Stupid Gets a New Name
Posted on August 27, 2007
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 420 views |
And it’s name is Connecticut, where authorities grossly over-reacted to two people having a bit of fun with a running group.
Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge.
The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.
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New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony.
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Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city plans to seek restitution from the Salchows, who are due in court Sept. 14.“You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know,” she said. “It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious. We’re thankful it wasn’t, but there were a lot of resources that went into figuring that out.”
Yes, that’s right, when I see a white powder on the ground of an Ikea forming a line of arrows I never know if it could be a wily terrorist plot to disrupt the parking lot of an Ikea. Damn them and their wilyness.
This whole cliche about “the terrorists have already won”? They don’t even have to show up anymore, stupidity and hysteria have soundly trounced the game for them.
Seriously, Isrealis manage to get on with their daily lives without a fraction of the rampant inane paranoia that authorities in America are fostering and they’re under a practical threat of death almost every day.
And why it is that the severity of the offence is not commensurate with the severity of the crime but rather with the severity of the reaction now? If this “crime” were actually being pursued for what it is littering would probably fit best. Instead, because the authorities panicked like a spastic, neurotic chicken littles, they’re being tried as felons.
Here’s a question for everyone involved: what if you didn’t over-react? What then? Perhaps just life as usual?