Monday, February 22, 2016

Bomb Threat

APD on scene Amherst Regional High School 1:45 PM



 

16 comments:

Dr. Ed said...

Has it occurred to anyone that this is intelligence gathering for a planned terrorist attack on multiple MA schools? That if you know what the schools & cops will do, then you can identify vulnerabilities to exploit?

Larry, by showing those parked cruisers, you not only identify where the cops will park but in which direction they came from. Even something like that is something you'd prefer the bad guys not know....

I do NOT like the idea of locking people inside a building which might contain a bomb....

Larry Kelley said...

I have covered a few of these now and they don't always park the same way. My initial dispatch (published to Facebook and Twitter) used only an iPhone photo and I could not get any more than two cruisers in the shot.

They probably fear a bomb threat is a ruse to get everyone congregated out in the open where they would be sitting ducks for a sniper.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, it is documented that ISIS has poison gas, has used it to kill people, and has threatened to attach us here with it.

A sniper is not what I would be worrying about.

Like I said, I don't like the idea of children locked in a classroom....

Anonymous said...

Ed, you are a complete looney tune.

Anonymous said...

Ed, while your fears are understandable, they also show your lack of knowledge on the subject.
The Lockdown simply restricts movement of students while the professionals make an assessment of the situation. Classes still resume and if students have to go somewhere there is a procedure for that as well. Evacuating a building should only be done as a final precaution. Moving a 1000 students and staff opens a whole new type of threatening situation. A little common sense would show that if you were going to gas or bomb a building calling them first would be counter productive. If you wanted to create chaos, and if you were at the helm, a simple phone call would work.

Leave the handling these serious matters to the professionals.

keithw said...

"A little common sense would show that if you were going to gas or bomb a building calling them first would be counter productive."

On the contrary,

"if you wanted to create chaos" and you know that a "Lockdown simply restricts movement of the students", then "a simple phone call would work."

Wait......what?

Forgive me for cutting & pasting your comment to point out the gaffe, but it just goes to "show your lack of knowledge on the subject."

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the feedback!

Do you think local and state police with homeland security are giving schools average advice because they haven't thought of your cleaver attack plan? Do you think that with the amount of bomb threats on schools throughout Massachusetts in the past month that plans are not in place to keep students safe?

Maybe you are correct and so very cleaver. Maybe law enforcement didn't think any of this out and need you to help them. Perhaps bomb threats are a complex plot to keep students in place so they don't miss the bomb planted. They are such a ADHD bunch they may move and be missed. But lets take these rooms of 20-25 or so and move them all in to areas outside in bunches of 100 or more. Do you know the complexity of a device needed to blow up a school? If evil had this device they wouldn't use it on a one to two story building cement building in Western Massachusetts.

Do you know the amount of schools that have had bomb threats and they actually found a bomb in Massachusetts? I will help you out to "show my lack of knowledge". ZERO! That is zero ever, not just this year.

It is a crappy subject, but one I actually know too much about.

Dr. Ed said...

"Do you think local and state police with homeland security are giving schools average advice because they haven't thought of your cleaver attack plan?'

No more than those who advised cooperating with hijackers because they presumed that they'd fly the airplane to Cuba or somewhere & let everyone go, because they presumed that the hijackers didn't want to die. Their advice was based on the presumption that the hijackers didn't want to die.

It's just like the Maginot Line -- very bright people can do a very good job of preparing to "re-fight the last war" without realizing that the world has changed.

"Do you think that with the amount of bomb threats on schools throughout Massachusetts in the past month that plans are not in place to keep students safe?"

Safe from WHAT? The threat you are hysterically paranoid about, or the one that you more need to worry about.

"Maybe you are correct and so very cleaver. Maybe law enforcement didn't think any of this out and need you to help them. Perhaps bomb threats are a complex plot to keep students in place so they don't miss the bomb planted."

I'm more worried about the students taking a deep breath of Sarin....

They are such a ADHD bunch they may move and be missed.

Those with ADHD are going to be the survivors and/or heroes, but I digress.

"But lets take these rooms of 20-25 or so and move them all in to areas outside in bunches of 100 or more."

"Outside", as in "no longer breathing HVAC air...."

"Do you know the complexity of a device needed to blow up a school?"

Do you have any idea how lethal mass panic can be?

Ever hear of the Coconut Grove Fire? Nearly 500 people died there, and it wasn't fire that killed them. I'm told that most were trampled at the revolving door that they couldn't get through.

If evil had this device they wouldn't use it on a one to two story building cement building in Western Massachusetts.

Between what is sold in WalMart, Home Depot & Big Y, anyone with a High School knowledge of Chemistry & Physics could do more harm than I'd like to think about.

Do you know the amount of schools that have had bomb threats and they actually found a bomb in Massachusetts? I will help you out to "show my lack of knowledge". ZERO! That is zero ever, not just this year.

Memory is that there really was a bomb found at some High School in the 1970s, that part of a bomb scare, although there actually was a bomb in ARHS back in the 1990's, a kid brought it into school to show his friends...

HOWEVER, I go back to my initial point....

"It is a crappy subject, but one I actually know too much about."

I go back to my initial point....

Anonymous said...

A scrolling we will go, a scrolling we will go, hi-ho-the derry-o, Ed still won't go.
We're still stuck with Ed, We're still stuck with Ed, Can't anyone save us? We're still stuck with Ed.

Anonymous said...

Hint: You see the comment's heading, where it says "Dr. Ed said..."? All you have to do is click that heading, and all the blather disappears. Much easier than scrolling.

keithw said...

Larry, any idea if the school or APD will communicate to parents the nature of the threatening phone call or elaborate as to how it was deemed "unsubstantiated and determined to not be credible"?

I know if my kids were attending a school that has been threatened numerous times I would want some answers.

Larry Kelley said...

Probably not, Keith.

keithw said...

Then I guess their theory on parents must be similar to that of Staff Sergeant Dignam's theory on Feds.

Anonymous said...

But..but...but. The schools are a bomb-free zone!

Anonymous said...

In my day, you only made a bomb threat if you had a test that day.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, any idea if the school or APD will communicate to parents the nature of the threatening phone call or elaborate as to how it was deemed "unsubstantiated and determined to not be credible"?

Ketthw, there are published media reports of a LOT of this happening throughout both MA & CT, probably elsewhere, to the point where there was a meeting in Boston a while back about it.

I'll take your reference to The Departed one step further -- there was a reason why the MSP had such a dim view of the FBI back then...

"I know if my kids were attending a school that has been threatened numerous times I would want some answers."

I'm wondering what, if anything, Team Maria could do if some high school student simply refused to go into the building anymore. They can't say "paranoia" because this is a realistic fear (bombs being deadly) that the authorities themselves considered worthy of fear (i.e justifying lockdown & massive police response) -- and how can you prove it is just a kid that doesn't want to go to school?

And I'm not even talking about the parents who want a sped outplacement....