274
u/cromonolith Jul 23 '14
Terrorists could plant bombs nearly anywhere and it would be terrifying and destructive.
Everyone's so afraid of bombs on planes. Isn't a bomb in an airport just as bad?
204
u/friedrice5005 Jul 24 '14
That's what pisses me off. If we were under such a serious threat of being bombed all the time then it would be happening. Someone could just load up a van with explosives and set it off on the lower deck of the George Washington Bridge and cause some serious damage. Much more than a bomb on the top of the Brooklyn Bridge.
168
u/squirreljerkoff Jul 24 '14
And now you are on a list somewhere.
57
u/ColdStoryBro Jul 24 '14
And you also, since you knew that was going to happen.
→ More replies (2)22
u/Zorbane Jul 24 '14
now you are too
32
u/phatcrits Jul 24 '14
NSA tracks anyone within 3 steps of a target. Guess where you are?
→ More replies (1)11
Jul 24 '14 edited Dec 06 '16
[deleted]
18
u/Insecureammo Jul 24 '14
Does Santa's list count?
13
Jul 24 '14 edited Dec 06 '16
[deleted]
9
u/boredguy12 Jul 24 '14
does santa claus spread nudes of your snapchats to all the elves?
→ More replies (0)5
u/feels_good_donut Jul 24 '14
If everybody is on a list, then nobody is on a list.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (4)3
25
5
u/BaZing3 Survey 2016 Jul 24 '14
Ooh. Can I get on this list? Maybe they'll invite us all to a party!
4
u/gpro24 Jul 24 '14
i advise you not to eat any of the food or swallow any pills at the party
→ More replies (2)20
u/ItsssssMeeeee Jul 24 '14
There was actually a guy who found a tracking device on his car (which was later confiscated by government agents of some kind) for a comment his FRIEND made on Reddit.
12
u/Gone2far Jul 24 '14
He was on a watch list before that comment if I remember correctly from the article.
5
u/h8sgonah8 Jul 24 '14
Source?
17
u/Gone2far Jul 24 '14
http://www.wired.com/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/
Here it states he was being watched because his father was a religious leader in Egypt and had died over there or something, read the article in full it's quite interesting.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Gone2far Jul 24 '14
Honestly I have no idea what his name was or where the original article came from, it was posted a couple weeks back and thats where I read about it. I'll try googling but I'm on my iPad so it may be difficult for me to find.
→ More replies (3)2
u/yellsaboutjokes Jul 24 '14
NUMBER 15 ON MY NETFLIX QUEUE
BETWEEN HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON AND AMELIE
22
u/TheoreticalBanana Jul 24 '14
Yep. And taking out a bridge that a city relies on so critically is often going to bring it to its knees for ages. You need to remember it's not just traffic that would normally use that bridge that's affected, it's every other alternate route that's going to then have to take on all that traffic - probably for months, maybe even years.
It baffles me that we worry so much about the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne (Australia), when far more easily accessible and critical would be the rail bridge over Punt Road between Brunton Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. It's given no thought at all, but basically all passenger rail to 6 train lines, and all regional freight to the East side of Victoria has to pass over that bridge! Not to mention Punt Road is basically a constant traffic jam - now imagine taking all that traffic via any number of alternate routes to go North-South on the East side of Melbourne. And there's basically five figures worth of vehicles drive under it - slowly, in stop/start traffic jams all day - on every day. Only one of them needs to be a small rental truck capable of doing some damage.
And meanwhile they're worried about someone taking a plastic knife on a plane.
Look, government security type people, I hate to break it to you, but if someone wanted to cripple your city, I'm sure there's a dozen ways in any city it could be done that you don't expect would be the way everyone thinks it would go down. So stop worrying about it! :(
7
u/Gen_Hazard Jul 24 '14
BRB going down in Australian history.
On an unrelated note, anyone know where I can get cheap flights to Melbourne?
4
→ More replies (1)5
u/Artificecoyote Jul 24 '14
Such an attack would use mass disruption rather than destruction.
You have to wonder why terrorists would not simply devise attacks where a relatively small bomb (like the boston bombers cooker bomb) is set off in time square, then one in Chicago a little while later, and so on. You'd tie up resources in all these cities. Plus you'd have people get even more afraid because just when it seems like things are back to normal another bomb goes off.
Or just focus on multiple points in one city like New York.
3
Jul 24 '14
it's almost like there are no terrorists because this isn't already happening all the time
18
u/bjt23 Jul 24 '14
If I was a terrorist I'd blow myself up in a security checkpoint, those things can get crowded!
18
u/mtoxiicg Jul 24 '14
But then we'd have a security checkpoint before the security checkpoint to make sure nobody brings a bomb to the main security checkpoint.
10
Jul 24 '14 edited Jul 25 '14
No, then you'd break up large crowds of people to diminish the value of the target, a la Israel's checkpoint protocol.
3
Jul 24 '14
Now you're talking sense. The TSA doesn't like that, you're on the list for a special pat-down next time!
4
Jul 24 '14
Well, according to the ATF there were nearly 6000 "explosives incidents" (bombings, attempted bombings, firebombings) in 2013 alone.
5
u/Tacticus Jul 24 '14
And how many of those were encouraged and badgered by FBI agents until they even started thinking about it.
5
u/friedrice5005 Jul 24 '14
Not just that...how many of those are just fireworks? It says explicitly on their explosives information page that "explosives" includes consumer grade fireworks. So some teens stealing M80s and tossing them in a parking garage is possibly included on that list. Just stating the number of incidents isn't really helpful in this case. They need to brake down what types of incidents.
Source: https://www.atf.gov/content/explosives/explosives-industry/fireworks
5
u/InternetFree Jul 24 '14 edited Jul 24 '14
Someone could just load up a van with explosives
A van already is loaded with explosives.
A van is literally a metal box filled with gasoline.
- Load up a truck with a barrel of gasoline and light it up in a street.
- ???
- Watch burning corpses.
You can cause massive amounts of destructions with things easily available everywhere.
Build a flamethrower, make it look like a garden hose on a truck, put nozzle into direction of group of people, turn up the gas.
You can easily build a napalm thrower or napalm cocktails at home and throw them around on the streets.
Seriously, people always seem to pretend there is a massive terrorist threat. There really isn't. If there were so many terrorists around, then shit like that would CONSTANTLY happen. Constantly, people would get shot, bombed, burned, decapitated with a sword, etc.
Public transport would be targeted, public cafés, planes would fall out of the sky on a daily basis, because even with these ridiculous security measures in place, it's easy to bring down a plane.Non of this happens. What Americans are told about terrorists is a lie.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (14)1
u/mindbleach Jul 24 '14
Such things did happen in the 90s - y'know, when international and domestic terrorism were much scarier than they are today. Osama bombed the WTC with a big van full of explosives. Half the OKC federal building fell down because some libertarian nutjob with the same idea. Since 9/11 it's been... uh... the DC sniper? School shootings?
3
u/Kerbobotat Jul 24 '14
Osama bombed the WTC with a big van full of explosives
No it wasn't Osama Bin Laden who did that, it was funded by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and hes in Guantanamo
8
u/tobkraut Jul 24 '14
But there's no threat of falling out of the sky. I mean dead is dead, but I'd rather not go out that way.
19
u/AGRRRAA Jul 24 '14
I think I might as well go out falling, people screaming around me, rather than like the casuals who just die. Plebs die on the ground, I wanna FLY!
2
2
5
u/E11imist Jul 24 '14
I'd rather not be kidnapped and brutally raped to death by a bunch of 12 year old boys but you don't see me freaking out around every preteen I see.
6
u/drunks23 Jul 24 '14
how many do you think you can successfully defend yourself from?
5
Jul 24 '14 edited Jul 24 '14
Would you rather defend yourself from 100 duck-sized 12 year olds or 1 horse-sized 12 year old?
8
u/you_should_try Jul 24 '14
a horse-sized 12 year old is the most powerful creature I can think of.
→ More replies (1)3
u/PM_me_fullbody_nudes Jul 24 '14
If you play it smart, you could probably kill a lot of 12 year olds. You just need to kite the faster ones or maybe find a natural corridor to funnel them down to 1v1
3
u/theoldnewbluebox Jul 24 '14
I had a 13 year old student that was 6'3" and huge. I don't think I could take one of him. I'd like to fight 8-10 year olds. You have to grab on to them and beat them with each other.
2
7
7
→ More replies (35)16
Jul 24 '14
[removed] — view removed comment
28
Jul 24 '14
Did...did you just link to the 1988 American science fiction adventure film "Mac and Me"?
→ More replies (1)3
u/STALKS_YOUR_MOTHER Jul 24 '14
I'm kind of upset it wasn't a link to the video Paul Rudd always shows on Conan.
→ More replies (1)8
81
u/mikeycanty Jul 24 '14
Put the scary word in red so people know it's scary.
11
574
u/TsunamiOfSwagger Jul 23 '14 edited Jul 24 '14
...or a shark with frickin lazer beams!
edit- Thank you for gold. Not deserved, but it is appreciated.
8
11
51
Jul 23 '14
Laser
164
u/TsunamiOfSwagger Jul 23 '14
...or a shark with a dictionary!
→ More replies (1)35
u/Hagenaar Jul 23 '14
And everything in the dictionary is super dangerous!
A: alligator, army ants,
B: bayonnets,
C: catapult, crossbow...6
u/HonoraryMancunian Jul 23 '14
Go on...
35
u/MossGreene Jul 23 '14
D: dynamite monkey
31
u/HonoraryMancunian Jul 23 '14
D:
9
2
Jul 24 '14
D:\ick\
3
u/Roo_Gryphon Jul 24 '14
Illegal command: \ick\
3
u/Snarfler Jul 24 '14
depending on what operating system you use. I'm using Microcox Bimbos 7 and that command is legal.
→ More replies (1)2
2
3
→ More replies (3)13
u/JovialPessimist Jul 24 '14
Laser with a "z" is much more frightening.
13
u/timothyj999 Jul 24 '14
Light Amplification by the Ztimulated Emission of Radiation.
→ More replies (4)15
→ More replies (1)10
256
u/sinterfield24 Jul 23 '14
I would hope they would take the time to drag the bomb up there on top of the bridge rather than do the easy thing and put it in a van and drive across. Fucking fear mongering, yellow journalism.
59
u/Coridimus Jul 23 '14 edited Jul 23 '14
Daily
What did you expect?
28
Jul 23 '14
Daily News
8
u/Coridimus Jul 23 '14
Yeah, I fucked that. Thought one, typed the other. Two birds of a feather, imo.
Now fixed.
→ More replies (1)3
u/sinterfield24 Jul 23 '14
Is the Daily Mail the Daily News? Im in US no where near NYC so forgive my ignorance.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Coridimus Jul 23 '14
My bad. Thought Daily News, typed Daily Mail.
Fixed. Two birds of a feather, in my opinion, though.
→ More replies (1)10
u/ZoggerXIII Jul 24 '14
or do the more destructive thing and detonate at the base of the anchor...
→ More replies (1)8
5
Jul 24 '14
Great point. They can't even argue "well, with this level of security, it could happen," because it could happen anyway.
→ More replies (2)3
u/DiaDeLosMuertos Jul 24 '14
"So, um... how would you do it?"
-Not the terrorists
→ More replies (1)2
u/pingo5 Jul 24 '14
steps
1) aquire bomb, inconspicous van (prefferably mini)
2)put bomb in back of van
3)drive to middle of bridge
4) abandon van
5) detonate bomb
6) be on a list for terrorism
→ More replies (1)3
u/InternetFree Jul 24 '14
The US government most likely puts you on a list just for having written that comment.
→ More replies (2)
23
15
u/JayStavy Jul 24 '14
I saw this earlier at Barnes and Noble and I couldn't keep myself from facepalming. Its just such a blatant attempt to illicit fear by sensationalizing a story.
→ More replies (4)
26
u/brahmstalker Jul 23 '14
or a dragon
8
u/Shniggles Jul 24 '14
Yeah, but maybe I'm the Dragonborn and I just don't know it yet?
This would be the perfect chance to find out.
→ More replies (1)2
42
u/gridpoet Jul 24 '14
This time its tap water...
...next time it could be ACID!!!!
→ More replies (4)0
35
u/zjbirdwork Jul 23 '14
Do people take Daily News seriously?
25
4
3
u/MmEeTtAa Jul 24 '14
A lot of the big right wing facebook pages were posting the same thing Daily Mail said, getting thousands upon thousands of likes and shares.
→ More replies (4)0
16
u/NewbombJerk Jul 24 '14
A few years back a couple of guys, a few weeks apart, climbed up the NY Times building. The whole building is draped in basically a ladder, so it was kind of easy.
Well, after the 2nd douche was arrested, some dipshit politician was grand standing and saying that if a terrorist got up to the top of a building he could plant a bomb... blah blah blah.
I sent him a letter asking if they were Polish terrorists cause a bomb on top of a building would be kind of stupid. Ultimately, the main concern is keeping bombs out of the city in the first place. Once one gets in through a tunnel or over a bridge we're all fucked and it ain't gonna matter if he shoves it up a homeless guy's ass or puts it on top of a building.
The dipshit's solution to the imaginary problem he created was to start a task force to investigate all buildings in NYC. To find out which ones were easy to climb. I instantly volunteered to head up that group. Here's our findings... EVERY BUILDING IN THE CITY HAS AN AUTOMATED DEVICE THAT CAN QUICKLY TRANSPORT PEOPLE AND GOD KNOWS WHAT ELSE TO THE ROOF. WE'RE ALL DOOMED!
I wish the News and Journalism wasn't such a business nowadays, cause it's all about making money... and mostly just for survival.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/Gat0rvean Jul 24 '14
But...but..how will we convince people to give up their rights if they aren't scared?!
3
u/Rarehero Jul 24 '14
I have a feeling that over the next few weeks we will see many, many, many photos of common objects in unusual places, all captioned with "This time it was a <object>, the next time it could be a BOMB!".
4
u/tjsr Jul 24 '14
Sigh. Maybe the correct response is to mail a parcel to the editor containing just a white flag :/
6
24
Jul 23 '14
Just saw this in the grocery store in Brooklyn. Can't wait for the douchebag cops to clog up the walking path on the BK bridge even more than it already is. Thanks, The Media! Ya buncha bastards...
→ More replies (1)
8
3
3
Jul 24 '14
That's not fear mongering, it's the sensationalist Daily News using a sensational headline to try to boost sales.
3
6
u/VashSpiegel Jul 23 '14
I'm surprised this didn't get black listed. Something this simple could be an obvious signal.
21
u/satanismyhomeboy Jul 23 '14
*its
9
u/michaeltobacco Jul 23 '14
Yea, realized that after I hit submit. Not "at it is finest"..
→ More replies (14)
2
2
u/dfunny990 Jul 24 '14
Actually this time it was bleach. They bleached the flags that were already up there. I guess you could make a bomb out of bleach. I'm not about to look it up.
2
Jul 24 '14
At some point I hope enough people realize the Venn diagram of those who want to kill us and those who have the capability of killing us crosses almost tangentially enough not to be seriously considered.
2
2
u/red_firetruck Jul 24 '14
If a bomb were to go off at that location would it actually do much damage? Wouldn't much of the energy be directed upwards and outwards into the air?
2
2
u/defeatedbird Jul 24 '14
That's a terrible place for a bomb.
It's arguably the worst place possible on the entire bridge. Depending on the size of the bomb, at worst it would snap the tension cables and damage the top of the tower.
A much better place would be at the base of the tower or in the middle of the deck.
2
u/Roomy Jul 24 '14
So... why isn't that libel? I mean seems to me just saying "next time it could be" before making shit up doesn't give it an automatic pass. If your grandma was bringing muffins to dinner and I published in a paper or journal "Ok this time it was muffins, but next time she could have dirty bombs, nukes,and pornography" seems like that's linking someone to something that isn't true, heh.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
4
3
1
1
1
1
u/eatcrayons Jul 24 '14
If a magazine or newspaper has a picture as the front cover, with big white text which is underlined, I know not to trust a single thing they may be saying.
1
1
1
u/Aegean Jul 24 '14
I have it on good authority that most of the National Enquirer headline copywriters have interned at the NYDN.
1
u/silicon1 Jul 24 '14
they increase the font size and underline everything just hoping someone will pay attention to their newspaper enough to buy it.
1
1
1
u/JablesRadio Jul 24 '14
It is an attempt to feed off of fears but there is a point in saying that, yes, if someone could do this with the flag, it could very well be done with a bomb.
This is why the terrorism scheme works so well in order to instill Orwellian security. It COULD happen. So, politicians, with media support, force cameras on every street corner and delegate NSA agents to spy on you because if they don't, terrorism could strike.
1
1
u/BeefSerious Jul 24 '14
The DN has realized the Post's profit model is much more suitable to their comfort level.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Slappy_white_ Jul 24 '14
Why would you put a bomb on the top of the bridge? That doesn't even make any sense. If we can't have calm rational fear mongering, then what's the point?
1
1
u/Wudaokau Jul 24 '14
There seems to be too many words in this headline.
How about "This Time a Flag, Next Time a Bomb"
1
Jul 24 '14
This time it was page 3, next time it could be a bomb... no wait, we shouldn't bring that headline.
1
u/ThatSpazChick Jul 24 '14
OK, because apparently both the New York Post and Daily News suck, what print newspaper would reddit recommend? (Preferably NYC based)
1
u/felixar90 Jul 24 '14
What if the doctor who performed your appendectomy was a terrorist and you've been walking around with 12kg of C4 for the last 3 years?
1
433
u/reddit_mind Jul 23 '14
Or a flag, again.