That's just pathetic. You have to have a pretty addled mind in order to find an obvious prank such as this "terrifying."
But that's what our society is now, everything is measured by the lowest-common-denominator, and fear is a commodity sold to you every evening on the news.
The ability of pranksters to switch flags on a bridge does not make your world more risky. A heavy handed state triggering paranoid reactions from the mentally ill may well do.
It's about the symbolism, not the act. If NYC, for all its counterterrorism efforts, can't catch these pranksters, it makes the public safety officials look impotent in the face of real threats.
They largely are. It's incredibly difficult to stop crimes before they're committed, and prior to any terrorist mania it was generally considered to be outside the scope of police work. Mainly because it requires a security apparatus, and authority, that is in direct conflict with an open democratic society.
Listen folks, you can't stop terrorism. A determined attacker will just find an easier target. You can't guard everything all the time.
100,000s of people do that every single day. It is a bridge. That is what bridges do. They carry largely unknown people across a highly visible structure.
I think you are blowing this out of proportion. Or maybe I shouldn't use the word blowing.
I just hope the pranksters don't end up in jail.
Here's a street view link that should give you an idea:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.705226,-73.995817,3a,90y,130...
- The bike+pedestrian path is suspended over the roadway.
- There are some suspension cables leading from the suspended pedestrian path, and trusses leading to the other cables.
- The cables are pretty thick and have railing-like cables, likely for maintenance.
- There is only a small metal door preventing people from running all the way up the cables. The railing-like cables look useful for climbing over the door.
It's possible that with the right skills, nothing is necessary but the new flag and tins, a plan, and a little luck.
Even with permits and DOT assistance, the SWAT team came out after them and halted traffic on the bridge.
Video of the walkway and cables, if I'm not mistaken.
From what i can see looks like a very easy climb.
Mine is that the pranksters want to expose the fear-mindset in general for what it is, and relatedly show that the freedoms we've given up in the name of security was a bad idea, and finally that security is an illusion because you can't secure all places at all times unless you want to live in something that resembles a prison.
In short, they say: "America: you're pwned, like this bridge, and, like the cops here, you don't even know how it happened".
Like with a quad-copter hauling loads of liquid bleach, or a laser with the right wavelength to destroy the dyes.
Edit: Ah, never mind, the spotlights are also up on top, not down below as I had thought. It'd take quite a lot of robo-dexterity to cover them up so quickly, so if a person is already up there they might as well just swap the flag too.
Corporate terrorism? It would never happen...
In regards the topic the flag turned into a symbol of surrendering of ones freedoms to the state.
Now let's spend hundreds of thousands to catch them, put them to the jail and budget for consultants who will help closing such threats in future.
Neither the article nor the thread sheds much light on the story, so it doesn't seem surprising that this post didn't reach the top tier.
If this all ends with someone trying to paint a smiley face on the Statue of Liberty, then I would not be in the least bit surprised.
Next time some jokester tries a stunt like this go check, find their pic, locate & throw his/her dumbass in jail (if so desired).
And please stop with this "terrorist" scare mongering! We as a society (or the media portrayal) are becoming a bunch of paranoid jerks parroting this nonsense and wasting taxpayer funds when the NY cops have many more important issues to deal with.
Yeah, I heard we're nearly at the point now where we're going to go around putting hidden motion-triggered cameras literally everywhere.
If they're calling this an act of terrorism, are they going to throw these kids into a jail cell for 20 years for a harmless prank? Whatever happened to being able to have a good old prank. Kind of reminds me of the MIT pranks: completely harmless.
How about they spend the money securing the bridge instead of combing through cell-phone towers and involving innocent civilians in a draconian dragnet operation? This kind of behaviour from the NYPD is just going to encourage more pranks like this.
If the NYPD want to discourage more pranks from occurring, this kind of overly dramatic sulking is not really the way to go about it.
But it does seem worth following up on. Not because they did bad, but because it's important to learn how they did what they did. And demonstrating to potential terrorists that you're capable of finding people who breach security at landmarks seems like a good thing to do.
The Brooklyn Bridge would be a reasonable terrorist target. We collectively spend a lot of money to try to make it secure, just like we do with basically all large buildings. And that feels reasonable to me, and I imagine to a lot of other people. (e.g., I'm not sad some of my tax dollars go to protecting the Golden Gate Bridge[1])
And, so, I dunno, NYPD hasn't thrown 'em in jail yet, and they've only said "It is a matter of concern... I am not particularly happy about the event." So I guess I think it's a bit unfair or unhelpful to judge everyone's handling of it quite yet, everything seems sorta fine to me as of now.
Also what an awesome prank, I love it.
[1] http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Protecting-Our-National...
