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D.C. Police Detonate Man's 'Suspicious' Pressure Cooker

An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday evening in Washington D.C., police officers on routine patrol spotted an unoccupied car parked near the National Mall. They deemed it "suspicious," and took a look inside, where they found a pressure cooker. They also claimed to smell gasoline. The officers called the bomb squad, and at 7:45pm they initiated a controlled detonation of the car's contents. Afterward, a search of the car found no evidence that it contained explosives or any other hazardous materials. The car's owner was located and arrested for driving on a revoked license.

26 of 461 comments (clear)

  1. No pressure by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you can't take the pressure, you shouldn't be a cop.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:No pressure by intnsred · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, and accurately summed up decades ago by Orson Welles when he said, "A policeman's job is only easy in a police state."

    2. Re:No pressure by Strange+Quark+Star · · Score: 5, Funny

      I guess they just needed to let off some steam.

      --
      There is no sig.
  2. Okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...an odor of gasoline was detected"

    In a fucking gasoline-powered car. Where do they find these geniuses?

    1. Re:Okay... by SpankiMonki · · Score: 4, Funny

      The pressure cooker should not have resisted arrest.

      Handles up - don't shoot!

    2. Re:Okay... by RDW · · Score: 5, Funny

      In a fucking gasoline-powered car. Where do they find these geniuses?

      Sure, but a pressure cooker? What is this, the 70s? Does anyone use them in 2015 for anything _except_ bomb construction and cooking meth?

      "Presto Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker (Large) - Customers who bought this item also bought: 'The Al Qaeda Manual' (Kindle Edition) / Potassium Nitrate (5kg) / Casio F-91W Digital Watch / '100 Things to do Before you Die' (Paperback - used from $0.01) / Pseudoephedrine (100 tablets) / 'The Little Book of Calm' (1 Collectible from $9.96)."

    3. Re:Okay... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 4, Informative

      They are awesome for cooking potatoes and stews.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    4. Re:Okay... by tibit · · Score: 4, Informative

      You don't know much about how to cook, then. Do you think that suddenly, what has worked for cooking in 1970s, doesn't anymore?

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
  3. I did not know... by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You need a license to own a parked car? Was he seen "operating" the vehicle?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  4. Re:did they damage the car? by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They broke the rear window and blew up the pressure cooker outside the car. Reimburse? No, they didn't reimburse him; instead they arrested him for operating a vehicle after license revocation, just to cover up for their incompetence. Obviously if a car belonging to someone has moved, it must be that person who moved it, right?

  5. Re:Mental Note by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If your license is revoked, don't drive with a pressure cooker.

    If your license is revoked, don't store a pressure cooker in your parked car.

  6. Re:did they damage the car? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Paranoia, it's what terrorists want. It looks like they have thoroughly and completely beaten the government of the USA.

  7. Re:i feel sorry for the poor guy. by itzly · · Score: 4, Funny

    blowing up peoples personal property because they have a pressure cooker.

    Well, apparently it was an explosive pressure cooker, because they managed to detonate it.

  8. Re:Not pointless... by kheldan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pretty much this. "We fucked up and embarassed ourselves, so we're going to take it out on you because we can". That's what it reads like. Was the guy who owned the car black, too?

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  9. Re:i feel sorry for the poor guy. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Careful attention to terminology is important. In point of fact, they use an explosive charge of their own, carefully configured and arranged in a manner which they hope will touch off any explosive contained in the pressure cooker. Of course, the police spokesman used outlandish terms in her press release. They "disrupted" the pressure cooker? Jesus - I've never heard a military man use the term "disrupted". It's far more accurate when we say, "We blew it to fuck!"

    In point of fact, the cops detonated their own charge, but failed to cause an explosive reaction within the pressure cooker. Maybe they should have used a bigger charge?

    Idiots. Everywhere you look these days, idiots. Juvenile minded fools, trying to act like important people.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  10. Re:Not pointless... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not a crime to have your car parked somewhere if you have a suspended/revoked license

  11. Re:Not pointless... by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but it would seem that the guy was driving on a suspended or revoked license

    He was not caught by police driving on a suspended driver's license: his car was parked at the time, so there should be no probable cause to arrest.

    Someone else can still drive the vehicle for him.

    Also, the police should have to pay for replacement of his vehicle and replacement of his pressure cooker, before he can be arrested. As I see it, right now: so far: the police have committed the bigger crime, which is wanton destruction of property.

  12. Re:Not pointless... by russotto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also, given the area described, it was parked more or less in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool, which is not an area where people tend to park and sit for long periods of time.

    Really? Then why was there a parking meter there?

  13. Re:did they damage the car? by jvkjvk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh boy are you misguided.

    You can certainly unintentionally confess to a crime. Never talk to the police except through your lawyer.

  14. Re:Not pointless... by russotto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Have you ever heard the expression, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should?"

    Yeah, usually from authoritarians who think it's perfectly OK to enforce laws which they couldn't be bothered to actually enact.

    Fucking common sense says don't park your fucking car a block away from the United States Capitol with anything inside that could be misidentified as an explosive device.

    Like its gas tank?

    It also says you should keep your drivers license current and in good standing.

    It was revoked. Did you know that in the District of Columbia, the Mayor or his representative can revoke your license for any reason at all, and the only appeal is to the Mayor?

    You think they just cited him for that offense without checking to see that he was actually operating the vehicle?

    Sure, why not? Now they can leverage dropping that charge against his not filing a lawsuit for the damage to his car.

    He's not getting the book thrown at him in any of the media accounts I've read, he's getting the same treatment he would have received if he was pulled over for a routine traffic stop.

    I don't know about you, but I've never been pulled over for a routine traffic stop when I wasn't driving.

  15. Re:did they damage the car? by Calydor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny how there's more than one kind of terrorism, right?

    Terrorism is by definition actions meant to spread fear; it doesn't HAVE to be violent. It doesn't HAVE to be done by muslim extremists. It just has to make people afraid.

    Like the risk of having the police blow up (the contents of) your car because they (claim they) can smell gasoline. On a vehicle propelled by gasoline.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  16. Re:Okay... horseshit by RDW · · Score: 4, Funny

    So you want to encourage people to think those of us using them are out to hurt someone?

    You're doing the harm.

    The risks of terrorism and illicit drug production are only two of the risks of allowing this dangerous 'dual use' technology to be sold on the open market! A far more insidious problem is the destruction of essential vitamins in the pressure cooking process. Some of these are required for higher brain functions, like the ability to parse textual data for abstract meaning. In one recent study, over 70% of regular pressure cooker users were unable to detect irony, satire or even obvious jokes in posts on internet forums. The end product may be delicious but, like cannabis or Snapchat, the long-term effects on the developing brain can be devastating.

  17. Re:Not pointless... by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Do you think quoting my post line by line makes you sound like less of an absolutist idiot? "

    Just accept the fact that he buried your ridiculous post, line by line, and exposed you as the idiot that you truly are :-)

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  18. Re:Not pointless... by russotto · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Did you know that in the District of Columbia, the Mayor or his representative can revoke your license for any reason at all, and the only appeal is to the Mayor?" No. Could you please point us to the law that authorizes mayoral driver's license revocation? (I'm betting you can't.)

    You lose. DC Code 50-1403.1(a) and (c).

  19. Re:Not pointless... by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But it's reality in this era.

    FUCK YOU and FUCK YOUR "THIS ERA" BULLSHIT!

    You know what the reality of "this era" is? The reality is that we as Americans are safer (from all types of crime, including "terrorism") than at any point in history, and that DHS or other "anti-terrorism" jackbooted thugs have had NOT ONE GODDAMN THING to do with it!

    The reality is that some terrorists got lucky ONCE, and shit-for-brains sheeple like you are letting the authoritarian powermongers in our government use that as an excuse to flush our civil rights down the toilet. Knock it off, dipshit!

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  20. Re:did they damage the car? by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't attribute to malice that which can be blamed on stupidity.

    The problem is, stupidity is sufficient. The police don't need to be actively malicious if their institutional culture - "the brainwashing they've been given" - constantly prompts them to perform unfair and destructive actions.

    Also, you're wrong. "Naturally enough, when they realized they fucked up they looked around for a way to cover their ass and saw the guy had a revoked license." Yes, it's perfectly natural to sacrifice a bystander to save your own skin. It's also not something you can blame on stupidity. It's deliberate, selfish cowardice.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.