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OT: Bomb threats - OutsiderFan - 12-15-2015

So I see reports all L.A. public schools have been closed after a "credible bomb threat" was received.

Questions:

1. Can any of you remember a bomb threat that actually resulted in a bomb being detonated or even being found?

2. If you were a bomber, why would you want to give a warning?

3. If real bombers don't give warnings, why react by shutting things down that are the subject of threats?



Re: OT: Bomb threats - washingtonismoney - 12-15-2015

I think the IRA was commonly in the practice of delivering bomb threats before detonating their explosives. As to why, well....typically, the point is terror rather than lives lost.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - stupac2 - 12-15-2015

In high school we received several bomb threats that caused the school to empty while they searched it, including one on what was probably the coldest day of the year. Because this was a surprise and an emergency next to no one had their coats. I'm still surprised that no one had to be hospitalized, we were out there in t-shirts in below-freezing weather for a fair amount of time before they reopened any part of the building.

None of the threats ever came to anything, of course, probably just some punk kid who wanted to get out of school. I don't believe anyone was ever caught in any instance, either. I suppose it's better safe than sorry, but I think most people know that most of the time bomb threats are hoaxes.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - CTcard - 12-15-2015

(12-15-2015, 09:02 AM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:1. Can any of you remember a bomb threat that actually resulted in a bomb being detonated or even being found?

I have to admit I had never really heard of bomb threats as a thing until my final year of high school when we had a music-exchange visit with an American HS (in Rockford, Illinois). Before we went south, we had to read and sign their HS student handbook. I was shocked to see that there was a formal policy and procedure for handling bomb threats - something that had simply not occurred to me in my safe, cozy HS in the great white north. Made me wonder about the frequency of such events in the big, bad USA.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - Rally - 12-15-2015

Just like fire and car alarms.  They go off so often people eventually ignore them.  Until they shouldn't have :(

Re: OT: Bomb threats - BostonCard - 12-15-2015

(12-15-2015, 09:02 AM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:2. If you were a bomber, why would you want to give a warning?

A) If I wanted to cause massive disruption with a small bomb that likely would only do some property damage, I could magnify the threat by having every school cancelled with a bomb threat.
B) If I wanted to send a message that I could "get to your kids" and induce widespread panic without actually hurting anyone I could make a bomb threat and have the bomb either detonate harmlessly or be found by police.

Finally, "credible bomb threat" doesn't necessarily mean that someone called the police and said "I put a bomb in a school and set a timer for 60 minutes.  Good luck trying to stop me [evil laugh]".  It could be that the threat was identified electronically, or that someone heard something suspicious and called authorities, or that someone purchased a bunch of ammonium nitrate or any number of things that might have lead authorities to be concerned about a bomb and a target.

All I know is that hopefully Jack Bauer and/or John McClean can find the bad guys.

BC

Re: OT: Bomb threats - 82lsju - 12-15-2015

The nation's second-largest school district shut down all of its campuses Tuesday after an emailed threat targeted students at many Los Angeles-area schools.

....

New York City officials say they received the same threat, but quickly concluded that it was a hoax. New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said he thought Los Angeles officials overreacted.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LOS_ANGELES_SCHOOLS_THREAT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Re: OT: Bomb threats - OutsiderFan - 12-15-2015

Last Spring in CT there was a week or two that had almost daily bomb threats at schools.  Each of them resulted in school and police administrators evacuating and shutting down campuses.  There must have been at least half a dozen such incidents, and of course, no bombs were ever found.  It almost seemed like kids were doing it just to get school shut down.



Re: OT: Bomb threats - M T - 12-15-2015

When I was in elementary school, an emotionally disturbed man blew himself, his son, a teacher, a custodian, and two other students up at an elementary school just 4 miles away.  Many more would have died had the teacher not recognized the situation and sent away a number of students whom the man had told to gather around him.  There were no prior threats. 

After the blast, there was no trace of the perpetrator.  The police had to presume he got away and might attack other schools.  (Indeed, he had notes that indicated he had two more bombs.)  We were one of the closest schools and were put on what would now be called lockdown (probably with the rest of the city, but I don't know for sure), but of course the children weren't told what happened.  It was only after our parents came to take us home that we found out what happened.

While it is obvious that virtually all threats like this are baseless, and intended to cause the disruption that officials must do, the one chance in hell that someone is crazy enough to carry out the threat is why we put up with the disruption.  No person and no organization wants to make the call that a threat is baseless, and pay for that misjudgement in lives.

In this time where we see so many instances of people killing and maiming innocent people, I think we will and must err on the side of caution, no matter how frustrating that may be.


Re: OT: Bomb threats - yvonne - 12-15-2015

(12-15-2015, 12:01 PM)MT link Wrote:When I was in elementary school, an emotionally disturbed man blew himself, his son, a teacher, a custodian, and two other students up at an elementary school just 4 miles away.  Many more would have died had the teacher not recognized the situation and sent away a number of students whom the man had told to gather around him.  There were no prior threats. 

After the blast, there was no trace of the perpetrator.  The police had to presume he got away and might attack other schools.

I'm confused.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - amartinsu13 - 12-15-2015

"no trace of the perpetrator"

I don't mean to laugh, but that made me laugh. 

Re: OT: Bomb threats - yvonne - 12-15-2015

This makes me wonder about security in places like the pep rally and the general tailgate.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - TreesAndBirds - 12-15-2015

(12-15-2015, 12:01 PM)MT link Wrote:In this time where we see so many instances of people killing and maiming innocent people, I think we will and must err on the side of caution, no matter how frustrating that may be.

While I respect the sentiment, we can not let the bad guys significantly affect how we live our lives by merely sending someone a text or email. And by reacting as LA did I think they invite more of these events. I undersand what LA did because of what just happened in nearby San Bernadino, so I think it's a special case, but overall I think we need to weigh the risks each time and sometimes we will need to take the risk. It's ashame.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - CTcard - 12-15-2015

(12-15-2015, 01:40 PM)TreesAndBirds link Wrote:[quote author=MT link=topic=14070.msg148411#msg148411 date=1450206062]

In this time where we see so many instances of people killing and maiming innocent people, I think we will and must err on the side of caution, no matter how frustrating that may be.

While I respect the sentiment, we can not let the bad guys significantly affect how we live our lives by merely sending someone a text or email. ...
[/quote]

Perhaps more practically, my understanding is that large school districts like NY and LA receive enough of these sorts of threats that simply deciding to always err on the side of caution would mean shutting down the school system.
Some kind of evaluation of the threats is needed.

Re: OT: Bomb threats - Mick - 12-15-2015

Not a bomb, but you may have had an experience similar to the one that I did.  In Chemistry my junior year, the teacher cut a 1/2" square chunk of solid sodium (preserved in oil) and placed it into a tank of water.  It spun around in the water, and gave off hydrogen and it exploded, with the size and sound of a firecracker.

The next year, a brand new physics teacher decided to renew the experiment, but he cut off a tennis-ball sized chunk and dropped it into a water bin on top of a table.  Every kid in the class had been in the prior year's chem class, and we all backed up to the wall.  It took a long time to happen, but the BOOM (not bank) that resulted darkened our ceiling and brought the police and fire trucks.  last time that experiment was tried in our school...



Re: OT: Bomb threats - BostonCard - 12-15-2015

(12-15-2015, 12:42 PM)Yvonne link Wrote:[quote author=MT link=topic=14070.msg148411#msg148411 date=1450206062]
When I was in elementary school, an emotionally disturbed man blew himself [up], his son, a teacher, a custodian, and two other students up at an elementary school just 4 miles away.  Many more would have died had the teacher not recognized the situation and sent away a number of students whom the man had told to gather around him.  There were no prior threats. 

After the blast, there was no trace of the perpetrator.  The police had to presume he got away and might attack other schools.

I'm confused.
[/quote]

Me too.  If he blew himself up how could there have been no trace?  He couldn't have simply vaporized.  Even the most gruesome suicide bombings leave a trace of the bomber.

BC

Re: OT: Bomb threats - BostonCard - 12-15-2015

Ah fun with chemistry.  We may have smuggled some sodium and potassium to throw into Lake Lag for an improptu fireworks show, may or may not have lit magnesium, and might have synthesized peroxiacetone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEdnNOi6DS4

We did the hammer trick, and it makes a very LOUD bang.

The only thing I wish we had been able to carry out is the thermite reaction.

BC

Re: OT: Bomb threats - Mick - 12-15-2015

You may have heard of the 2013 case of Eldo Kim, a Harvard sophomore that wanted to get out of a final, and e-mailed a threat using Guerilla Mail (temporary email) and tried to disguise it by accessing TOR, a free Internet product that assigns temporary anonymous Internet protocol addresses, using the university's wireless network.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-student-due-in-court-in-campus-bomb-hoax-charge/

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/17/student-charged-bomb-threat/

Here's the actual email he sent:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/email-harvard-bombs-eldo-kim_n_4481893.html

Affadavit against Kim:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/192775454/Affidavit-Against-Eldo-Kim-Harvard-Student-Accused-Of-Making-Bomb-Threats

Sounds like he was arrested within a day, he spent a night in jail and got suspended indefinitely from Hahvahd:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/1/10/bomb-threat-kim-waiting/

The Speedy Trial Act says he should have been indicted in thirty days, but wasn't indicted until October:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/4/8/eldo-kim-indictment-delays/

...but the judge wanted him in pretrial diversion program for 18 months which will include 750 community service hours, restitution to the agencies involved in sussing out the threat, and a public apology.  So as long as Kim complies, he won't be criminally charged.  Wonder if that would happen in Texas?
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/11/eldo-kim-charged-diversion/

Re: OT: Bomb threats - OutsiderFan - 12-15-2015

Nice. We go from bomb threats, to how to make bombs!

Re: OT: Bomb threats - BostonCard - 12-15-2015

No, not how to make bombs.  Just how to have explosive chemical reactions, which is an entirely different thing.  It would be akin to equating buying fireworks with buying bombs.  Bombs require a means to deliver the explosive energy so as to cause damage or hurt people, and our goal was to deliver the explosive energy without hurting anyone (especially ourselves).

BC