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.

Comments

I hope they get an A for this project

[sandytaru]

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.)

Reminds me of the Boston Bomb scare of 2007

[Deffexor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2...

Common Sense people... common sense

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[sjames]

A real terrorist would hide the bomb in any of the billions and billions of McDonald's bags littering the streets.

I notice those never get picked up or blown up for safety.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[magarity]

The second article claims a note was attached to it saying it was for an art project, so the person who did it is only guilty of assuming people can read calmly.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[gfxguy]

Image of the "device.". Yes, it was an overreaction because it was not a threat, but I don't see a note there... perhaps there's one in the shadow. If you suspect it's a bomb, are you supposed to get close enough to read the note on it?

Hindsight is 20/20... deciding what to do in situations like these is very difficult, but there's no way that, looking at that picture, you can't call it suspicious.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[adolf]

To my untrained and naive eye that looks more like the type of pipe bomb that portrayed in every movie involving pipe bombs, than anything resembling a pinhole camera (which has no pre-defined shape).

My opinion sways even more toward "some crazy person put a dangerous thing on that bridge" because of the hasty duct-tape mounting job, which (similar to the device itself) resembles every crazy taped-together implement that has ever been portrayed in every movie that involves a crazy person and a roll of tape.

Also, TIL: When placing an object in public, whether nefarious or harmless, it is important to always make sure there is a note explaining that it is an art project....because notes on crazy-looking things are always believable.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[Anonymous Coward]

I was a combat engineer in Iraq, and my job was disposing of roadside bombs.

It looks like it could be an explosive device. I would think that the guy who placed it was an idiot, as its too small to do much, and way to obvious. I still would have assumed it was such a device.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[tburkhol]

I was a combat engineer in Iraq, and my job was disposing of roadside bombs.

It looks like it could be an explosive device. I would think that the guy who placed it was an idiot, as its too small to do much, and way to obvious. I still would have assumed it was such a device.

That sounds like an appropriate response, if one is in Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other conflict zone where IEDs are a regular, or even unusual occurrence. Here in the US, we seem to have about one bombing or bombing attempt every two years (half of which are FBI "sting" operations) despite having 10 times as many people. In that environment, it seems appropriate to put a little more credence in the note explaining the art project.

If you're out on the lake, and it quacks, it's probably a duck. If you're in a cubicle at the office and it quacks, someone probably farted.

Re:Common Sense people... common sense

[tburkhol]

I prefer bomb squads that can still count to 10 on their hands, even if you think that makes them look like an idiot.

So do I. But let me ask you: how many of the suspicious packages that bomb squads across the country have investigated and blown up have actually been explosive? In Atlanta, they investigate about one "device," abandoned briefcase, or discarded shopping bag a month, but the last actual bomb was in 1996.

If you're in Kabul, and you find a thing duct taped to the inside of a wrecked car, that has high bomb probability. If you're in a US city, 3 blocks from a college campus, and you find a thing duct taped with a clear view of traffic and an explanatory note, that has a high goofy college student probability.

I know this may run counter to a lot of the propaganda you've been fed, but THE US IS NOT A WAR ZONE

Two things...

[Em Adespoton]

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.

Re:Two things...

[OzPeter]

Doesn't anyone know what a pinhole camera looks like?

Given that a pinhole camera is basically an enclosed volume with literally a pinhole at one end and film inside at the other end, how are you going to look at anything and say "Oh, OK, that's a pinhole camera" ?

Re:Two things...

[DerekLyons]

1a) Doesn't anyone know what a pinhole camera looks like?

You're obviously not a photographer - because pinhole cameras can look like literally *anything*. A cardboard box, a wooden box, a soda can, potato chip can, an oatmeal box, a piece of Tupperware... literally anything. There's a group that turned an entire aircraft hangar into a giant pinhole camera. There's also a guy who rebuilt the back of a van into a pinhole camera.

A pinhole camera doesn't look like a specific thing - it's just a light tight container with a pinhole on one end and a way of holding film more or less flat inside it.

Not an overreaction

[njnnja]

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.

Re:Not an overreaction

[kylemonger]

True, but the odds are pretty much 100% that your art project request will be denied for liability reasons. People sue the hind legs off each other for anything nowadays, and rampant paranoia is the natural result. So if you want to do your project you just roll the dice and hope that no one notices your guerilla installation.

Oops, someone noticed? Now comes the part where you beg for forgiveness.

Re:Insane Government Officials....

[gfxguy]

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.

Terrorists FTW?

[future assassin]

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.

Re:Insane Government Officials....

[gfxguy]

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.

Re:Well it did ultimately blow up...

[penguinoid]

I heard that one of the suspects had a Canon. Also a news crew on the scene reported that they were taking shots.

Re:Insane Government Officials....

[KingOfBLASH]

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.