What do pornography, Ash Wed Mass, and the bomb squad have in common?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253778,00.html

SANTA FE   The Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was evacuated during noon Mass on Ash Wednesday when three CD players duct-taped to the bottom of pews began blaring sexually explicit language.

The players were set to turn on at 12:22 p.m. as parishioners were in the middle of Mass, police Capt. Gary Johnson said.

The recordings were filled with people using foul language and "pornographic messages," Johnson said. He would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.

Church staff personnel removed the CD players, took them to the basement and called police, who sent a bomb squad, Johnson said.

The bomb squad blew up two of the players on a grassy area near the church, then kept the third one for analysis after determining the players were not dangerous.

The recordings were made on store-bought blank discs, Johnson said.

"We'll run the full gamut" of tests on the player, including checking for fingerprints or DNA and tracing its components, he said.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which marks a 40-day period of fasting before Easter. Clergy mark the foreheads of the faithful with ashes to symbolize penance during Ash Wednesday services.

[cosine]

Well, interesting happenings. 

No such excitement when I was at church yesterday.

[BrokenPaw]

How sad.

I can understand choosing not to be Catholic.  I can understand disapproving of some of the things that the Catholic church has done or is doing.  I can understand speaking out about these things, if one felt it was necessary.

But I can't understand interrupting people's peaceful worship of their God.

The mind boggles.

-BP

[Perd Hapley]

They blew up evidence?  Maybe I was wrong about that whole Aqua Teen bomb thing.  Why do they assume everything is a bomb? 

[gunsmith]

Yeah, what fistfull said.
The Church staff removed the CD players so it was obvious it was not a bomb.

[cordex]

Let's do a little role playing.  Let's say you are on the Santa Fe bomb squad.  You were in the middle of your lunch break when all of a sudden you get a phone call about a suspicious device at a church.  You gear up, load up and head out.  When you arrive, you unpack all of your things, get into your bomb suit and retrieve three obviously functioning CD players from the church staff.  You've had your lunch interrupted to look at some CD players and you've already got all of your toys out.  Do you:

A) Examine each player briefly for any sign of modification or hints that it contains an explosive device, pull the batteries and throw them to CSI so you can go take your suit off and go back to lunch.
B) Carefully disassemble each CD player.  Scrutinize each part at length.  Six hours later declare that they were functional CD players.
C) BLOW STUFF UP!  Oh ... and also keep one as evidence.  Then go back to lunch.

I think I'd probably pick option C as well.

[Matthew Carberry]

I bet the staff even pressed the button marked "stop" too when they removed them.

This "somebody set us up the bomb" idiocy needs to "stop" as well.  CD players only have "x" amount of volume (a very small "x"), if they were operating, that means that much of that space is still filled with CD parts, the amount of space actually available for explosives is minimal.

so...

Have an unarmored person throw one against a wall to break it open or, if the guy with the suit is there standing around sucking up tax dollars anyway, have him break one open with a stick or something and then move on with life.  Print the things and throw them in the evidence room.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

That's about the size of it.  I think much of the overzealous reactions from bomb squads recently can be attributed to the fun of blowing things up.  The bomb squad personnel probably just like making things go boom.  Honestly, can you blame them?   

"Hey, that CD player could be dangerous.  <nudge nudge, wink wink>  We'd better blow it up, you know...  <Grin> ...just to be safe.  You grab the CD players and I'll grab the explosives.  This'll be a hoot!  And to think, the taxpayers pay us to do this!!"

[HankB]

If two of these devices were possible bombs, why not the third?

If they blew up all three, they'd have no evidence, right?

Will we see rioting and violence from the congregation the way we'd expect if, instead of at a Roman Catholic church, this happened at a mosque?

[Perd Hapley]

They probably should have blown up the church, just to be safe.  They probably should have blown up the rest of the churches, too.  And the schools.  And the stadiums, convention centers, shopping malls and then the beauty salons just for good measure. 

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Blowing up potential dangerous items, like these CD players, makes people afraid.  If people are afraid, they comply.  It seems like more and more crime, even distasteful pranks on churches, is being treated like terrorist threats.  The bomb squad? For what?  The clergy moved the players, didn't get blown to Allah, they aren't bombs.  It's getting pretty ridiculous.