Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

More surreal fallout from yesterday

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Regardless of what anyone thinks about yesterday’s events, IMHO anyone with any sense ought to agree on one thing: the two guys who earned $7 an hour to actually put up the doodads should not face felony charges.  It seems perfectly obvious from the “hoax device” statute that they neither planted a “hoax device” within the meaning of the statute, nor had the requisite “intent” to “cause anxiety, unrest, fear or personal discomfort.”

Which brings us to today’s “press conference,” at which these two guys spoke to the media.  They had been advised not to talk about the case.  So they talked about their hair.  The reporters were not amused. 

I remain of the view that this incident was more the fault of Turner and its advertising agency than it was of the BPD and other responders.  But I certainly don’t think it was these two guys’ fault; I don’t think they should be charged; and I can’t help but give them some credit for this performance, which IMHO resembles performance art more than anything else.

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  1. Ir’s a David Sedaris short story.  Two guys are arrested on bomb hoax charges and, when they are released on bond and meet the press, all they will talk about is hair styles in the 1970s. On second thought, no.  Too over the top.  The New Yorker will never take it.

  2. Asshats.

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    This is not a hairstyle, sorry to be off topic since this is a note on hats.  They wear it nicely.

  3. Ok so I’m a little confused why people have taken to defending these two idiots. They don’t seem to care that their actions caused an entire city to freak out!! Whether or not they can be punished under the law seems tricky. I just read it and here’s what I think:

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    1. The definition of a hoax device: For the purposes of this section, the term “hoax device” shall mean any device that would cause a person reasonably to believe that such device is an infernal machine.

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    Now I think when the bomb squad blows it up because it looks like a bomb we can say that a person can reasonably believe that device is “an infernal machine.” These guys know what they’re doing. They are trained well and they are professionals. I trust their judgment as to what might and what might not look like a bomb.

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    2. The line that makes it a tough sell is “intent to cause anxiety, unrest, fear or personal discomfort”

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    I don’t think these two were smart enough to have any intentions.

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    3. The law also says that those who “knowingly or unknowingly possess, transport, use or place any hoax device or hoax substance” can be punished.

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    I am most disgusted by a few things: First the fact that they don’t even care that they scared the @#$% out of a lot of people and that they cost the city a ton of money. Even if they didn’t mean to cause a problem, the performance at the “press conference” and in the court room was inexcusable.

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    Secondly, I am very disappointed that people don’t seem to care and have taken to defending the two. Whether outside the courtroom or on this blog. I agree that the advertising company and turner media should be held accountable, but here is the difference——so should the two idiots who did this.

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    Leading to my final point as to why these two deserve to be punished. As reported on boston.com:

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    “Friends of the local artist accused of spearheading Wednesday’s bomb scares said he was warned by an executive at a New York guerrilla marketing firm as early as 1:25 p.m. on Wednesday that their advertising campaign had incited panic in Boston.

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    An advertising executive at Interference Marketing Inc. instructed Peter Berdovsky to keep quiet while police scrambled across the metropolitan area responding to a series of bomb scares. Berdovsky sent an e-mail to friends at 1:25 p.m. telling them not to talk about the marketing scheme to promote the animated television show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on the Cartoon Network.

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    “My boss from the Cartoon Network’s ad agency just called — she is asking that we pretty please keep everything on the DL,” or down low, wrote Berdovsky, according to a copy of the e-mail provided to the Globe.

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    Officials from Interference could not be immediately reached for comment.

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    According a time line issued this afternoon by Boston Police, the companies involved in the marketing campaign did not contact law enforcement in Boston to acknowledge responsibility for the bomb scares for another three hours. Detectives from the Boston Police Department were contacted by company officials at 4:30 p.m.”

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    http://www.boston.co…

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    Ok so that pretty much punches a hole in the argument that these guys are innocent, because they knew that their “art” or advertising or whatever was causing problems and they did nothing…nothing.

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    • if the story you recount is true, it sure places the ad agency in a bad light.  They were INSTRUCTING him to keep quiet?  WTF??

      • “if the story you recount is true”

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        It’s a story on Boston.com.  So does that mean no one can post articles from there because we don’t know it’s true.  I think we need to look at the reports here, these guys knew what was going on and did nothing for hours.  The are adults I thinking they can think for themselves.  While Turner broadcasting and the Marketing firm should be held accountable and their actions are the root cause.  These guys were just the poor shmucks they hired.  But their actions are criminal so they don’t get a pass in my book.

          • I was asking for it.  (but it was reported many many media outlets)

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            It’s been a day now so common sense is beginning to trickle in for me.  The 2 morons (I still don’t like how they acted) should not be charged.  Acting like an idiot is not illegal.  Given that I see no quick action to arrest anyone else and the ads by Turner broadcasting, my guess is that they want this to just go away.  Given that the hair guys should have their charges dropped.

    • It may be relevant that apparently these things did not look like a bomb anywhere in the US except in Boston. Apparently they did not “look like a bomb” in New York, Seattle, or many other cities.

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      It sounds like the real problem was that there were real bombs…or at least things in the form of a traditional pipe bomb…found in two locations in Boston that day, which may have put police into a sort of bomb-expecting mode. That is the way people’s minds work–you see two of something, you expect a third. The kids who planted the “guerilla marketing” devices have not been connected to the pipe bombs, they knew nothing about the pipe bombs, and at any rate there are reports that the cartoon-promoting “devices” have been in place for more than a week.

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      I do think they should throw the book at these “guerilla marketing” people who failed to notify police when they found out about the panic.

    • I’m sorry, but “their actions” didn’t cause any of this.  Millions of other actions taken by people in Boston every week, have just as much potential to “cause” this kind of panic.  And regardless of your secondhand vague judgement that it was “reasonable” to mistake the mooninites for bombs, it’s patently obvious that they did not perpetrate a hoax, both by the day to day meaning of the word and under the law.

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      I can understand why the ad agency would ask them to keep quiet and why they would follow the instructions of the agency.  It’s a company’s first instinct in a media situation: control the message by making sure there’s only one channel of communication from the company to the authorities and the media; make sure any other channel that might be construed as representing the company stays quiet, refers questions to the appropriate channel, or at least delays.  Whether this standard corporate instinct is a good thing is another matter, but it is standard practice.  Viewed in isolation, we can’t take that instruction from the ad agency to the artists as any evidence of what they did say to the city at the time.

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      But whatever they did or said, the people whose actions “caused” this fiasco are neither the artists nor the ad agency nor Turner.

      • well they put the objects there and thats what caused it.

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        can you justify them not telling authorities what these objects were after they knew what was causing the problem–letting fear continue and letting money fly out the window.

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        are you really saying you understand why a company tried to cover up that it was causing a major city to go into panic mode and in the lose around 1 million dollars?

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        you say to make sure there was one channel to the authorities-the problem is there was no channerl of communications for 3 hours. If you read the report on boston.com you would see that they said nothing to the city.

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        in fact the people that caused this fiasco are the artists and the ad agency by not trying to stop it.

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        so something that may of looked dangerous was tended to by the cops, if you know its not dangerous tell someone, don’t just sit there

        • Here are some problems with your argument:

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          1.  Their intent in placing the ads was to get people to watch  a stupid, albeit funny, cartoon NOT cause mass panic.  If I forgot my back pack on the T and someone panics and calls out the bomb squad.  Did I really cause a mass panic or did I forget my back back?  They placed adds with out permits.

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          2. “they knew what was causing the problem–letting fear continue and letting money fly out the window”  Why couldn’t the police use their own judgement to see that these were not a threat after they destroyed and examined the first one?  I think the police operated properly and prudently until that point.  After that they seemed to forget about common sense and let this panic mode take over.

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          3.  “there was no channerl of communications for 3 hours”  That’s funny because I heard on the radio, saw on the TV and read online at around 1:00 pm that this was a gorilla marketing plan.  Why didn’t the cops know this?

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          4.  You are relying on boston.com for your information.  One of the same media sources that continued this panic mode well past the point that common sense should have told them to take a step back and get it right.  I am not sure I would trust anything the publish as a sole source on this for the time being.

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          5.  “the people that caused this fiasco are the artists and the ad agency”  I think the police and local pols had a lot to due with this getting blown out of proportion.

          • If I had my way, these guys would get a medal for exposing the hyperactive incompetence of our security forces.

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            On top of the overreaction, the fact that our mayor wants to punish these guys is making Boston (where I live) a laughingstock nationwide.

    • This clip should be required viewing at every journalism program in the country. A brilliant effort by the minimum-wage workers who are being set up as fall guys.

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      The charge is absurd: the displays would have been innocuous but for the fact that the people who are supposed to be in charge of our security can’t tell a lite-brite display from a bomb.

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      The question is not (queue blow-dried baby-brain): “Mr. Minimum-wage artist, are you taking this seriously.” The question is: “Who told you to do this, and what did they do when they found out their marketing campaign was causing a city-wide panic.”

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      The media has a responsibility to highlight this important point — a responsibility they appeared to be failing at that  hair-raising event.

      • They arrest the 2 kids, but

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        The police should be talking to the head of Marketing at Turner Broadcasting.  Find out who was in charge of this project, and make sure that guy had deleted or destroyed  EVERY piece of incriminating evidence.

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      1. The law also says that those who “knowingly or unknowingly possess, transport, use or place any hoax device or hoax substance” can be punished.

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      …in not accurate.  The statute actually say anyone who causes someone else to knowingly or unknowingly posess, so in the case of the unkowning posessor it would be the one who caused the unknowing posession who acted illegally, not the one who didn’t know. 

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      As far as your argument that since they knew after the fact that they had incited anxiety so they had a duty to do something about it….that is not on the face of the statute so it would have to be construed at common law and it can be a tough sell, but if the Commonwealth is serious about prosecuting they may just make this kind of argument.

    • ever face charges for his War of the Worlds broadcasts, causing the same undo fear?  Several people actually killed themselves as a result of his broadcast.  I don’t think anyone died as a result of this.   Besides, was the traffic delay any worse than it normally is when there is a rollover?  Law Enforcement agencies, great lines of communication.  We have these things called cell phones now.  Use them.  You did the right thing in responding, you did the wrong thing in NOT responding to the hoax and re-opening the roads, the T, etc.  Leaving folks stranded underground on the T, by the way…bad idea.  Get them all up and out.
      JC

  4. I kept feeling such deja vu watching the video.  The jovial ‘hippies’, the angry press not able or willing to play along, the over-reaction to something unconventional…  It’s Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin all over again!

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    And no, these two did not cause the city to flip out and panic.  The bone-headed actions of the police forces caused some people in the city to flip out and panic.  Those actions also caused a ton of inconvenience to hundreds of thousands of other people in the city.

    • Well, if you ask me that press conference was simply performance artists doing what they do:  performance art.  Their attorney told them “Don’t talk about the case.”

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      The press demanded they talk.

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      They are trained performers, so they performed.  I do think they were photogenic on you tube.

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      Ever been to Harvard Square on a balmy weekend evening?  The whole TRIBE of performance artists is out then.

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      Deb

      • when people are performing in harvard square they didn’t just exit a court room after being charged for a felony…come on

        • It is a very different culture, that of performance artists. 

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          And I just do not see it the way you do, which is one of the reasons BlueMassGroup works. 

          • who cares if its a differnt culture. Michael Richards is a performing artist but when he lost it at a show and started shouting racial slurs we didn’t excuse his actions as those of an artist expressing himself. These guys have no class, i don’t care what they’re job is.

            • NOT a performance artist. Performance art is a very specific thing. If you don’t understand that, you shouldn’t try to talk about it.

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              I still find this whole thing amusing. And yes, I caught that this hair thing was “performance art” right off, it just had that feel. Like they were mocking the media frenzy pointedly. (Frankly, as well they should.)

    • can you tell what a bomb looks like? because i cant and if someone on the bomb squad says we should be worried about something, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. If anything, I would rather the police overreact about this then underreact in case they actually were bombs.

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      are we demanding that next time the police who protect the city be less vigilant?

      • and no where else? That’s the problem. Of course anything could be a bomb…not so long ago shampoo and creme rinse looked like bomb components to airport security (I haven’t flown anywhere lately…is that still in effect?) Just because something has loose wires and batteries doesn’t make it bomb, and there are plenty of bombs without any batteries at all.

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        There is plenty of blame to go around…certainly the agency that thought this nonsense up should have come clean to authorities immediately when they found out it the police thought the things were bombs. If anyone should be up on charges, they should.

        • …a bomb can be made to look like virtually anything.

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          The problem in Boston was probably due to the facts that the traffic patterns in the Boston area are absolutely horrible, three of the four 9/11 planes took off from Boston, the idiots who perpetrated this stunt didn’t even bother to notify the city authorities that they were going to conduct it, and the idiots conducted during a workday instead of a weekend.

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          The idiots who perpetrated the stunt deserve what they get.  Frankly, they should be sued out the whazzoo by everyone who was inconvenienced by the stunt, for their inconvenience.  What they did was at least “disturbing the peace” and possibly more.

          • the idiots who perpetrated this stunt didn’t even bother to notify the city authorities that they were going to conduct it,

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            AP and CNN both reported the company had permits to post the signs.

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            Sorry.

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            and the idiots conducted during a workday instead of a weekend.

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            The signs were posted for weeks before the hysteria started.

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            Sorry.

            • We give permits to put up this stuff?  That’s a story in itself.  Why do we do that?  Do we get any money in return?  Do we give permits to put up bombs?

    • Into Your Life it Will Creep.  And it starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line a man comes and takes you away”

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      Welcome to Cheney Bush America, Be Very Very Afraid.

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      Afraid of Lite Brite toys???  What have we become?

  6. Well, yesterday I said that if this was a MIT student prank people would be scrambling to put the kid in jail. Today, now that there are two flunkies involved, people have shifted away from the “file Turner broadcasting” angle to “put those two away for 90 years”.

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    I think it’s sickening that people can excuse the behavior of the multinational corporation looking to profit from this marketing tactic and fix the blame instead on a couple of dupes who got paid virtually nothing to execute the plan.

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    It’s the guy in the suit who said “let’s plant this stuff all across the country” who should be the one facing the charges.

    • I am not a native.  I don’t know why officialdom did not see these gizmos for 3 weeks and then went nuts.

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      I don’t blame the bomb squad types for doing their job once someone pointed out gizmos.  Well they should.

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      But the query is, why did everyone all of a sudden go nuts here and not the other 9 cities?  Time for a made for TV movie on this?

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      And no, I don’t blame the struggling artists wno took on this gig and probably saw it as “food money” and “YAY a contract” and then didn’t grovel. May those two youthful looking performance artists continue to like the faces they see in their mirrors and not be scarred by all the nuttiness.

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      The question still is:

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      “Why did boston go gonzo nuts and the other nine cities just took gizmos and dumb marketing in stride?”  Any political scientists or research psychologists out there to answer that one?

  7. Also reporting the story that both of our haircut guys knew at 1:30 and received an e-mail to not authorities know it was a stunt.

  8. Aren’t we twee?  Just the WITTIEST thing going?  You sad, benighted people…how DRAB your lives must be!

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    I blogged about a lady who took a day off from work for a doctor appointment, spent the day in traffic, and now must spend another vacation day. And the delivery guy who is going to be docked for not delivering packages on time.  Oh, and that person trying to get to the hospital with chest pain over the Longfellow Bridge? C’mon, he can drive to another hospital!  This is ART!

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    Anybody gonna pay THEM back?  Bur no, how TAUPE, how INCONSEQUENTIAL their little lives are – they were BORN to know disappointment and can certainly cope.  WE are made of finer stuff.

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    As it happens, I casually knew Abbie Hoffman back in Worcester, and whatever else, he was a committed person.  Nobody would be more disgusted at exploiting a city for short cash and cheap fame than him – for the CARTOON NETWORK, not VietNam?

    • ….I think you’re “My God, the humanity” speech is a little over the top.  We don’t have all the answers yet by a long shot and reports are starting to surface that notice was given to the city about these devices/ads.  If that is the case then responsibility shifts to the city for not effectively communicating interdepartmentally, doesn’t it?  Sometime inconvenient, annoying things happen and it can be attributed to a confluence of events and actions that no one person or group is responsible for.  Here we’ve got two artists, an ad agency, a network, a studio, a city government and its departments and the mass media that all conspired unintentionally to create one day’s worth of gridlock (literally and psychically) in the city of Boston.  Who do you blame?  All of them?  None of them?  Sometimes it is no one’s “fault”.  Sometimes it just happens.  I have a hard time, especially if notice was given, seeing the standard of proximate cause satisfied to make any of the players in this civily liable.  There may be no one to blame.  You just gotta laugh sometimes. 

    • And, as many people have pointed out, we get the same sort of delays every time some idiot student tries to drive a U-Haul onto Storrow drive or there’s an accident on 93.

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      Get a grip.

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      p.s. Ted hasn’t been head of TBS since 2003.

    • … but that’s no excuse to treat what Turner or the artists did as anything other than what it was, which was innocent and harmless.

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      I’m very upset at the authorities and officials who caused all this panic and disruption.  The city needs to make some profuse public apologies at the very least, and they need to fire some people, and they need to study what happened so that they don’t do it again.  It was indeed awful.

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