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Hostage taking planned for former Circle Cinemas in Cleveland Circle this weekend

City, state and federal law-enforcement agencies converge on Boston this weekend for a 24-hour "public safety exercise" across the city, but Boston channels its inner Kevin Bacon and yells, "Remain calm!"

Residents in the area may hear simulated gunfire, observe officers responding to simulated emergencies, or see activity in the Boston Harbor. Each scenario will be run multiple times, and organizers urge residents not to be alarmed. There is no danger to anyone in the area, and exercises will be done in cordoned-off areas away from the public.

Why, yes, of course, something this large needs a code name: Urban Shield.

Among the places that will come under simulated siege: The shuttered Circle Cinemas, where local police will stage a simulated bank robbery and "hostage situation."

Other areas in which you probably don't have to worry about whether that gunfire is real: the old B-2 police station in Roxbury (SWAT exercises), the Bowdoin T stop (simulated hazmat spill), Boston Harbor Anchorage #1 (ponder a chemical spill on a ferry boat).

The climactic conclusion will come at UMass Boston, where Transformers, asteroids and the Death Star law-enforcement participants will converge on Sunday for "a culminating exercise involving all agencies and a variety of exercises."

Meanwhile, eight hospitals in the area will be running their own drills for dealing with mass victims of violence and chemical spills.

Participating agencies include regular police from Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Winthrop, Revere, Quincy, Everett, and Chelsea, SWAT units from several of those communities, Manchester, NH and Staet Police, the Coast Guard, MBTA Transit Police and of course, Homeland Security, which is paying for the whole thing.

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Comments

I know planning is great, but there has been continuous terrorism for the past few weeks in the Fields Corner, Codman Square, Four Corners Triangle.

Perhaps our boys in blue could do some real life takedowns of actual terrorists in Dot as opposed to showing off in front of the cameras with some supposed Chechen takeover of the Circle.

Also, Chemical spill on a ferry? As a frequent taker of the Hingham Ferry, the worst thing that could ever get spilled on the boat is a Sam Adams on the 540 from Rowes Wharf.

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"We shouldn't do anything before we do this thing."

This is why you're not a boss. Bosses are actually responsible for more than one thing at a time.

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"We shouldn't do anything before we do this thing."

This is why you're not a boss. Bosses are actually responsible for more than one thing at a time.

I recall Paul Benzequin's account of a massive training drill that Civil and Military athorities had conducted sometime before the horrific fire. Here's an account from National Fire Protection Research Association http://www.nfpa.org/journalDetail.asp?categoryID=1...

"IT WAS 1942 and the United States was at war. On the weekend before the Coconut Grove fire, a mock disaster of a supposed German Luftwaffe "blitz" tested the response of some thirty thousand of metropolitan Boston’s Civil Defense workers. All activity throughout the city came to a halt as close to 200 simulated explosions and fires produced approximately 300 phantom casualties. Authorities were pleased with the outcome of the drill, but nobody would have guessed that even before the passing of a single week the value of this drill would be put to its ultimate test."

If the Coconut Grove fire is not proof enought, surely the devastation in NY/NJ/CT this week illustrate the need for large scale training excercises.

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Well, it's nice someone is mentioning this.

I live in the neighborhood behind the Circle Cinemas, and I've heard nothing about this until now. That's a problem, because as you might have guessed, gunfire, simulated or otherwise, is happily not a common occurrence around here. Given the number of Gladys Kravitz wannabes and helicopter neighbors, if a better effort isn't made to get the word out, the 911 system is going to be swamped.

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I just saw that the BrPD has posted something about this on their blog - that's not going to get the word out broadly enough, fellas. Given the apparent breadth of this exercise around town, I hope the msm can peel itself away from monetizing the post storm suffering long enough to report something that is going to happen and needs to be reported.

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Get your attention? Seriously, does anyone know why I'd always here a helicopter flying very low between 1:45-2:15AM weekdays when I lived in Hyde Park a few years ago? This went on for a good 2 years maybe.

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