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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.
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.
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.
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?
Hindsight is 20/20; what would you do if you were the police, in charge of keeping the public safe, and some hacked together package was duct-taped to a support on one of the busiest bridges in the city? I work a couple of blocks from there... I'm incredibly lucky to have been working at home yesterday and not have to deal with the ensuing traffic nightmare (it's already bad enough in that particular spot... maybe the police should spend more time ticketing the people causing gridlock).
Now, granted, I don't know if "blow it up first, ask questions later" is necessarily the right approach, but it's only an overreaction when it wasn't a threat... when it is we complain they did too little.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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*
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
It's Atlanta, the sane have all left long ago . . .
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
The airports have that stuff right there; how long are the police supposed to take to decide if something's a "real" threat or not? I know slashdotters hate police and hate the "police state" with cameras and tracking your every move and everything... but what would you be saying if it was a bomb and it went off because they were taking too long to figure out if it was a threat? How close are people supposed to get to it to figure it out? Whatever it was, it wasn't supposed to be there.... the only way you look back at this and whine about overreacting is because it wasn't actually a threat. Like I said - hindsight is 20/20, it's easy to sit here and whine about the police "ruining" some art project now.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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...
That's simple: "What a bunch of idiots! They ruled it NOT a threat based on LOOKS!"
How is that fundamentally different again?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Somehow people think that Art [sic] deserve special exemptions from city ordinance, but ignore that advertisements are free speech as well. But I wouldn't object if a city chose to charge different prices for permits for art versus commercial use, and many cities already do this. And if we want to support students, then codifying a reasonable fee especially for students to obtain permits would be a great way.
Ignoring the city ordinance is likely to get the bomb squad called and potentially open you up to being cited. It's even possible, although politically unpopular, for a city to sue an individual to recover the cost of sending out the bomb squad and closing off highways. Suing poor students for $100k+ is politically a bad idea, but I think it would be possible for a city to win such a civil case.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
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
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.'"
Grab it and throw it in the trash. Christ this country has become a bunch of pussies.
Jhonny: "No Prof! The bomb squad blew it up. Honest! Swear to God!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
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?
And what if the duct tape package was filled with a nerve agent that could be dispersed by the explosion genius?
Blowing it up is just reckless. Either they didn't evaluate it correctly, or they realized it wasn't a bomb and just wanted to see a boom (which is irresponsible)
This is the reason why there's a bomb squad, and we don't just issue cops C-4 to take out anything that they decide is dangerous. Before actual detonation you should verify a) the device is explosive b) it needs to be detonated because it can't be safely dismantled c) detonation won't cause any bad effects like dispersing a nerve agent and probably a thousand other things I don't know because I'm not in a bomb squad.
Next up, traffic on freeways is halted while investing a suspicious package. Turns out to be McDonald's bag thrown out the window as litter. But can't be too careful.
Seriously, what sort of self respecting terrorist would use a suspicious looking device?
Suspicious lump under the bridge turns out to be homeless person bundled up against the cold.
Same situation at Slashdot. When derp reaches a critical mass, all the smart, sane people bail.
So you're saying we've passed Peak Derp? You may be on to something.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
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.
Every time a terrorist successfully detonates a bomb people complain the police didn't do enough to prevent it.... EVERY TIME. Maybe not you, but it happens EVERY time.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Train a goddamn bomb dog. Should be super easy job for a dog.
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...