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Well, New Yorkers definitely said something after they saw something: There were two scares in Midtown Manhattan yesterday, and luckily, they were false alarms. First, a Bronx man claimed to have a bomb in his belongings at Penn Station, leading other people to alert authorities. While Raul Claudio did not have actually have a bomb, there is some speculation his anger over the Amtrak ticket representative's failure to find his reservation (he was heading upstate to a drug treatment center) could have fueled some suspicion. That and going up to the counter and saying he had a bomb. Claudio is being held on $15,000 bail; his lawyer claims only in this paranoid time would his client be jailed for saying something like that, but Gothamist doesn't really think about bombs as bragging rights. No one really wants to question whether or not a bank robber has a gun in a hold up, so if someone said he had a bomb, we'd definitely try to get the hell away and tell a police officer about the person.
Then a Gray Line tour bus supervisor alerted the police over the suspicious behavior of some men with backpacks and "stuffed" pockets on a tour bus. Reports conflict as to whether or not she thought they were Middle Eastern or South Asian, but at any rate, the police cordoned off part of Times Square to evacuate the bus and inspect the bags with a K9 unit. They were still made to kneel on the ground as the police investigated, and it turned out the men didn't even have backpacks! Newsday writes, "It wasn't clear whether the men rejoined the tour." They probably didn't attempt a refund either.
Photograph by the Daily News
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If someone claims to have a bomb in his bag the cops should just put a bullet in his head and skip the evacuation. Less trouble for the rest of us.
I smell a lawsuit since the driver or dispatcher embellished the report with nonexistent "backpacks." Gray Line's going to the cleaners on this one thanks to the humiliation, anxiety and mental anguish of both the suspected "terrorists" and the rest of the passengers detained with their hands over their heads.
Man, the second case sure is sad - I mean, tourists loaded down with lots of crap, acting wierd? That's something the Grey Line driver must actually see every day.
My wife was on the train the other day and the conductor came out and started berating some Asian guy for wearing an IPod - because it could be used to trigger a bomb, he claimed.
That picture amuses me - the billboard of the white babes laughing as the brown people get searched.
Yeah those bitches on the billboard are totally mocking the people on the bus. the people on the bus look like they are peeing in their pants cause they are so scared.
Uhoh... "Stuffed Pockets" are now a sign of a terrorist. I have to stop carrying so many things in my cargo pants....
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Stuffed pockets is suspicious?? Oh, That's Just Perfect!
I tend to wear Cargo Pants and I go for long walks with an Ipod stuffed in One pocket and My Camera Stuffed in the Other side! Worse yet, my head set wires and the strap for my Camera sometimes hang out...
I like th fact that the Times had to report that he threw his sandwich against the wall. Was it a "steak bomb"?
nola seems very compassionate. I have to ask-- if you hate people so much, why bother using up police resources to save the people you hate?
Who says I hate people? I don't like criminals and I don't like people who claim they have bombs in their bags. Police resources are used to protect nice people like us from people like that.
I'm not talking about the bomber, I'm talking about the nearby sidewalk full of liberals that you love to hate.