Suspicious Package Reports Increase This Week

@hhusted all natural consequences after a terrorist/ would be terrorist attack but its great that people are being vigilant...

My guess is that more people are finding things suspicious - people are being more careful to be safe rather than sorry

As uptowngirl said, it's just a function of people being scared and wary after the SUV incident, but not likely because there is anything MORE suspicious now than before...

Yeah... I always see things that have suspicious potential around, so this is definitely a case of people being more worried rather than a case of there actually being more suspicious items lying around.

I'm not sure whether to be glad people are vigilant or upset that people are so jumpy...

Nod @ ajadeddidealist.

sometimes i wish i can go back to pre 9/11. I used to love going up to the cockpit in a plane and wishing i could fly it. Now - we're all paranoid and the bad people are more nasty and tricky than every before. :(

Now when I'm on a plan, I curl up into a tiny and highly-medicated ball as a means of coping, and every moment of turbulence sends me into a panic. Thank the Lord for Diazepam, which pretty much saved my life - or at least my livelihood, as now I can continue to travel!

That's so true PureKrome and travel which used to be pleasurable activity has now become extremel stressful thanks to 9/11 and all the subsequent terror strikes/attempts.

Everyone needs to be extremely vigilant. Details will always be what fouls up a terrorist and what saves you and me.

@Everyone The New York Times has an article on the current popularity of the phrase if you see something, say something which was coined by a local adman a day after 9/11.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/nyregion/11slogan.html

@uptowngirl: that phrase cracks me up. "If you see something, say something:" ummmmm, if I see something? It's New York City. I see crazy and suspicious things / activities all day, every day. If I see a homeless person pissing on himself and talking to Mary Queen of Scots, I don't say something. . . but, perhaps I should. Because that is definitely "something."

@JenMac: You are funny. Yeah, I always hear the saying "If you see something, say something." It has gotten old and tired. But according to the MTA and NYPD the slogan is working.

@JenMac You have a wonderful sense of humor and you are so right when you say that one is always 'seeing ' something in this crazy city of ours!!

@JenMac For real!!!

I realize that it's pretty obviously a post-9/11 slogan - but does anyone else feel like it's been around for just about forever? It's so prevalent as to have become ingrained in my memory as some kind of absolute. "If you see something, say something!"

@BroadwayBK , JenMac I agree with JenMac on this one that it's a ridiculous slogan that doesn't really fit in with this city. I've never really taken that phrase seriously, maybe I'm just jaded but...

@DBlack youre right its so ubiquitous that you tend to ignore it and thus not pay much attention to it .. quite opposite of the effect its supposed to have..

@DBlack Never said it wasn't ridiculous. Just that it's everywhere. And seems like it has been forever.

@everyone Did you guys see this? http://gothamist.com/2010/05/16/another_day_another_bomb_scare.php

Looks like they're calling in the bomb sqauds to go through the garbage now...

Apparently the "See Something Say Something" has made it to a T-Shirt - sold by the heroic Times Square Vendor. Times like these I really, really love New York

Geez, this kind of stuff is only supposed to happen in the Gaza Strip... the bomb squad?

@Uraniumfish what can I say we live in uncertain times!

@ajadedidealist I kind of want that shirt... it's kind of hilarious.

@everyone These certainly are crazy times. In this city, at least. I wonder if any other US city worries as much about blowing up as New York seems to?

Maybe DC? But somehow I doubt quite as much...

@BroadwayBK I read an article where they asked various people in the US do they think their city is a likely target for terrorists and if so, which spot in their city would be the most obvious target. And some poor guy in Iowa in some one-horse town was saying how he's sure the terrorists would bomb the local WalMart for sure. I could just die laughing. I guess if the WalMart on Main Street is the center of your world, that's what you'd be scared the terrorists would take away from you. That is, if they could even find your town on the map.

Anyways, too bad I can't remember where I read that, would have loved to link to it. I think it says a lot about how people fear and how they focus those fears.

@uraniumfish: that is so funny in such a sad way!!! I remember when 9/11 happened, I was in Los Angeles. Everyone immediately started to panic and figure out where we would get hit. I was in Westwood and everyone was sure the Federal Building was next. Like, yeah, a measly little building in Westwood across from a cemetary is gonna get it. Not nearly as silly as a Wal-Mart but it just goes to show that people have interesting reactions to a crisis situation.

@Uraniumfish OMG! i couldn't stop laughing after reading your post!! who in the world would want to blow up a WalMart? except some disgruntled ex-employee :):)
Seriously do all of you think of terrorist attacks on a regular basis? I have had the distinction of being in various cities when they were attacked NY -9/11, London 7/07 and Mumbai 26/11 so much so that I now I dont usually dwell on the prospect of being attacked .. oh I may have the occasional panic attack when a subway stalls underground but other than that life goes on ....

@Uraniumfish: Seriously. Wal-Mart? Come on.

@Uptowngirl: I do not sit in front of my computer and think terrorist. I just focus on my work. Some people have such torrid fears.

@uptowngirl I make it a point NOT to think about it and NOT to base any decisions on the idea of terrorist threat. Because I'm generally disgusted by the thought of living in paranoia, and because seen with any kind of analytical distance, the chances of anything in particular happening to me are too miniscule to mention. It's not like I'm flying to Afghanistan every other day and standing in front of tanks, for goodnessakes.

The only single time I made a decision based on possible safety issues was when, just out of college, I seriously considered living in Israel for a year. About the week when I was deciding if I should do that or not, there was a headline about a car bomb going off in Palestine, and that kind of decided it for me.

There's no place like home...

@Uraniumfish: Although you are not Dorothy and you are not in Kansas, I do agree with you. I feel much more comfortable when I am at home. I don't mind traveling when I have the money, but find myself at ease when I get home.

@Uraniumfish @JenMac I guess terrorist attacks make everyone concerned for their own safety: I was a freshman in college in a tiny southern college town when September 11th happened, and my roommate called me in a panic, asking me if they were going to evacuate the town....

@uptowngirl I can't say that I think about terrorist attacks very often, unless I have just read some terrorist news, or like you, I'm having a moment on the subway.

@BroadwayBK I do have moments on the subway, though. Those seem a lot more likely to happen, statistically speaking.