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Downtown streets shut as police investigate, blow up suspicious suitcase near James Hook
By adamg on Fri, 12/04/2015 - 11:01am
Police investigate remains of exploded suitcase. Photo by Jonathan Berk.
UPDATE: Arrest made.
Police are looking for a man they say left a large suitcase near a Homeland Security vehicle at the Coast Guard building on Atlantic Avenue around 9:50 a.m., then walked away in a hurry.
Police responding to the scene quickly shut Atlantic Avenue and Seaport Boulevard over the Evelyn Moakley Bridge as the bomb squad arrived. Eventually, an I-93 ramp was shut as well.
At least one building on the other side of Fort Point Channel was put into lockdown as a precaution.
Around 11:50 a.m. the bomb squad blew up the suitcase - which people heard 30 floors up at Atlantic and Summer and Broad Street near Faneuil Hall.
Shopengarten got a street level view of streets being blocked:
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
omg
Lady on the T carrying a black bag, powder blowing in Somerville, package near Atlantic Ave....
I think I'll stay in bed today.
Stay safe...
I heard unconfirmed reports of a man in a hoodie near DTX. Travel in a group if you must exit your home. But avoid congregations or crowds.
I have confirmation that
I have confirmation that there are loud planes flying into Boston. Protect your eardrums, everyone.
OMG
I think I saw that guy this morning. He had his hands in his pockets. This is getting really scary.
O noes I saw him too I think!
O noes I saw him too I think! Was he listening to ... headphones?
Don't forget the white squirrel on the Common...
That was a suspicious looking squirrel if I ever saw one.
HUH?
Its 11:05! I'd say you committed to that decision already
In light of this thread,
In light of this thread,
Welcome to paranoia and
Welcome to paranoia and security theatre.
sooooooo....
you feel that BPD planted the suitcase, went to all the trouble of detonating it, and then framed some dude?
it is the xmas season, can you please let me know what size your tinfoil hat is?
"Security theater" does not mean "false flag operation"
I don't think anon is suggesting that the incident was staged, rather that its outcome will include countermeasures that amount to security theater, i.e., actions taken by authorities that make people feel safer without effectively making them any safer.
A common example used by security professionals: in the wake of 9/11, the only two countermeasures that genuinely worked to mitigate similar attacks were: 1) reinforcing cockpit doors; and 2) retiring the old wisdom that passengers shouldn't fight back against attackers. Just about everything else (e.g., full-body scanners, intrusive pat-downs), amounted (and continues to amount) to security theater, yielding a very poor cost-to-threat-mitigation ratio.
A nice, clear summary of airport security theater here.
It got started earlier than that
I was walking in to work at around 10:10 AM and saw a few ambulances converging on that area. Wondered if it was a shooting or something. Sounds like nothing has actually gone down yet, which is good. Lots of helicopters hovering over Fort Point at the moment.
A little before 10
We started hearing the commotion from our office across the wharf a little before 10. What a morning!
Thanks, post updated
Police say they got the call at 9:50 a.m. I've also updated the post with the photo they released.
In the immortal words of Fred Thompson
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/female-shooting-suspect-pledged-allegiance-is...
C'mon, Jack
Have you met Captain Ramius, General? Because I have.
Avoid the area. Traffic in
Avoid the area. Traffic in the area is a mess. More than usual around south station etc.
Congress Street (around the
Congress Street (around the 300 block) is a parking lot.
This is beyond ridiculous
This is beyond ridiculous
explosion
it just sounded like an explosion--was it controlled by the authorities??
Yes
They even yelled "fire in the hole!"
"Hole" or "Hold"?
What the heck, it's Friday.....
Like Courtney Love ...
Hole.
Unresolved hair questions
When will the chief be made available for hair questions?
Never Forget.
1-31-07
Hey has anyone seen my lite brite?
It was literally JUST here. Guys? guys? come on this isn't funny.
so tired of hipsters so tired of this
First of all, the lite brite incident was allowed to get out of control by the people who planted the devices meant to market some stupid cartoon. The bomb squad gets a call that a device with power supply and wires is attached to the underside of an overpass, they're TRAINED to treat it as a bomb until proven otherwise. The guys who put them there were photographed filming it hours before finally contacting officials instead of minimizing the situation. Congratulations for having cable btw - so impressed.
Secondly, in this case, a person was witnessed walking a suitcase to place it next to a gov't SUV in front of Homeland Security and they leaving in a hurry. X-rays indicated that there was a power source and wires - just like a bomb. It was detonated as a precaution and will be investigated now that it isn't a threat.
What exactly should the police be doing that you think they aren't? Should they let the public in close proximity, in case it's not? Not x-ray it? Not treat it like the bomb that it appears to be? If it's not a bomb great! If it is, then they were able to detonate it before it could hurt anyone. I'm sure there's thousands of people who wish the police had been given this kind of opportunity during the Marathon bombing.
The only people "harmed" in this case were drivers stuck in traffic. Get over yourself.
Call me
Every time they get a call of a suspicious device I volunteer to walk over to it, open it, and inspect the contents. The police can stand at a distance.
Sure, I could be killed. I'm willing to put my life at risk to save the general public hundreds of thousands of dollars that they would have spent on the bomb squad, closed roads, police OT, etc.
Though I'm happy to die if I'm wrong, I'm not concerned for my safety in the slightest. The few times there has been a real bomb it was detonated shortly after the person left it. This isn't Iraq. Terrorists aren't leaving backpacks alone for hours waiting for a group to congregate. The terrorists ARE happy that we're so paranoid.
Wow
What a dope. What a stupid thing to die for.
Whatever
Think what you want. I'd rather die from a terrorist bomb then spend my life living in fear of one. These never ending bomb scares and theatrical production by the police of blowing up suitcases only reinforce fear and suspicion.
Really?
Unless you're a big fan of melodrama or lacking in imagination and vision, there are more than those two choices in life.
Again, whatever
I wouldn't die. My chances of being killed by a drunk driver who just won the lottery are far more likely then any risk I face in opening a "suspicious" backpack. I face a far greater risk in GETTING to the "suspicious" backpack then I do from opening it.
I'm so confident these "threats" are bogus I'm will to risk my life. And if I'm wrong history will think I'm a fool. But if I'm right I just saved society millions of dollars they would have wasted on useless crap for the police.
I dunno, I like his chances
Considering that, out of the billions of times that someone has put their backpack on the ground for a minute in the last couple decades, there have been fewer than ten explosives detonated, I'd say his chances are pretty good. Given the choice between investigating a random backpack on the sidewalk or driving to work in the morning, you're much less likely to die in the latter case than in the former, but sensationalists gonna sensationalize.
I also volunteer as tribute, if it will save me from having to sit in the 93 southbound slog for an hour while the entire downtown shuts down for another episode of security theater.
I like you.
You talk sense. Why not give yourself a nickname to differentiate yourself from the infinite number of anons?
It might be a bomb
that will cause damage to people and infrastructure (like the I-93 tunnel) if it goes off. So we'll block the area off, stop traffic and then detonate it IN PLACE.
Huh?
We say detonate...
But what it really is is "disruption". Bombs have to have a trigger, a detonator, and a main charge. If you disrupt the detonator/main charge connection, then no bomb. If you use a high-pressure water system to deliver a jet of water that is strong enough to rupture and disperse the possible "bomb" into lots of pieces, then you'll likely break that connection, break any container that was providing the pressure vessel for the explosion to be efficient, wet down any explosive material, and spread the material over a wide range to reduce any chance of pressure building up if you set off a counter-measure.
If they had shown a picture
If they had shown a picture of the Moononite lite-brites to anyone under the age of 30 they could have told them what it was. They were put in other cities too and they didn't overreact and lock down neighborhoods. That was an embarrassing moment in Boston history.
For god's sake
Oh my goodness, a dose of perspective, please. A black man getting speared by an American flag wielded by a bunch of crackers? That was an embarrassing moment in Boston history. A Muslim woman getting rousted by vigilantes on the Green Line? That was an embarrassing moment in Boston history. This business with the so-called Lite Brites? Not so much.
Hey now...
There's plenty of embarassment to go around. Can't we all just agree to be emmbarrassed about all of these things at the same time? For the record, I'd like to add the molasses flood to our city's embarrasing moments. I mean, who drowns in molasses? And on a personal level, I'm getting pretty embaressed about my poor spelling of "embarrass".
I'd classify those more as
I'd classify those more as disgusting moments. Certainly embarrassing, but embarrassment is not the primary attribute of those events.
When you were a teenager and one of your parents or grandparents did something in front of you and all your peers demonstrating that they were hopelessly out of touch and everyone laughed at you? That's embarrassment. It's also exactly what happened on Mooninite Day. Old doofuses overreacted to something they didn't understand and the rest of the country laughed at us.
Mooninite ads
Not to mention those Mooninite ads were up for days before somebody overreacted and suddenly decided they were bomba. I walked past one on my way to work. None of the authorities noticed these things were already up for a substantial amount of time without blowing up? Most definitely an embarrassing moment in Boston history.
"hipsters"
I generally stop taking people seriously once they throw out the term "hipsters". Thankfully anon got it out of the way early so I could save a couple minutes of my time.
That MIT girl took it
Said it matched her shirt. I think she was headed to Logan.
What Coast Guard Building is this near?
This is close to the Fed. AFAIK the Coast Guard only have their HQ in the North End...
JOHN FOSTER WILLIAMS COAST GUARD BUILDING
First Coast Guard District
408 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, MA 02110
http://www.uscg.mil/d1/Directions.asp
google is a thing
408 Atlantic
http://www.uscg.mil/d1/Directions.asp
About a year ago
About a year ago just after Labor Day, a group of friends and I reserved a camping spot on the Harbor Islands. You have to truck everything to the island yourself, including fresh water. So we had a lot of gear for 14 people. I rented a white van from Zipcar and picked everyone's stuff up and we tossed it on the sidewalk at the curb pretty much right in the same vicinity as today's package. I drove away while my friends that came with me at the time went to the dock to secure something to carry the stuff to our charter boat.
I imagine there were brief periods where our pile of giant duffels were sitting there with limited supervision. I'm glad nobody blew them up...or even asked whose they were.
Ooo
I still want to do that... camp on the harbor islands. I might pick your brain on that and what it was like...
it is great
some islands are more rustic (Grape, Bumpkin), others have running water, indoor bathrooms, etc (Peddocks). All have great views of the city, beaches, nature
It's a lot of fun. As
It's a lot of fun. As mentioned above, Peddock's has running water and flush toilets during the day (composting toilets overnight, when the ranger station is locked up). It makes for a pretty good blend of camping without having to really rough it. Lots of structures from Fort
WarrenAndrews (duh) to explore, and you can walk to the other side of the island to swim and beachcomb.Do you like low-flying jumbo jets?
For the most part, we had a great time. There were some 4-6 AM flight patterns that annoyed some of the campers, though, as it seemed like they were aimed at our island (Lovells). And we were on the island when a really vicious storm front came through (amazing to watch...a little scary to weather through and had to take down some of the less sturdy tents/canopies we had up). But everyone there would do it again.
Probably helped that your
Probably helped that your bags weren't left next to a law enforcement vehicle parked outside a federal/military headquarters building in a heavily trafficked area of a city.
And that it wasn't just a
And that it wasn't just a single bag that you dropped and walked away from in a hurry
True
We were near the fancy hotel valet next door.
I was just down there
Mad traffic
When isn't there? Can't say I
When isn't there? Can't say I feel bad for the people who insist on sitting in traffic when they work next to the biggest bus and train station in New England.
I'll personally paypal you $50
If you can go one comment without the anti-vehicle snark.
Plenty of times
There isn't traffic plenty of times. It's a city, there are vehicles. Big Deal. There are times of traffic and times of easy moving vehicles. If you drove in Boston you'd know this.
We can be flip because we know.
That is, we can be flip about "security theater" because we know that it is most likely that: (1) some incredibly absent-minded person left his/her suitcase unattended next to a random car in the middle of a busy city; or (2) that some jerk knowingly left a suitcase next to a clearly-marked federal law enforcement vehicle in the middle of a busy city to solicit a costly response while laughing about it from some remote vantage point.
Most importantly, we can be flip because all is well, and because we know that if this was instead some person with sinister intent conducting a dry run to gauge response protocol, time, etc., they might now consider carrying out their sinister plan elsewhere, where there will not be such a robust response, and where there will likely be many more victims as a result.
Taken Seriously
BPD is particularly sensitive to this given the marathon and Jeremiah Hurley
http://www.odmp.org/officer/269-officer-jeremiah-j-hurley-jr#
Luggage
By looking at the pictures on Twitter, it wasn't left in the area of a Homeland Security vehicle, it was left leaning against it. I'm with being cautious on this one, although it did appear to be mostly clothes flying out of the detonation.
Ruined evidence?
Since they blew it up, doesn't that mean we'll never really find out if it was a real bomb? I'm sure they can learn a little from blown up debris, but it seems like a lot of the evidence will be destroyed.
Can't we make robots that can actually open things like this and take pics so we can see whether these suspicious packages are really threats?
MIT get on this!
The Police Commissioner Said It Might Have Been A Walkman Inside
A Walkman
Ha ha. Not a Zune or iPod touch, a WALKMAN! Now that would be really funny.
Interesting
None of the kids immediately thought it was a bomb. Maybe there is hope for future generations.
Jeezus that looks like
Sully, or Okie. Nah maybe its Macka or Obie. Its definitely not Guido or Fat head....
I haven't read much about the
I haven't read much about the details, if there are any. Does anyone know if it was filled with nails and other assortment of metals and glass? Or was that some lawyer who decided to abandon his brief case to run off to Lancaster to raise Jersey cows and sell cheese for a living?
It was just a suitcase
Nothing harmful in it.
Probably stolen from someone...
... and then dumped after anything of value (if any) had been removed....
Updated Photo
https://d3dqvga78raec5.cloudfront.net/post_photos/cc/3b/cc3b7e34918c1fd6...
What is this?
A picture for ants???
Suspect arrested...
In Lawrence? That's some serious police work if so.
What crime did he commit?
Littering? Other than that, what is illegal about forgetting your suitcase somewhere like this guy did?
Seems like the kind of guy to
Seems like the kind of guy to threaten an entire bar.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20091016/News/910160368
From the article
A handgun used to keep people safe and remove the criminal from the situation. NO shots fired. In New Hampshire, no less. That's how it's SUPPOSED to work.