Toy Terrorism

So Taylor Marsh wrote:

How would you feel if you lived in Boston (as I did for a year), and the entire city was thrown into a panic because of some "devices" left around by some guys promoting a cartoon?

I'd feel like my security was being safeguarded by morons. These were Lite Brites - children's toys that light up. The Mayor and the rest of the city government threw the city into a panic, when they could've solved the "crisis" by talking to a ten-year-old.

Good God. Wait until somebody leaves a Speak and Spell lying around. They'll probably send in a hostage team to negotiate with it.

Now, I know it's a tough job protecting people, and that security comes first. So we could be generous, and say that they just overreacted. (That's being very generous.)

Then, how would you fell if, after their fiasco, the selfsame Keystone Kop types decided to throw the book at the guys behind the promotional campaign - even though the judge commented in the first hearing that it did not appear the defendants met the test for being prosecuted? (That is, they had to have intended to cause a panic - meaning that they would have had to know in advance that Boston's police and civilian leadership would lose it over these toys, while those in 12 other cities knew what they were and ignored them.)

You'd probably sympathize with the twentysomething defendants, who refused to answer questions from reporters about anything other than 70's hairstyles. When reporters repeated the suggestion that they weren't taking the charges seriously, one replied: "Sorry. That's not a hair question."

The Mayor and the District Attorney aren't just making fools of themselves. They're also wasting the people's money on this fatuous indictment, which isn't going to stick, and they're tying up a court system that probably has a backlog of real cases to handle.

So, you know, what the company did was stupid. Really, really stupid. But being stupid isn’t (necessarily) the same thing as breaking the law. They wanted to promote a show. Causing the entire city to panic would NOT be good for the show, by any stretch. So it’s not really logical to think they were totally trying to freak people out. Get attention? Maybe. Cause a panic? Not. It’s the difference between standing up in a theatre and yelling out, “The butler did it!” as opposed to screaming, “Fire!” [Assuming there’s not a fire, of course, since if there is, it’d be a good thing to warn people.] The first one's stupid. The second one's illegal. In both cases it's someone yelling something out. The difference is in the intent.

We were in sight of the Towers when they were hit. (Well....we had to drive about two miles to a good spot to see ‘em, having moved out the city proper about two years before, my first eight years in the city my daily commute included looking at every single day.) Then for five years we lived less than 100 miles from DC, not a great distance when it comes to a nuke. Now we live in San Diego, one of the US’s two main naval bases. So I understand, I think, what it’s like to live in or near a likely target.

I also think our president has very nearly turned us into a nation of cowards—and if he hasn't fully succeeded, it's not for lack of trying. And if we'd become that way because we all know the folks charged with protecting us are doing a shitty job—Heckuva Job Brownie may be gone but walking corpse Michael Chertoff is still there, and surely he deserves at least as much blame as Heckuva Job—that’d be one thing.

But that’s not it. That’s not why. It’s just the constant fearmongering from a group of cowards who didn’t have the courage of their own convictions back when it was their duty to fight, and who now run around like chickens with their heads cut off when something really happens (ohmigod! Like, the Towers were hit?! All those warnings I didn’t listen to? They were serious about that?! I bet it’s totally Sauron! I better hop on my big ol’ plane and get outta Florida! I know, I’ll fly to Louisiana. No, wait! That’s too close! Sauron might find me there with that big ol’ eye of his. I’d better go to Nebraska. That’s way the hell far away. No evil dictator tyrant guy would look there. But wait! It’s really flat! No hills to hide behind. Damn! Aw, hell, maybe I just better go home. I’m hungry anyway. And I miss Barney.).

From first-hand experience, they know how powerful fear is, so they want us all to be in that same constant state. They don’t want to do anything to actually alleviate the fear or—Allah forbid!—make us safer. No, they just want to keep reminding us that the bogeyman is under the bed and he’s gonna get us any second ‘cuz he hates our freedom, see. Because they've learned that it's a whole lot easier to get everything you want if the people are frightened.

So sad, what we’ve become. So hopeful, the signs that we’re waking up.

UPDATE: Thanks to the folks at bunniestudios, such catastrophes can be avoided in the future.

Comments

[shannon]

Thank you so much for this post. I only wish more people stopped to realize what was going on.

[fish]

If you want to see the press conference, it is here. A couple of reporters actually do ask hair related questions. The others are just lame. The two guys give it just the level of seriousness that it deserves...