Seattle: ‘They’re so obviously not suspicious’
Cory Bergman February 1st, 2007
Many of the same Mooninites were displayed around the Seattle area for the last couple weeks. “To us, they’re so obviously not suspicious,” said King County sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart. “They’re lighted cartoon figures. This is a joke.” Truth be told, none of the displays were placed under bridges, as they were in Boston. But still.
10 Comments Add your own
1. discreet_chaos | February 1st, 2007 at 9:50 am
Uh… The Seattle Times version of the story says “the first device was found Tuesday by a Woodinville Public Works Department crew working on a railroad trestle over Highway 202, said Woodinville Police Chief John McSwain.
‘Public Works found it and took it down and didn’t even bother to call us’ because the device didn’t appear to be threatening, he said.”
2. thedetroitchannel | February 1st, 2007 at 10:02 am
i nominate d_c to supplement the space safran will no doubt be vacating as his new found fame and job with the fine folks at ar&d begin to stretch him thin.
dang, this guy (gal?) is on top of this stuff.
anyone second that motion?
3. discreet_chaos | February 1st, 2007 at 10:28 am
Thanks Detroit, but truth be told; I was thinking about making a snark on my own blog with one of those web-made tees that’d say “Boston - It’s no Portland”, when I flashed to the Oregonian to look for their story, which quoted the King County Sheriff.
So, I then jumped to the two Seattle papers to read his full quote, before I came back here to see if Cory had picked it up.
I guess you could say that I’ve got too much time on my hands. Though, as a civil libertarian who occasionally documents guerrilla marketing, you could also say that I have a special interest in the story.
An, I haven’t even gotten to the idea of getting Banksy to come over and paint these little creatures on the Boston Town Hall.
4. Alyssa | February 1st, 2007 at 11:44 am
Should’ve put them on Boston’s many college campuses… most likely already have an audience of Adult Swim fans.
Why put one in a medical center? They have so many electronic devices as is, a Lite-Brite might ot stand out as much.
A co-worker made an intersting point- who does Ted Turner thing he is, not paying for ad space?
5. Tim | February 1st, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Hey, here’s some reasoning:
1. Assume I’m a terrorist, and I want to put something dangerous in a major American city.
2. I really want to have a good possibility of it working, so
3. I light it up as bright as I can, and stick it in a public place??!!!
Wow - I sure am glad I’m from _Western_ Massachusetts (originally), that means I don’t have the “Bahstin” accent and won’t have to be associated with these guys who are giving the MA education system a bad name right about now.
6. POlitica | February 1st, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Tim, that is kind of silly…
That would mean that the “less bomb looking” something was, the more serious of a threat we would have to treat it…. the newspaper box, the trash on the street, the puppy outside a store would all become potential bombs because they looked harmless.
7. discreet_chaos | February 1st, 2007 at 1:05 pm
“There’s nothing to fear except fear, itself”.
And Alyssa , Ted’s name is just on the company, like Hughes’ name is still on his. Mr Turner is a stockholder, but he has no hand in day-to-day operations and I don’t think he’s still on the board.
Otherwise, I’m sure Mr Menino would already be crying.
—
(Though I fully expect Time-Warner/Turner Broadcasting to reimburse the city because the publicity appears to have been worth the price)
8. Alyssa | February 1st, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I do realize that… I don’t think she literally meant “Ted Turner” himself
9. juno jones | February 1st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Tim has got a point there. Twenty years ago I worked doing street vending in Berkeley for an Irishman who had grown up in the midst of the terrorism ‘troubles’. One day someone left a large closed paper bag on the side of the sidewalk. Being a curious monkey, I went over to poke inside and see what it was (money?, I wished…). He stopped me and told me about the dangers of innocuous bags left in public places (think north ireland, london bombings, etc). Of course it came to nothing at the time, but his words, coming from someone who had to live with that kind of situation, always stuck with me.
….”That would mean that the “less bomb looking” something was, the more serious of a threat we would have to treat it…. the newspaper box, the trash on the street, the puppy outside a store would all become potential bombs because they looked harmless.”…. It is futile to worry about these things because they don’t advertise their prescence by lighting up and flipping you off. Best to walk away from the fear and get on with being the best little bonobos we can be…as Frank Herbert said, “Fear is the mind-killer “…
That said, I am enjoying the dadaesque show of bizarre overreaction, go mooninites!
10. Tim | February 1st, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Well the point I was trying to make, Politica, was that true terrorists or other bombers do NOT want their bombs discovered, they want them to blow up. Terrorism works by injecting chaotic violence into normally quiet lives, which doesn’t happen so well if the devices are observed and decommisioned before they do their work.
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