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Bomb squad responds to Logan after man is spotted throwing a couple of things in the trash
By adamg on Wed, 09/17/2014 - 10:53pm
State Police report troopers patrolling the lower level of Terminal C around 1 p.m. were approached by concerned citizens who'd just spotted a man drive up to a curbside trash can, put two containers in it and then drive away.
State Police Troopers and [bomb squad] technicians immediately responded, recovered two small containers from a trash can and secured and removed them from the area. The State Police continue to investigate the incident, but after speaking with the suspect do not believe there was any malicious or criminal intent, or that there was ever any threat to public safety.
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Comments
isn't that what the trash can is for?
If you don't want people using it, don't put it there.
Yeah, the guy probably
Yeah, the guy probably realized that he had a few days' worth of coffee cups and whatnot in his car, and before he parked at the airport for a few days, he decided to get rid of them. Seems completely normal to me. But, such are the times we live in....
Decluttering
Or needed to quickly make the car presentable before he picked someone up.
Is this an Onion article?
Was it one of the expensive blast proof trash cans which promise to prevent a bomb from doing much damage?
Maybe next the cops can go
Maybe next the cops can go after all those suspicious people who pull up to the terminal curb and have passengers remove large suitcases before driving off.
Haha you're so funny! And
Haha you're so funny! And then they can harass all those who drop pressure cookers off at the finish line!! Cops are the worst, right?
Never forget!
...to live in constant fear.
What I want to know is
Did they catch the guy that threw the stuff away, or is he still out there, not littering?
Why the snarky headline and
Why the snarky headline and disdain for people doing their job? It is the whole point of the "see something say something" so WTF ???
Yes everyday items such as luggage and backpacks and Cars and vans, pressure cookers, pipes - and trash barrels - have been used in bombings.
Snarky?
It sounds rather matter of fact to me. Where is the disdain in Adam's writing too?
Yes
And do you know why they're called "everyday items"? Because we use them every day without cause for concern. If we alert on every everyday item and "see something say something" about every "something" then we're going to end up just living in either a giant police state or a giant police theater.
I know we've got a running start at that already, but I'm still hoping there's time to realize our mistakes.
I think the point is that the
I think the point is that the "see something say something" culture is stupid and harmful.
Disdain was in the comments
Disdain was in the comments about the cops following up in a suspicious package in the trash or whatever the call was. I just cant stand people busting the chops of police who are hired to do a job and when they do that job they are maligned.
Not into the nanny state but let's face it calls were made to authorities about the a bunch of Arabs taking flight lessons in Florida but those were ignored. We know how that ended. A bombing victims identified the elder tsarnaevs because he felt something was suspicious about him. So if someone sees something that normally they wouldn't notice but this time it makes them concerned enough to call the cops then i say great. Their vigilance might just save your life one day.
Remind me again what is
Remind me again what is suspicious about someone throwing trash in, ahem, a trash bin?
Nothing. Except this time
Nothing. Except this time someone felt the "container" the person threw in there was odd enough that s/he notified the cops. That is the whole point. There is nothing suspicios about somone at sporting event with a backpack either but for what ever reason The bombing victim said something struck him about the guy standing next to him and his gut feeling and ID avoided a disaster in NYC because that's where they were headed with their bombs until they were caught.
Because we're all bomb detectors now
I say stupid. There's no evidence that any given person on the street is able to correctly determine the likelihood of any other person's actions being "suspicious" enough to warrant investigation. However, by your statement, not only are we all experts on determining if someone else has acted in a manner requiring investigation by authorities but that authorities should not ever consider that the report they've been given by this budding expert is a false positive. And it has been shown that most people "see something" when the person doing the something plays upon one of their open or hidden biases, meaning that the police reaction is biased before it's even had a chance to evaluate the situation.
Yes, when the extremely rare event of a terrorist attack occurs, it is likely that someone nearby has a *chance* of observing a part of it that alerts them to call authorities. And at that point, authorities will not likely have had any knowledge that something is about to happen, so they are relying on the reporting person to bring them to the scene before the attack can be completed. However, given the base probability that someone will attempt a terrorist attack at all (extremely low) and the probability that the terrorist will not trigger anyone's attention (not all bombs are black circles with a fizzing fuse), then the posterior probability that we will simply be ratting each other out for throwing trash away approaches 100%.
Given that even being suspected of being a terrorist is enough to bring the entire Eye of Sauron down upon you, even if it's only because you threw trash away at the airport, we now dance dangerously between "see something say something" being a bonanza of false positive wastes of time and actually degrading innocent people's lives.
I can only hope they caught
I can only hope they caught the guy before he started minding his own business.
Probably
Just someone who wanted to get rid of some trash in their car. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can imagine the idea of driving up to a drop off area and not dropping people off but instead tossing 'something' into the garbage can seemed weird to the concerned citizens.
The suspect (as defined in the above article) will probably bring their trash home or find another barrel next time.
just a question
were these "containers" Dunkin' Donuts bags?
Could this article and the
Could this article and the police report mentioned in it possibly be any vaguer ? They recovered and secured ... what ? They determined there was no threat to public safety, but somehow that required them to speak to a suspect first ? Why wouldn't they have been able to tell that from taking a look at whatever was in the bin ? Did they just go on the say-so of the suspect ? And what are they still investigating after making that determination ?
Logan Airport =
F TroopTroop F.