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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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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*
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.