Image of the "device.". Yes, it was an overreaction because it was not a threat, but I don't see a note there... perhaps there's one in the shadow. If you suspect it's a bomb, are you supposed to get close enough to read the note on it?

Hindsight is 20/20... deciding what to do in situations like these is very difficult, but there's no way that, looking at that picture, you can't call it suspicious.

The police end up looking bad in hindsight, but that's only because that's the majority of the public's view of what happened. The camera was embedded in what looked like an empty soda can, and almost completely covered with duct tape. The pin hole was likely facing out over the interstate, making what you saw on the bridge just a cylinder and duct tape, so no, even knowing what a pinhole camera is doesn't make it obvious that this was one of them.

We complain they overreact in cases like this, but then when something happens they didn't do enough. Us armchair police chiefs seem to have all the answers.

Hindsight is 20/20; what would you do if you were the police, in charge of keeping the public safe, and some hacked together package was duct-taped to a support on one of the busiest bridges in the city? I work a couple of blocks from there... I'm incredibly lucky to have been working at home yesterday and not have to deal with the ensuing traffic nightmare (it's already bad enough in that particular spot... maybe the police should spend more time ticketing the people causing gridlock).

Now, granted, I don't know if "blow it up first, ask questions later" is necessarily the right approach, but it's only an overreaction when it wasn't a threat... when it is we complain they did too little.

I would mark you up, but wanted to add that carbohydrates, or perhaps some specific high carb foods, are the cause of a whole slew of physical problems that a lot of people have. When I did low carb, not only did I lose weight fast, but allergies went away, I had consistently high energy throughout the day ... and at the end of the day my energy level dropped like a rock and I slept solidly through the night whereas, before that, I consistently had trouble sleeping. Even skin problems cleared up - dandruff, eczema went away completely.

I also want to add to what people are saying - you don't absorb every calorie you eat. That's been mentioned in a few posts above, but not enough, I think, although you cannot use that fact as an excuse to overeat. But beyond that, a lot of low-carb naysayers don't get that you can lose more calories than you actually burn when you're in ketosis. The simple (calories in) - (calories out) is just far too simple, and it's just accurate.

No... people get legitimately threatened all the time, whether directly or indirectly. You're threatened with a speeding ticket if you exceed the limit; you're threatened with fines and possible imprisonment for failing to pay taxes; your boss might threaten to fire you if you don't increase your output; parents threaten to take away kid's TV watching privileges if they don't do well in school; your wife might threaten to divorce you if you keep leaving the cap off the toothpaste... it's just part of life.

I don't know if it's gotten to SCOTUS yet, but several state supreme courts and federal judges have ruled that you must give the password to decrypt your device if they have a warrant. What happens if you don't? I don't know.... contempt of court, I guess.

That's what I would have added... curiosity. I think, like a lot engineers, the kind of people who took their parent's phones apart when they were kids to figure out how they worked... always playing the "what if" and "I wonder what would happen" games.

Is it? A "lot of time?" I'd like to read your study showing that to be the case.

I suspect traffic circles ("roundabouts") would be a great solution in the long run around here if it wouldn't increase accidents by 5000% percent in the mean time from all the people that simply can't understand the concept.

A lot of the cases of police reports that I've encountered are police being there from an accident... or they're already giving someone a ticket (IOW, they're not going to jump in their car and come after you).

I don't know why people are scared of the police. The vast majority of them are good people just doing their job trying to keep you safe. People's opinions of them are colored by ubiquitous news stories of the tiny fraction of bad cops, and their depiction in popular media. I was a passenger in a friends car when a police car pulled up next to us at a red light. I looked over, the cop looked over, I gave a friendly wave, he waved back. My friend went ballistic. "Are you trying to get me a ticket?"

I asked "Why? Are you doing something wrong?"

"No."

"Then what's your f#@$king problem?"

I've gotten several speeding tickets in my life; been involved in several accidents (not related to speeding and not my fault), and I've never had a negative experience with a police officer... when they ask to see my license and registration, instead of arguing with them, I hand it over. I was speeding, they pull me over, I know I was speeding... I've never seen cop give anyone a hard time unless they started arguing about it.

Does it happen that there are bad cops? Of course... but they're in the distinct minority. With all these cop haters on slashdot, you can be guaranteed they're happy enough a cop is around when they need one.

Agreed.... speeding is a lot less heinous and much less annoying to other drivers than tailgating, weaving, cutting people off, failing to signal, signalling when not turning or changing lanes, using high beams in traffic, and host of other things.... and I've NEVER heard of anyone getting tickets for those things because speeding tickets can result in objective evidence (radar or speedometer readings). I've seen people turn left from the right lane, and right from the left lane (only once causing an accident, though). There is, IMO, a growing mentality of "my mistakes are not my problem... they're yours!" where someone failed to be in the correct lane at the correct time, so they just force their way where they want to go instead of continuing the way they were committed to and turning safely farther up the road. I see this all the time.... if I missed my turn I would turn at the next location is possible, maybe making a u-turn or something - I would never in a million years cut across several lanes of traffic at the last second because of my mistake.

It's a terrible system... and the majority of police reports I've seen are always in the same spots. This is in/near big city Atlanta... these are not speed traps since traffic can't possibly flow that fast anyway. It's the odd idiot in the HOV or luxury lanes going 80 that get nailed, not your average commuter that might take a 5 to 10mph "liberty" with the speed limit.

I don't know if it's required, but I believe they routinely do. My GPS consistently shows a few more MPH than my speedometer, and when I've taken long trips I've never gone as far as my speedometer told me I should have gone (based on MPH reported by my speedometer and keeping an eye on mile markers).

Back to the topic at hand, though, locations of police spotted in public locations is public information. This is the type of information that "wants to be free." My father was a police officer, I have several relatives who are still police officers, Several friends of my family are police officers... I highly respect them and, IMO, understand their point of view better than your average person. After seeing all the people lying, resisting, spitting in faces of police officers... I think that they have a LOT more restraint than most people are capable of. While it bothers me that police officers break, it's hardly surprising when the average person hates and distrusts them, despite the fact that 99% of the time they are good people doing their job... it's that tiny fraction that doesn't that makes the news, and colors people's perspectives.

I use waze... and I'll thumb up police reports if I see them, but I never slow down - because I'm not speeding to an extent where the cop would care. Around here the police on the interstates have a detrimental effect on commuter traffic, because when people see cops they slow down to 5 to 10 MPH below the limit, and it pisses me off. I cruise by police doing 5MPH over the limit and have never gotten a ticket. The very rare cases I've heard of people getting tickets for less than 5MPH over the limit have all been dismissed by the court. One department around here (at least) is ordered not to bother anybody doing less than 10MPH over the limit.

I give no credence to this complaint. I know that, in some locations, the police even use waze to see where they're being reported. Then they can move, they can "not there" the report - being a voluntary app (that I've only submitted information for twice because, hey, I'm driving here!) I find most of the reports dubious at best, and most of the time don't even see the cops that are supposed to be there.

The benefits of Waze over something like google maps is not the cop reporting - it's the accident and slow traffic reporting, it's the combined information from 100s or 1000s of "wazers" to help guide you around problem areas. The last time waze told me to detour and I didn't, I got stuck in an hour and a half of traffic I could have avoided.... never again.

Yes... I'm very cynical about human nature; I think it's unfortunately very likely some impaired person will be taken advantage of by some scumbag.