in the wake of the Snowpocalypse. Now, Atlanta PD holds up 75-85 to blow up an aluminum can. I'm just an innocent civilian but I think Atlanta needs some better people running this place. Just saying...
Even if it had a poster attached that said "Not a Bomb", I would be very disappointed in any police force that didn't immediately shut down the surrounding area and try to safely denote the unknown device. It's round and covered with duct tape, is it a soda can filled with black powder and pellets? is it an unattended camera for an art project? At least put your phone number on that shit so people can call you and ask you what it is before taking the safest course of action.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
So community service?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
write "PINHOLE CAMERA" on it?
Maybe file for a permit and write your permit number on it.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
if they're going to blowup unattended aluminum cans on the 14th street bridge I wanna buy stock in whoever they get their blasting caps from! their stock's gonna go frakin' apeshit come football season!!!
I know that art is powerful, but this is ridiculous. It didn't cause them to do any such thing. They decided to overreact.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Jhonny: "No Prof! The bomb squad blew it up. Honest! Swear to God!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Atlanta has been bombed before; Centennial Park.
The Police were well within their rights and obligation to do exactly what they did. And after that shit storm in Boston first over the litebrights, and the actual bombing not so long ago. The stupid motherfucker is the idiot who put that thing up to begin with, and even dumber motherfuckers, like you, who are defending them. And just because it's labeled pinhole camera, doesn't mean it really is a pinhole camera.
And no, the police had no business doing a through investigation of it before blowing it up because that would have meant tying up traffic even longer. The correct response is: "Fuck that shit, blast it." Which they did.
Was the box at least a cubic meter in size? Then it wasn't any kind of danger to that kind of infrastructure. You wouldn't think a pellet gun had the same kinetic force as an anti-materiel rifle, so why stress out over a shoebox sized cylinder?
Education is now on the terrorist watchlist.
Heeh... two weeks ago we had almost the same situation in Leiden, the Netherlands, where a marketing bureau placed a camera in the train station... http://www.omroepwest.nl/nieuws/28-01-2015/bommelding-op-station-leiden-blijkt-misverstand-reclamebureau-liet-vuilniszak-met- (in dutch, I am afraid)
Copycat at work?
Paai
If they didn't notify the authorities and got permission before placing cameras in public, that's not just illegal (at least in my country), but also a huge lapse of judgement.
"Students were instructed to take their cameras home and to place them in locations that would provide interesting scenes with bright sunlight". With no warning about adhering to local laws and what is defined as an acceptable location? Somebody should get a fine, but whether the students or the university is to blame is an interesting question.
Cops Blew up my homework!
That's got to be a new excuse.
IMHO, this could have all been avoided if the professor responsible for the students would've notified local law enforcement of the cameras locations and what they looked like.
"That's some mighty fine police work lou."
Um ... I think taping things to someone else's building or bridge is actually illegal, unless you have written permission. Maybe no-one cared in the past, but they do now.
You have to get permission, even to post lost and found posters...