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Suspicious package shuts Worcester Line in Newton
By adamg on Thu, 12/10/2015 - 8:50am
Commuters wonder: What now? Photo by Andrew Bauer.
Service in both directions on the Worcester Line was halted around 8:30 a.m. upon discovery of a suspicious package at Newtonville. Police declared the package not suspicious about 15 minutes later and trains were free to go about their business.
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Comments
I've always wondered if the
I've always wondered if the same people who freak out about an abandoned bag do the same and call the police when they see a dark-tinted car abandoned — I mean parked — along the side of the road.
But who abandons bags?
Yes, the vast majority of the time these things end up being nothing. But why are people going around abandoning bags? I just don't understand it. Are they just especially bad litterbugs? Don't have access to trash pickup? Do they all of a sudden get a case of the "Jules from Pulp Fiction" and want to wander the earth with no belongings? Too far away from a Goodwill to just donate the darn bag?
The world may never know.
Oh, and there was that one guy around Kendall Square who dropped off a bunch of body parts in bags.
bags
Has a reported abandoned bag ever been a bomb in this country?
People are forgetful. People get distracted. People are buried in their phones and the train arrives.
There's a reason that lost-and-found rooms exist.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/mta-new-york-lost-and-found-subway-mo...
Wow
Almost 10,000 backpacks left behind. I guess we have our answer!
I'm so OCD, I would be more likely to check that I have everything for the 20th time and end up missing the train.
Has an abandoned bag ever been a bomb in this country?
Or this city?
To be fair, I wouldn't have called it in, but I can't fault those who would.
wasnt there some race
where a couple of bombs went off in some backpacks here in boston?
i dont recall if there was luggage involved in that one tbh
There were.
There were.
And even if someone had reported them, with the masses of people and the barricades, the carnage would have been great regardless.
Let's prephrase
Has there ever been a bomb-in-bag that took so long to detonate that emergency services would have had time to clear the area? If you have time to a) drive over there and b) clear the area, the thing is either a dud or, you know, just a bag.
Same with bomb threats. With the exception of the Troubles, bomb threats should be ignored. But it gives law enforcement a reason to break out their toys, justify their funding, and look important, so no one bothers to reexamining how they're handled.
And the fact that trains
And the fact that trains holding a thousand passengers were delayed while cars holding a single occupant whizzed right on by the alleged bomb shows that no one "in charge" really thought this item posed any danger.
Yeah - the one time someone
Yeah - the one time someone uses the bomb-in-a-backpack trick, it didn't even get noticed.
I posted this weeks ago, but I'll reiterate: This kind of security theater has a zero percent success rate - since the "post-September-11-world" paranoia began, never have they found a bomb in a reported suspicious package, and never has a bomb actually left in a package like this been reported before it went off. All that these theatrics do is keep money flowing to the security establishment and keep frightening people (both of which is probably the point).
I asked whether a bag that
I asked whether a bag that someone called in has ever been a bomb.
Well, if they had been called in...
You did ask that, but the question has to be raised as to why people feel compelled to raise the alarm when an unattended bag is left somewhere.
But yes indeed, in the United States, explosives have never been found in the bags that people have noticed unattended and brought to the attention of the authorities, as far as I know.
ATL?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing
Thanks
Maybe Saul (and I) don't want to be the prime suspect when the bag explodes after he (we) alerts the authorities.
Except my deal is that I'm too lazy to care.
I've left a bag on a train
I don't remember if it was the Providence commuter rail or the Red Line, but I do know that I had it in Providence and didn't have it when I got home. Losing it a few years ago was mildly annoying, but it didn't contain anything of great value. I'm glad nobody freaked out about it and tried to stop the train from running.
if it makes you feel better
instead of freaking out, i would have ransacked it for valuables
someday, this will be my undoing*
(*statistically unlikely)
double post
due to website shittery
People in a hurry leave their
People in a hurry leave their belongings behind all the time. Just like you'll see the occasional thermos, umbrella, or even laptop left behind by a harried commuter, some are going to forget their backpacks.
If you actually apply logic
If you actually apply logic and rationality to "abandoned stuff in public that could hold a bomb," we'd end up with a city that couldn't function.
Why is that old cardboard box sitting in someone's trash pile on trash day not a "suspicious package"? What about that abandoned tube TV or CRT monitor? Why isn't the trash itself suspicious? If a bomb can be concealed in a backpack and left on a sidewalk, certainly a big black trash bag or recycling bin would make an even better hiding place.
How many objects do you see every day left out in public that are big enough to conceal a bomb? Yet the only things that are treated as suspicious are backpacks, similar items like duffels, and things that to someone actually look like potential bombs.
It reminds me of an anecdote I read years ago that quintessentially explains the concept of "security theater": To actually purchase explosives nowadays, e.g., a stick of dynamite, one has to jump through interminable hoops: Federal regulation, licensing, identity checks, and so on. 2L of gasoline is equivalent to 1kg of dynamite. Yet, anyone can buy gasoline, anywhere, anonymously, in cash, with no oversight whatsoever. (And bombers have used gasoline in their bombs before, so it's not like the security establishment simply hasn't "realized" this hole exists.) So why is this? Why bother regulating explosives-sold-as-explosives yet not explosives-sold-as-fuel? Because the economy and society would cease to function if they did, so they just let it go. There is no increase in our security by regulating to death things like dynamite, there is no security at all, and what they do is just theater to make it look they're doing something.
Did they close the Pike as well?
Otherwise, what's the point?
Of course not. If drivers
Of course not. If drivers were treated with the same disdain as transit riders, there would be random checkpoints on the Pike and other roads where drivers and their belongings were searched. After all, correct me if I am wrong, but the Paris and San Bernardino attackers transported their arsenals in cars, not on the métro.
After all ...
If every bag could be a bomb, then every car could be a car bomb.
In fact, car bombs are sufficiently cliche that one can easily obtain a cocktail with an ethnically-insensitive name in many local bars.
its only insensitive
if you fail to acknowledge the level of skill and precision with which certain people were known to make car bombs
(i saw this in a lot of movies so im sure its true)
Um, they regularly close
Um, they regularly close entire city blocks, roads and all, when these suspicious packages are called in. You can find a dozen stories right here on UHub.
Pike
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/20...
So the bag was potentially dangerous enough to halt trains 10 feet to the right of the bag but not cars 10 feet to the left of the bag.
Got it.
That's a very strong fence.
It protects the cars.