Dave Alpert: I Know Where You’re Going with That

Okay.  I guess as a Boston blogger I’m compelled to weigh in about yesterday’s viral marketing success story.  First, I’ll just get my point of view out of the way.  No.  The police didn’t overreact.  Yes. The TV network and marketing agency should be held accountable.  No.  The two shmucks they got to put up the signs shouldn’t have been the ones arrested.  But yes.  They are shmucks for acting so pompous and unapologetic in light of the problems they caused.  Yes.  Unless Turner is ordered to donate all the show’s proceeds to Homeland Security, they are still going to be the big winners in all this.  How’s that?

To my first point, who are all these bomb expert citizens that keep blabbing their mouths off about how the devices were CLEARLY not bombs?  It just goes to show that we Americans still have a long way to go in being prepared for a world in which this country isn’t immune to acts of terror.  If this were Bagdad or Beirut or Beersheva, there wouldn’t be idiots going around thinking it is such a joke. 

I lived in Israel for a few years and one of the first things I learned was to be conscious of seeing what they call a chefetz chashood (suspicious object).  I remember walking up to the bus stop near my apartment to catch a bus to the university.  The bus stop had been cleared and a police officer with a bullhorn screamed at me to get back.  The police robot blew up what turned out to be a kid’s backpack.  That being said, no one that was inconvenieced at the bus stop snickered and said, “Anyone could see that was a sponge bob backpack.”  In the 1970s, the PLO used to plant bombs in Israel that looked like packs of cigarettes or childrens’ toys.  Who cares that these devices (planted under bridges) look like litebrites?  In countries where there is a history of bomb attacks, citizens know to look for suspicious objects; in Israel, this vigilence has saved MANY lives. 

To my other points, I don’t care to elaborate.  I’m sick of this topic already.  In 2007, you still can’t scream “fire” in a crowded theater… or can you?

UPDATE (2/2): I live in Boston, traveled in and out of the city yesterday and this event didn’t affect me at all.  I don’t understand these people around the world laughing at Boston for “shutting down” and “overreacting”.  Did I miss something?  Here’s what the Boston police commissioner had to say about the chronology of events… (Seems pretty reasonable to me.) Message from Boston Police Commissioner.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 10:28 am and is filed under Blogging, Memories, Israel, Boston. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.