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If you see a 10-foot-tall backpack, you damn well better say something
By adamg on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 1:42pm
But since things are rarely that obvious, well, say something anyway. The MBTA launched a new "if you see something, say something" campaign with the help of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who spoke outside South Station, so we don't know what would have happened if there had been bag checks inside and she tried to get on the Red Line:
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Comments
Big Sis.
I wonder if she got her butt felt at the airport.
Annoying
Great, a new Public Fear Announcement from our beloved leaders at Faderland Security. Should I be saying something about the loss of civil liberties and sense of well being in the name of Security Theater? Because I'm certainly seeing something.
Why don't they show a video of a shifty looking west-Asian type shuffling through the fare gates and dropping a bulging paper-bag into a trash can and then scurrying away. This is what they want us to be on the look out for, why not be honest about it? What do we expect to see in that massive backpack, underage drinkers? drunken T-track stumblers? penis groping pervs? White, guys with military cuts parking bomb-laden vans in front of government buildings? Don't be ridiculous! None of those cases are real security threats in a post-9/11 world! Get with the program.
I need someone who can video edit
Can someone re-edit this to say:
"It's never this obvious"
"But this is exactly how big your backpack seems like to the rest of us"
"Take it off and put it at your feet, Masshole."
I've called MBTA police
I've called MBTA police numerous times about the non-T, non-emergency vehicles parked in the busway at Jackson Square and the clearly marked "NO PARKING TOW ZONE" areas at Forest Hills (both well within blast zone)--and have gotten nothing but grief and token notetaking from the dudes i've talked to.
if you REALLY want nothing to be done...
...be sure to call about the parking lot at City Hall Plaza between Govt Center T stop and city hall itself. As if the plaza weren't ugly enough without all the damn cars parked there.
She's about to speak at MIT
Napolitano is speaking at Kresge at MIT at 4:00.
http://compton.mit.edu/speakers/janet-napolitano/
The title of the lecture was
The title of the lecture was "The Future of Science as Public Service".
Because everything the Department of Homeland Security does is based on rigorous science.
There are giants among us
The backpack belonged to the Amazing Colossal Man.
The barrage of fear promoting announcements (which I, and I suspect most people ignore) would be tolerable, if the T was not now an audible cesspool of noise. From entering the system to exiting the train station or bus noise fills the air. Announcements of impending trains (I can hear them coming into the station thanks), cell phone conversations, bleeding earbuds, cell phones playing music - on speakers, ad nauseum amp up stress to a screaching level.
Since the T is not willing to put their security forces to useful work (like enforcing noise regulations on the T) then they could at least eliminate the announcements that they directly generate.
Please tell me
That the T didn't pay a professional to do this? It looks like handheld video (and not in a good way)
You'd think that even an amateur could get a tripod for a long fixed shot.
Uh..
It was done for effect. To be a little unsettling, urban, and edgy.
Also beware of giant cardboard boxes
Although something like this would be awesome for kids to play in.
Interesting how the
giant shipping box at North Station was placed in the "performance area". Gives new meaning to the term security theater.
According to the Herald, the
According to the Herald, the T spent $25,000 just on these props. What a freakin' waste of money.
http://www.metro.us/boston/lo
http://www.metro.us/boston/local/article/802512--m...
"185 Unattended bags reported on the MBTA last year ...
80 Suspicious persons reported on the MBTA last year ..."
And every single report was a waste of money and fear.
The 80 suspicious persons
The 80 suspicious persons were probably all taking pictures.
Uh, that's not how it works
Do what now?
Let's say that 1 of those 185 unattended bags was actually a bomb left by a bomber. If they check and find the bomb in time because someone reported it as an unattended bag...is that the only time it wasn't a waste of money and fear?
It's impossible to know ahead of time which one is a bomb and not someone's lunch. It's also probably the best plan for security on the T...or would you rather they do more frequent bag checks at all stops?
It's always a waste of time
It's always a waste of time and money. Always.
Someone please explain why an unattended backpack is more dangerous that thousands and thousands of unattended cars and vans and trucks all over the city?
Last I checked, you could do more damage with a bomb in a car than in a backpack.
Check again
There are a lot of people concentrated inside the busier T stations which, incidentally, can be difficult to drive a car into, then abandon the car.
A backpack could potentially do a LOT of damage to human life in a crowded T station. But let's hope we never find out for sure.
Im pretty sure you could kill
Im pretty sure you could kill more people flooding out of the garden, fenway, agganis etc than any random day in copley station.
But it would be way too inconvenient to ban cars or require them to park in reinforced concrete bunker garages.
It's easy enough to require the T to spend $20,000 on a reinforced trash can.
Another thing you're not considering
An explosion outside in a crowd is going to quickly have diminishing returns for the distance covered by the explosion. First, the explosion itself is the only thing that's going to do the damage (unless you pack the bomb with shrapnel) and either way every person takes a portion of the energy (and shrapnel) out of your blast protecting the next person back. All of the vertical explosion is wasted by going up into the air where there are no targets.
An explosion underground is concentrated and reflected because it's in a nearly completely enclosed space. The compression wave can travel further and rebound around the room. Add to that consumption of oxygen and creating of smoke in a confined, less than well ventilated space. It gets pretty ugly pretty fast.
Hmmmm...
Jeez, you've put a bit of thought into this....uhm...should I say something?
I watch a lot of TV
Mythbusters know their explosions.
Big dig tunnels, rush hour.
Big dig tunnels, rush hour. Large truck packed to the brims with explosives. As a bonus, you get to flood the thing too.
Add to that consumption of oxygen and creating of smoke in a confined, less than well ventilated space. It gets pretty ugly pretty fast.
Im pretty sure the government is well aware that a properly coordinated attack on the harbor tunnels could be devastating.
But again, it's just too damn inconvenient to stop every 4th car and search for bombs. Much easier to do it on the T where a backpack bomb can do very little damage.
Matters of scale
1) Good luck purchasing a "large truck packed to the brims" worth of explosives in this day and age without inviting men in dark glasses to jump from a helicopter into your bedroom window the next day. You can fill a backpack with stuff you bought on the way to the T station if you wanted to.
2) We're not talking about random bag/car checks. We're talking about "see something, say something" where MBTA police or other staff are tipped off to unattended bags by the rest of us and they go check them out instead of all of us just moving along ignoring the potential hazard until the one time it's no longer someone's unintentionally forgotten luggage. I'd expect that someone should call the police if they see someone abandoning a "large truck packed to the brims" in the Big Dig during rush hour as well.
But there are stations at those places
North Station = Garden
Fenway = T stop and commuter rail
Agannis is on the T
Gillette----yeah, there's the best example. I'm not going to pretend that it's served by commuter rail!
Riiiight
They don't call it MASS transit because we live in MA.
Also, try leaving that bomb-car in front of the Federal Reserve and see if they don't "waste time and money" to check you out. So don't act like you just leave a car anywhere in the city and not have someone's security/police force come investigate it.
Finally, blow up a random car on the streets of Boston and you'll shut down a few blocks. Blow up a backpack on the Red Line Platform at South Station and you'll shut down the entire MBTA, southbound Amtrak, Greyhound, AND street traffic. If you do it anywhere near the Silver Line, you can probably throw in scaring the piss out of Logan too.
At best, having the MBTA Police and/or station staff check unattended bags will mean stopping a bomb from going off. At worst, someone might actually get reunited with a personal item they didn't realize they dropped. If you ask them, I'm sure it's not a waste of time or money either.
But 1 of them wasn't actually
But 1 of them wasn't actually a bomb. 0 of them were.
Yet
There are 3 ways to detect a bomb in a backpack on the MBTA:
1) Mandatory bag checks at the front door.
2) Check out the "See something, say something" reports.
3) Clean up the mess after it goes off.
(1) costs too much in liberty. (3) costs too much in lives.
(2) costs enough money to run a phone hotline number and a response team but costs no lives nor any freedom.
You'll have to detail why the monetary cost outweighs the lives lost (3) or freedom lost (1) to impress me any more than to think you're just a simpleton or a forum troll to say that we should stop paying for (2).
You keep assuming...
The problem is you keep assuming there *is* a bomb in a backpack.
Absolutely incorrect
I keep assuming there can be a bomb in a backpack.