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purplecthulhu at 11:54am on 10/07/2005
purplecthulhu at 11:54am on 10/07/200520000 people were evacuated from the centre of Birmingham last night. The police now say:
"We have found no bombs, but we have responded to what members of the public saw and thought was suspicious and which they quite responsibly drew to our attention," he said.
So, it would appear that the 'intelligence reports' and 'very real and specific threat' seems to have been little more than members of the public jumping at shadows, reporting this to the police, who then jump even higher and act to increase the universal level of doubt and paranoia with an unnecessary evacuation.
Great.
When you evacuate 20000 people, you produce risks. Its unclear to me whether anyone was injured in the actual evacuation, but even without that it is entirely possible that some of those affected will have had pre-existing conditions (cardiac, respiratory, mental) exacerbated to both their short and long term detriment. Cooler heads need to prevail here, or the terrorists really do start to win.
"We have found no bombs, but we have responded to what members of the public saw and thought was suspicious and which they quite responsibly drew to our attention," he said.
So, it would appear that the 'intelligence reports' and 'very real and specific threat' seems to have been little more than members of the public jumping at shadows, reporting this to the police, who then jump even higher and act to increase the universal level of doubt and paranoia with an unnecessary evacuation.
Great.
When you evacuate 20000 people, you produce risks. Its unclear to me whether anyone was injured in the actual evacuation, but even without that it is entirely possible that some of those affected will have had pre-existing conditions (cardiac, respiratory, mental) exacerbated to both their short and long term detriment. Cooler heads need to prevail here, or the terrorists really do start to win.
Article reference
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1525555,00.html
Its interesting that the spokesman's grammatical inability actually comes close to the truth:
'... the information we received posed a real threat to the lives of people in the city centre'
Yes - it was the (incorrect) infomration that there was a bomb threat that was the danger, not the presence of any actual bombs.
A cynical part of me sees this, in the light of reported suspicions that the London bomber(s) came from Birmingham, as a reminder from the security services to the Birmingham Moslem community that they're not immune from these misguided idiots. But surely this is too cynical to be true.
(no subject)
(no subject)
Its a tough job, and I do have sympathy with the difficulty. But its pretty clear this one was a bad call by whoever made it (and it will never be clear if it was WMP or The Home Secretary who made it).
(no subject)
In other news, Water Wet.