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Police blow up pressure cooker on Western Avenue

Police block off Western Avenue

Keith Richard reports that shortly after 6 p.m.:

Coworkers and I heard a massively loud controlled explosion.

Outside the Boyne, 458 Western Ave. He adds:

Officer told us out was a pressure cooker found on street, no threat made. Same officer said, the pressure cooker appeared empty but "we blow 'em up anyway" (controlled) to be safe.

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Comments

I always hear the end theme from the Looney Tunes cartoons (That's all folks!) when I read these security theater stories?

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http://www.boston.com/news/source/2014/03/police_detonate_suspicious_pac...

The restaurant was closed for approximately an hour and a half, but re-opened Monday night, Hoey said.

I wonder if the bar owner has insurance to cover losses from said owner's paranoia.

(My bus commute home was delayed 25 minutes because of the detours around Western Avenue.)

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Way to make the general welfare of all about you.

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General welfare?

Who was saved by this brave act of heroism?

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In fact, traffic jams kill more people than pressure cooker bombs.

Americans have a really crappy grasp on risk.

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...some of the overblown antics at airport security screening areas. Popping a pressure cooker with a water cannon is not theater, it's a reasonable precaution. After all, the thing is there, no one just made it up. Last April they were real.

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"Officer told us out was a pressure cooker found on street, no threat made. Same officer said, the pressure cooker appeared empty but "we blow 'em up anyway" (controlled) to be safe."

No, you blow them up because a)you get to blow something up b)it scares people for a mile+ radius and feeds into making people fear.

Seriously, it's EMPTY.

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You don't *know* its empty until you open it, you don't want to open it because if it was a more sophisticated device, it might detonate when you do that, so you use a small, controlled explosion to hopefully both open the device up and disrupt the potential explosive mechanism inside it so that it cannot detonate. If it was an empty bag, they'd have just let a K9 sniff it and toss it in a trash can.

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Whenever there is a "suspicious" device I volunteer to walk over to said device and verify that it is harmless. Should it be a bomb I'd be happy to die knowing that I gave my life to spare our society hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of people major inconveniences by dealing with all the prior false alarms. I love America and if our armed forces are willing to put themselves in harms way abroad to protect our freedom then I should be willing to do the same at home.

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If he could say it "appeared" empty, odds are someone got close enough to look in it, otherwise how would he make that assumption. I'm guessing a full pressure cooker w/the cover on looks a lot like an empty one.

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he died protecting boston, dogs and people. have some respect for people that do dangerous things to make your world safer.

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Why the logic when we can just let Bostondog boot it around like a soccer ball. No harm, no foul.

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The 70 last night was rerouted for 5-10 minutes extra and was wondering what the deal was. Hmm.

Also they blow it up anyway probably because it makes for a decent field-level training application.

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The Boyne has always kind of scared me- pressure cookers there or not

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Similar thing happened in East Boston a week or so ago, right? Is someone leaving pressure cookers out as a not-funny prank with the Marathon approaching? Or are people just randomly leaving pressure cookers on sidewalks in a strange coincidence? Bizarre.

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When the gaskets go bad or the top valve isn't functioning properly, people tend to throw them out rather than order parts.

But, hey, with easy targets like the fuel pool at Pilgrim or the national electric grid vulnerabilities, it makes me feel safe to take off my shoes and walk through a rapescanner or see cops blow up cooking pots.

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Thanks for the snark. No kidding people cook with them. Just think it's weird people are randomly leaving them out on the sidewalk not on trash day. I don't know about you, but I don't just randomly leave my discarded kitchen items on street corners. I didn't say it was some dastardly plot. Get over yourself.

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