Should Boston ban parked cars?

[JackRiddler]

From Beirut to Belfast, parked cars are possibly the most common delivery system for terrorist bombs.

Garbage cans, abandoned appliances and tossed-off boxes have also been used in the past.

It occurs to me that people sometimes turn themselves into bombs, but maybe it's too soon to depopulate.

Banning cars is surely an appropriate first stage.

Check out my favorite site - http://carfree.com

[Breeze54]

1. Give me a break...

who the hell can even find a friggin' parking space in downtown Boston?? :rofl:

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Southeast expressway is a long narrow parking lot.

[uppityperson]

2. Excellent, k&r

[JackRiddler]

20. thanks!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I wasn't even thinking about bomb threats

I was thinking about merely getting around! You know, if major cities banned cars, it would force people to use public transportation or bicycles. I could see this improving health and the environment. Sigh. Now only if the little hick town where I work had some kind of public transportation. Got to look into getting a three wheeled bike (never learned how to ride a 2-wheeler-have terrible problems with balance and find just walking to be a challenge!)

[JackRiddler]

21. You got the punchline, so to speak...

It was a joke about the insanity we have now reached with the terra terra terra scares, but you should click on the link too, you'll see I'm actually serious in hoping to one day see carfree cities!

http://carfree.com

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Why not? They're afraid of cartoon characters.

[Breeze54]

8. MA lost 90 residents in WTC attacks...perhaps you forgot....

Deaths in World Trade Center Terrorist Attacks --- New York City, 2001

http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm51SPa6.htm

A total of 90 decedents were residents of Massachusetts,
the origin of the two airplanes that struck the WTC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't think anybody is laughing over this last fiasco!
(except the guys who put up the signs and then kept quiet!)

Especially the working poor. :grr:

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. Which has nothing to do with last wednesday..........

[Breeze54]

11. Yes it does!! People haven't forgotten! And neither have the police....

We ARE talking about police investigating wires and electric taped up batteries aren't we? :shrug:
The police have a duty to follow through and investigate, especially when finding unknown
devices with wires and batteries stuck under bridges!

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. The could quietly investigate with out bomb squads and swat teams.

That's what stirred everything into a frenzy.

9 other cities handled these cartoon characters better than Boston.

Next thing they'll be swarming Radio Shack stores or blinking WALK lights at intersections................

[Breeze54]

14. How do they do that?

Apparently you've never been to Boston.
These devices were on bridges, at extremely busy intersections, at rush hour!
One was on a T-Station, with commuters getting on & off trains!
How do they "hide" swat trucks and bomb squad trucks, etc. and numerous police cars?

What you're suggesting isn't and wasn't possible.

[uppityperson]

15. "They could quietly investigate with out bomb squads and swat teams."

that is what previous poster wrote. Investigate WITHOUT swat teams or bomb teams. Same as they checked these things out in other cities. Problem was they had found pipe bombs too, so instead of sending out a regular cop car to check it out, they sent out swat teams.

[Breeze54]

16. ah...but...they thought it was a bomb!!! LMAO!!

:crazy:

I hope you're not in law enforcement or on the fire dept! :rofl: :sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

18. Actually they sent a squad car and they reported what they found.

When in doubt.....'they' sent the experts aka bomb squad.

Makes sense to me.

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. Have you ever seen anything else suspicious in Boston?

Do we call the bomb squad every time something looks out of the ordinary? For two weeks those thing stood in full view of everyone.

Boston is full of strange things, just like any other big city.

Face it, Boston looked realllllly silly this time.

[Breeze54]

19. Have I seen

anything suspicious in Boston?? LMFAO!!!

Boston did what was required, having no info. about what these things were...

they found 12 and there were 38 of them, so, if they were really being nuts,
they would have held the commuters up before they finished finding all 38!
They didn't. They stopped with the hoopla after the PR Co. finally contacted them.
LATE in the afternoon!!!!

I think it's a win-win situation!

Turner got advertising and Boston and surrounding towns get a million + $$$!

Everybody wins! ;)

[JackRiddler]

27. Well, I'm asking Boston to do what is required...

having no info about who parked all these cars there, any one of which is likelier to be a bomb than the Lite Brites.

[Beelzebud]

33. Here is my question. Should they even be called "cars" anymore?

I prefer this new nomenclature:

Mobile IED

And I think we really need to stop using the term "civilian" and use this much more accurate term:

Potential Threat

[Little Wing]

30. OH NOES!!!!

It's so terrible, they were up for over a week! :head on fire:

[JacksonWest]

32. The police have a duty to not be so fucking stupid and cause a panic.

No other city reacted like this.

[JackRiddler]

28. I think it's time to stop using 9/11 as the justification for state stupidity n/t

[Beelzebud]

29. NYC had the same signs up for 3 weeks, and didn't freak out.

But thanks for trying to use 9/11 to impose a form of censorship on the public.

[Hosnon]

6. I say we ban electricity, science and chemicals. nt.

[Leopolds Ghost]

24. Especiailly chemicals. Also, we should ban illegal statuary, like this:

Also ban guerrilla artwork like this, under a bridge in Seattle:



Should the Fremont Troll in Seattle be demolished, just in case? Vote here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x115048

[Richard Steele]

7. Boston clearly needs to preemptively invade Atlanta. They're stockpiling LED's!

[Leopolds Ghost]

25. Perhaps the bomb squad heard "IEDs" instead of "LEDs". n/t

[not_a_robot]

9. Actually

If they do ban parked cars that might make them safer, as aless motorists will visit the city. In fact I think this should be the norm in any heavily populated area, lets start with san jose and work it to boston.

[Swamp Rat]

12. What about bicycles or rickshaws, or people with extremely large legs and buttocks?

[JackRiddler]

22. Patience, my friend...

We'll get around to banning the people soon enough, and then there will be no one left to plant any bombs.

[Swamp Rat]

23. Don't fight it son. Confess quickly!

If you hold out too long you could jeopardize your credit rating.

[Leopolds Ghost]

26. What about fresh fruit? Kumquats? Mangoes in syrup?

Do YOU know how to defend yourself against an assailant armed with fresh fruit?

[wuushew]

31. It could be argued that the emergency response harmed more people than could a bomb

Think how many doctors, social workers or police officers were tied up in traffic during the response to this scare. Somewhere in Boston a person is dead of a heart attack or other some such thing.

If we discount the mass of the batteries and the plastic shell how much chemical energy could be contained in a "mooninite" bomb and how much damage could have been done to a steel structure absent the device being a shaped explosive?

Since odds where heavily in favor of this not being an explosive device was this the most prudent risk adjusted response to ensure public safety? Was the reaction correct? The answer is no.

[gatorboy]

34. Someone should be arrested for dropping Boston on it's head.

It apparently never recovered.