Partial Evacuation of Times Square

[brooklynite]

Source: WCBS

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Police are investigating the discovery of a suspicious package near New York City's Time Square.

The bomb squad is responding to the area near 46th and Broadway to examine what appears to be a small, white cooler left on a sidewalk.

Several streets have been closed as a precuation because the cooler was found a few blocks from where a smoking SUV and failed car bomb was found Saturday night.

No other details were immediately available. The call was received about 1:15 p.m.

Read more: http://www.wcbs880.com/Partial-Evacuation-of-Times-Square/6996383

---

Every hot dog cart and water vendor has a cooler. Perhaps people are being a wee bit jittery.

[MidwestRick]

1. Perhaps? n/t

[LynneSin]

2. Great, I'm suppose to go to NYC next weekend for a Broadway Musica

At the St James - 246 West 44th Street.

I'm just going to make it a point to not go into Time Squares directly that weekend.

[annabanana]

11. Chillax my dear...

It is just a bunch of noise for a Friday. .

They've already started reopening streets.

[jefferson_dem]

3. CNN Video Feed

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream1&hpt=T1

[madmax]

4. The media

at least MSNBC at the moment is treating this seriously but, without a lot of hysteria and bullshit to drive the unstable over the edge. Fairly calm, relaxed reporting. I think I'll faint.

[ShortnFiery]

8. They should be covering the Oil Spill. Not sitting on their hands here. eom

[slackmaster]

5. HOLY SHIT!

[ShortnFiery]

9. ...

:spray:

[madmax]

10. +1

[Rambis]

12. Well done! (nm)

x

[madmax]

13. Double Zilch

Both packages nada. One books and water.

This ad you posted reminds of George Carlin!

[Tx4obama]

6. Ridiculous...

Yesterday there was a 9 hour stand-off with SWAT teams & robots deployed over a bus bomb scare in NH with hardly no news coverage.
Someone leaves a cooler in Times Square and the media goes nuts!

[elias49]

23. It's getting ridiculous

There was nothing dangerous on the Greyhound bus. Law enforcement shut down several blocks of the city, businesses closed, and all because there was a black man on the bus who spoke no English. I think he was afraid to exit like the other passengers...probably worried that he was going to be shot dead.
This shit has to cease.
In the part of NH that I live - sort of rural, lower-middle class - people have developed the habit of leaving things on the edge of the road outside their homes as 'yard sale' items or sometimes marked 'free' to get rid of stuff they don't want or need anymore. If I called in every 'suspicious' item I saw as I drove through town, the police wouldn't have a moment's peace to handle real criminal issues.
This country is fast going to grind to a halt for fear of the boogie-man.

[ShortnFiery]

7. Fear-mongering ... bugga bugga bugga BOOM!

:eyes:

[ShortnFiery]

14. BREAKING: Water bottles were inside suspicious cooler in Times Square.

:crazy:

[annabanana]

15. THIS is what should be on the news!! "Oil Box" is lowered. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=462738&mesg_id=462738

video of the oil containmnent tower being lowered into the ocean

[hayu_lol]

17. Unfortunately, we have to err on the cautious side...

Pandora's Box has been opened and the threats are out there, some real and some not. May be this way all the way to eternity. Easier to laugh it off while the officials working these threats are wiping the sweat off their brows than to clean up body parts scattered all over the place and buildings in rubble.

[unpossibles]

20. agreed.

As much as I joke about some of these, I'm always glad when they turn out to be a non-issue which was handled instead of a real issue which was ignored.

[annabanana]

21. Land of the Free and Home of the *Brave*. . .

and all that

[Democat]

16. Be careful, there might be dry ice inside!

Send in the robot bombsquad!

[Ian David]

18. Or WORSE...

[bergie321]

19. Terrorism only works

When people allow themselves to be terrified.

BRB, just spilled some coffee creamer and need to call in a hazmat team.

[JDPriestly]

22. I used to work in a certain public building in the LA area.

Every once in a while the building would be evacuated, a bomb squad would bring all its expensive paraphernalia and expertise and blow up a school bag or some other mysterious, completely harmless object. We would sit on the lawn a ways away and watch the drama unfold. Wasted government time and money, but was always rather entertaining. Real bomb threats are extremely rare.

They have to be careful, but we shouldn't get too excited. They are doing their job. Most of these calls are just a nuisance.

[louis-t]

24. Abandoned water cooler causes Times Square scare

Source: Associated Press

NEW YORK – Police cleared streets around Times Square on Friday and called in the bomb squad after finding a cooler and a shopping bag left on a sidewalk about a block from where a failed car bomb was found over the weekend. They opened streets to traffic after finding out the cooler contained only water bottles.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100507/ap_on_re_us/us_times_square

[mikelgb]

25. holy shit water bottles? those are like WMD in an airport

[zogofzorkon]

26. We are dealing with some of the most incompetent terrorists. Thankfully

they had no idea how to make or deploy water balloons, the most likely weapon using bottled water. Restricting sales of bottled water would go a long way in preventing further disruptive incidents of this kind. Even if they didn't succeed this time next time could be the real thing.

[FailureToCommunicate]

27. Concord, Massachusetts is safer -having recently outlawed bottled water sales!

[zogofzorkon]

30. That law should serve as a model for the rest of our great nation. No citizen

should have to live in fear of terrorists having unrestricted access to the basic material needed to assemble a working water balloon. Why hasn't homeland security been on top of this issue, instead we have been shown the way by the fine Americans of Concord. When it comes to our safety small government has done a better job than the bloated federal system.

[FailureToCommunicate]

33. Agreed, except for one teeny problem: in the last few days Eastern Mass. has been under

a "boil water" order because of a catastrophic water main break. Most towns did fine and folks coped by boiling water before balloon fights- or used bottled water. The residents of Concord were at a clear (although temporary) disadvantage in that respect.

Political correctness meets the cold water of reality!

[boppers]

34. Were the water bottles Mirandized?

Did we lose valuable information by informing the bottles of their rights?

[slackmaster]

28. If you can't take it on a plane, you shouldn't be allowed to leave it lying around Times Square

:dunce:

[superconnected]

29. Bushco succeeded. We are a nation that live in fear.

[Michigan-Arizona]

31. +1

[ConcernedCanuk]

32. THAT's how they get the funding to bomb people to shit all over the globe.

.
.
.

"better them than us" - right?

We do not see the carnage, the burnt bodies, the distraught families and friends.

But we will

These people have families and friends OVER HERE

sooner or later

there will be payback

count on it

(sigh)