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earendel · #1 Post by **earendel** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:04 am

There was a bit of excitement associated with my afternoon commute yesterday. I left the building at 4:30 as I normally do and walked a block to the bus stop. On the way I noticed some crime scene tape and several police vehicles parked in the intersection. "Hmmm..." I said to myself, "must have been an accident." I got to the corner and a police officer waved me (and the other people who had reached the same spot) away, telling us we needed to move at least a block away. "What's going on?" several people asked. The officer would only say that "an ongoing investigation" was in progress and everyone needed to move away. So I and the others crossed the street. I happened to catch a newspaper reporter talking with another officer and overheard what the commotion was all about. Seems that someone had left a briefcase on the steps of the Federal courthouse building, and there was concern that it might be a bomb.

That having been settled, I had to figure out where to catch the bus, since the street that it normally traverses was blocked off. I ended up having to walk almost a mile before reaching a stop that I was confident the bus would pass (turns out I went farther than I had to), and of course the bus was running late because of the diversion of traffic.

Here's a link to the local newspaper's coverage of the situation.

http://tinyurl.com/yrw9g2

It seems to me that a warning could have been passed on to our building alerting people of the blocked-off street; I could have made alternate bus connections had I known about it. Not to mention actually walking down to where the danger was greater.

peacock2121 · #2 Post by **peacock2121** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:32 am

I am sure law enforcement has to weigh the damage done by alerting people and the chaos that could cause and the energy law enforcement would have to expend to handle that chaos (that was a long sentence and it's not over) against the delay in getting a bus.

I would like to know what the briefcase was all about.

earendel · #3 Post by **earendel** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:38 am

peacock2121 wrote:I am sure law enforcement has to weigh the damage done by alerting people and the chaos that could cause and the energy law enforcement would have to expend to handle that chaos (that was a long sentence and it's not over) against the delay in getting a bus.

I would like to know what the briefcase was all about.

Interestingly the article said that people in the front of that building were evacuated, but people in the back were not because "parts of the building are impenetrable". Having worked in that building years ago, I can attest that it's solidly built and there are places where one could easily be unaware that a bomb had gone off.

That building houses Federal courts, but it is also the main Social Security site. Armed Forces recruiting used to be there (that's when I worked there) but they moved out long ago.