Well this just made Monday morning exciting

[missdiane]

RU ALERT: Police are investigating a Suspicious Package at Douglass Parking Deck. Avoid the area. 09/19/2016 08:04:18 EDT

— Rutgers University (@RutgersU) September 19, 2016


That parking deck is this far away from my workplace:


UPDATE: Package has been deemed "safe." There are still some people freaking out not far down the street about another package. Probably either a jokester or just that people are in freak-out mode in general.

Comments

[bluemeanybeany.livejournal.com]

poor dearie, try not to worry they're probably just being over cautious because of New York. The last time I couldnt move for hours it was cause someone had mistakenly left behind their lunchbox and London Bridge was brought to a standstill by cheese spread sandwiches cut into triangles.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm sure. It's probably some dumb student that left his backpack behind or another jackass that thought it would be funny to leave a box out.

Don't know if it made the news over there but there were also pipe bombs here in NJ (no injuries but they did explode). Right now the local New Brunswick train station is also being "investigated" for something.

Aaaand I definitely need to not bother to check the feed of that friend that's gone full Trumpster nutball as he reposted that status and commented Yeah let the lefties keep thinking this shit just happens all over the world and its ok! BS

Dude, it does. It's not ok, never said it was ok, but it DOES happen all over and has always happened. Chill the fuck out.

[bluemeanybeany.livejournal.com]

yes the pipe bomb on the marathon thing was on the news, although it said the police were not sure if they were connected, mind you I kind of hope they are connected, or else there's two independent nutters instead of the one they've now identified as having planted the New York one. I'm very pleased to see nobody has been majorily hurt yet, here's hoping that continues as the police catch him.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

There was another one last night in Elizabeth NJ
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/nyregion/pipe-bombs-found-near-train-station-in-elizabeth-nj-official-says.html?_r=0

Oh and I have an update on ours - the all clear was given. Though there are some more packages around that people are freaking out about.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

There are now suspects
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/new-york-explosion-investigation/

[bluemeanybeany.livejournal.com]

it's okay the police have him in custody. Round of applause for New Jersey police.

[threecee.livejournal.com]

I saw the report about the bombs at the Elizabeth NJ train station. Yours is probably just a student being stupid, but be cautious anyway.

The terrorism problem is growing and the white supremacist terrorists have increased their bombing and shooting lately along with the Muslim terrorists.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

A student or some general schmuck. Yeah, likely so. Currently they're actually searching the train and surrounding area at our New Brunswick train station. Feel bad for the folks trying to get back and forth to work and school

Lot of hate going on in the world. The sad thing is that some friends are falling down the rabbit hole and getting super paranoid and striking out at their friends. So I'm currently muting those friends on FB and the like and hope that they calm down. The world is not a "safe" place, never has it ever been. Sometimes the stuff happening is closer to home and in today's case, it seems that it's bred local paranoia. It'll pass but the trick is not to hold on to the fear about things like that. As I said on FB Keep calm folks down the street, it's either jokesters or just the fact that everyone is hyper paranoid. It's good to be alert, but it doesn't do your heart or mental health any good to be spazzing out. Contact authorities, let them take care of it and keep on keeping on.

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Glad your bomb scare was nothing.

People are very paranoid after any incident. A couple months after 9/11, there was a Hindu holiday when sisters traditionally send bracelets woven of sari threads to their brothers (history involves sister sending secret message to warn her brother of impending sneak attack by Muslim Mughals).

The sister of a friend's husband sent him one of these bracelets from London to northern NJ. She transposed two of the street numbers so the package went to the wrong address. Mysterious package from UK with weird foreign name addressed to local US citizens with weird foreign name! Three police cars, bomb squad van, and several cops delivered the package to my friend's house.

My friend said it was from her husband's sister and thank you for bringing it. They insisted she open it on the doorstep while they all backed up behind their cars. She opened it, took out the thread bracelet, and held it up. A couple cops cautiously approached to look at it and ask why it was sent. She started to explain about the holiday, but realized "secret message", "sneak attack", and "Muslim" were all they would hear and quickly changed to "it's like a friendship bracelet". Cops looked embarrassed and went away. My friend was seriously frightened by the incident.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Dang, that's like paranoia taken to eleven! It's sad that people see a foreign name or even hear arabic spoken or see it written and get instantly freaked out that it's a terrorist. It's a visually lovely written language, it's a shame that a minority of jackasses have to ruin it for the rest of the 1.6 billion respectable Muslims.

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Bad enough when one group is being targeted, but it seems to be anyone who doesn't fit some peoples' stereotype of "real American".

In the case of my friend above she was frightened that all the sirens and police were because her nasty white "real 'Mercian" neighbor was running a meth lab or something.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Sadly, these days it's better to be safe than sorry.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Well you should always be aware of your surroundings and people often get lazy about that.

Makes me wonder how many students this morning actually paid attention to what's going on around them rather than staring at their phones as they walked.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

You got it in one. Unless it's on their screen, they are not interested.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Just being cautious after what happened elsewhere.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Well yes and I applaud having the authorities check out suspicious stuff, but it saddens me that it brings out the worst in people to make assumptions about a group of people because of some stupid bad apples ruining it for the rest of them.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

DUDE...OMG...

Well, I can't blame people for freaking a little bit. As long as everything is good now...

*HUGS*