Many slashdoters have said Boston grossly overreacted to the ATHF mini-billboards. As a long time resident of Massachusetts, I'm happy the agencies' reacted as they did. Keep in mind the authorities who work as public servants care about their communities and fellow citizens. They are informed about strange looking devices located on sites, such as, bridges, and other important sites (Hospital, Fenway, etc.) For one moment let's suppose you were the public official dealing with this situation. What do you do? The public, your community, and your friends and family, depends on you to keep them safe.

You have minimal information and have devices on bridges and other locations. Do you treat it lightly (it's just some misconstrued marketing program)? Or do you treat it seriously until you have more information? If you treat it lightly it might turn out not to be a marketing program gone amuck but something more sinister. All reasonable people, i think, would verge on a more conservative approach and treat this event as potentially lethal. Frankly the public officials are dammed regardless of their actions. If they did not take this serious it would have been all over the news, "Boston indifferent to suspicious devices."

I have the utmost respect for the public officials who deal with public safety every day, it's an important job that is stressful, and has real consequences. The men and woman who responded to this event did what they thought would be in the best public interest of Massachusetts. Once more I ask everyone to put yourself into their position, the responsibility they are in charge of, the balancing act they must attempt, to make sure everyone can go home safely every night.

I'm 26 and love ATHF but the show isn't really the issue. The real issue is the company who decided to have this marketing program. For some reason, i bet if Cartoon Network contacted the proper officials, obtained the proper permits, and acted in a responsible manner we would not be talking about this sad event. Instead we would be talking about how crafty the marketing program was and how bad we wanted to have our own moonanites (bright light?) displays.

People who argue Boston's response was overkill have a valid point. However, I think we unfortunately cast aside the enormity of public safety. I don't know how many people would relish being responsible for such a task. I imagine if I was a public official dealing with public safety even a backpack left next to a subway entrance would cause me to react a lot differently then I would now.

Best,

Thepriceisright