If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past two days, you probably know about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Device Debacle going on in Boston. I somewhat wish that I was still working over at Boston.com to witness, first hand, the panic and hysteria that ensued over the devices.
A former co-worker of mine, who still works over at Boston.com wrote a good summary of the events as they unfolded in his blog today. I thought it was an insightful look at the events, especially considering that I agree with his estimations of how the site responded to this issue versus the way it previously handled events such as this.
Frankly, I think it’s completely absurd the way the city responded to these boxes which have been up around town for several weeks now. Not only that, the fact that they are filing criminal charges against the two men that put these up (at the behest of the Advertising Agency, mind you) is ludicrous. What’s even more insane is that Mumbles Menino wants to file a lawsuit of some kind against Turner Broadcasting.
I highly doubt that such an ordeal was made when a few folks from MIT marked how "Smoot’s" it took to cross the Mass Ave Bridge. It is true that we live in a post-9/11 world where we need to be much more cautious. I’m the first one to freak out if I find a bag unattended in a public place — and but you’d think that they would have cleared something like this with the powers that be.
Either way, a mistake was made and policy should be set. I don’t think arresting two guys who weren’t even doing this as a prank, is the right answer.
