Caused it to rain cops.
"No rifle after all: High alert and wide relief at the mall" April 20, 2011|By Peter Schworm and John Ellement, Globe Staff
In the age of the orange alert, when airport public announcement systems and news reports sound a thrum of warnings about dangers in our midst, the umbrella protruding from his backpack during a visit to the Burlington Mall yesterday looked, to some people, like a gun.
Yeah, unless those dangers are a Gulf of Mexico loaded with oil and dispersant, or nuclear radiation spewing from Japan into the Pacific.
After two employees reported a man with what seemed to be a short rifle ducking into a Nordstrom restroom, some 40 police descended on the scene, ushered out alarmed customers, and blockaded the mall as shopkeepers locked themselves into their stores and traffic on the roadways outside piled up in all directions.
I'm glad I don't go to malls.
With helicopters whirring overhead and SWAT teams securing the premises, the umbrella-toting man, oblivious that the furor had anything to do with him, returned to his job at Lahey Clinic nearby.
There, he caught a report on television of what was happening. In a thoroughly modern moment, he realized that he was the wanted man being shown on surveillance tape.
He quickly called authorities to explain, but it would be some time before they could verify his story and declare the mall safe.
“You don’t see something like that every day in the mall,’’ said Jody Joyce, a Sears employee who was taking a break with a co-worker when they saw that a wing to the Nordstrom store had been closed off.
Minutes later, a phalanx of SWAT team members in shields and body armor marched through the mall.
Police went out of their way to praise the workers who notified authorities for their attentiveness and active response. Police said public safety can hinge on individual wariness.
Good little Nazis.
“We are always telling people to be vigilant,’’ Burlington Police Chief Michael Kent said at an afternoon press conference. “This is what we want.’’
Five people mistook the umbrella for a rifle, police said, in part because the man carried it in a backpack so its long handle jutted above his shoulders.
Police also praised the man, whom they did not identify, for ending the scare by calling police as soon as he realized he was the suspect in question to explain the situation.
“We appreciate that he put an end to it a lot sooner’’ than it would have otherwise, Kent said....
For something that NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED in the first place.
It was an UMBRELLA for God's sake!
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Isn't living in a fascist country great?
Also see: Police look into Columbine tie to fire, bomb
Related: Questions Linger for Columbine Parents
Were there more than 2 shooters at Columbine?
The authorities and media can't even tell the truth about that, huh?
