Err on the Side of Caution?

Thursday February 1, 2007 | 6 comments (now closed)

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The terrorists have already won.

If the furor that ignited over yesterday’s surprise revelation that Err and Ignignokt had secretly infiltrated Boston (and nine other cities) is any indication, this climate of fear birthed in the wake of 911 has locked us in a stranglehold of our own design more constricting than any plot Osama could ever devise. Where’s Jack Bauer when we need him?

As I spied on one Blogger’s site “There’s a fine line between an LED and an IED (Incendiary Explosive Device).” That’s a great point.

To recap, yesterday morning Boston authorities scrambled to invesitigate a suspicious device found by a T employee affixed to a structural support beam. As images of the device began to make their way through the local government, the APB was called out to look for other suspicious objects. As the day ticked on, more and more of these objects were discovered attached to support structures throughout the city – leading to a number of building evacuations and street shutdowns. As Boston Mayor Tom Menino stated, the city was in crisis.

I have no problem with the initial reaction. Sure, in the wake of 911, strange devices aught to coax a second look. But one look at this device – a lite brite image of a Mooninite (from Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force) – shows that this is as innocuous an object as any random flyer or poster you see plastered throughout the city. It’s a marketing tool and a piece of art – a conversation piece.

The problem is that par for the course, our leaders overreacted to great extremes without doing a little bit of research. Hell, two minutes on Google could have cleared this whole mess up. 

Last night, while watching the FIFTEEN MINUTES OF LIVE COVERAGE!!! on the Fox 25 News (that’s more than a quarter of their news programming devoted to this non-story) – I got the sense that the city was playing the blame game. They know they overreacted to great cost to the community and now they were going to make someone pay. Menino was calling for 3-5 years of prison time for every Mooninite found to be levied against the poor starving artist who hung them up. Governor Deval Patrick backed him up.

So Deval is in favor of giving a rapist a second chance but if you hang up a poster, he’ll throw the book at ya’. The crazy thing is, where was this vitrol and outrage when the Big Dig began collapsing around us. Sure there was some grandstanding on behalf of Governor Romney but that was all just a power play to remove Matt Amorello from office. The scumbag lowball contractors pretty much skated on that one.

Menino’s reaction is just one more overreaction in Mumbles’ long career. You’ll recall last year, when on the morning of the Playstation 3 release, a crowd of consumers trampled a few individuals in a bid to claim a PS3 at the Copley Place mall. The furor was kicked off when the group that was lined up at one entrance spied a security guard opening an entrance directly opposite from where they were queued. The stampede left a few people injured and questions arose as to where the police support was for such a high profile location. Menino immediately deflected blame toward Sony, stating that their lack of available inventory was the true cause of the melee. Now, I’m no Sony fan, but I have a hard time connecting the dots and laying the blame at Sony’s feet whose apparent crime is producing a popular product.

It’s not just Boston, this sort of thing happens much too often these days and the media just laps it up. I’m reminded of the frenzy that developed around ‘Runaway Bride’ Jennifer Willbanks. If you recall that story, Willbanks disappeared fairly close to her wedding date, prompting her fiance to call out an all points bulletin to find his missing mistress. Next thing you know, agents from the State Police, FBI, CIA, NSA, Interpol and SETI were scouring the land looking for the lady on the lam. As the story turns, Willbanks had cold feet and didn’t want to marry the creep. Happens all the time, all over the world – yet because this guy had a few state government connections, a manhunt was launched. With egg on their face, the authorities decided that Willbanks needed to foot the bill for their manhunt. That’s a huge price to pay for ditching a dude who wouldn’t put out.

My point is, why must someone always pay? Menino is calling for the head of the Mooninites over a clear misunderstanding. Let’s focus our efforts on the rise in domestic crime on Boston city streets. An article in yesterday’s Boston Globe pointed to the fact that for the last 6 months, on average, one teen has been murdered per day on Boston city streets. Let’s move beyond caging the cartoonists and turn our attention to the true evil in our midst.

To quote my good man Ignignokt,

“Mr. Mayor. I’m flipping you off as high as I can.”