The Bear Facts
Bomb Squad Investigating Abandoned Greenpeace Stuffed Bear At Columbia Heights
Not that the topic needs to be dragged through the news any more on the DC blogs, but homeless polar bears holding signs that say “SOS” are not the works of random activists. Ready for the surprise? It’s Greenpeace at it again. Man, those guys are so clever.
It has been an amusing protest of off-shore drilling and we all get the message, but can’t we continue without wasting the valuable resources of DC? On Tuesday a suspicious package shut down the Columbia Heights Metro station during the morning. It turned out to be a gigantic stuffed polar bear that Greenpeace left by a garbage can outside of the Metro without informing authorities. The taxpayers paid to send the bomb squad out, but Greenpeace got their message on the news, so we can be happy about it without complaining.
Yesterday another bear was placed by the Reflection Pool, leaving park rangers to spend their time, energy, and most importantly their attention dealing with the bear and getting Greenpeace on the news again.
Politics are all over Washington, DC. I point to the nuclear proliferation protesters who sit in front of the White House as an example of a good protest. The authorities know that they are there, and they do not leave their protest materials unattended for police to deal with at the taxpayer’s expense.
By all means Greenpeace, get your message out there by putting people in bear costumes on the side of US-50 (see post below by Frank), but don’t think for a moment that Washington will take your message seriously if you delay their Metros and basically use police resources to get press. Not cool.
Agreed-
A commuter scorned is one that shant help your cause.
I have to think that a phone call to somebody to clear the Polar bear placement at some locations (like the Mall and the Metro) could have saved a lot of trouble, time and resouces.
I appreciate a good protest/demonstration-especially one for a cause am sympathetic for-but at some point the line between in your face and inconsiderate gets crossed.
I will agree that they should have given a heads up to the police but I dont put all the blame on Green peace. I also blame everyone stupid enough to think its a bomb.
It sat there all through rush hour and wasn’t reported becuause the 99.9% of people didnt see it as a threat. Apparently whoever reported it and the police have seen way too many batman flicks. The joker is not real. Any real life evil doer would have disguised their bomb not drawn attention to it. And I know critical thinking skills are in short supply, especially in DC, but if it was really a bomb it would have already exploded during rush hour, not when everyone is at work.
I don’t know that it would have been a person or people stupid enough to think it was a bomb. It was originally reported as "suspicious," which if I saw a human sized stuffed polar bear dressed as a homeless man leaning into a garbage can, I would certainly think it was at least suspicious.
Chances are, a Metro police officer or a member of Secret Service saw the large abandoned object by a garbage can and a Metro entrance, and followed some kind of procedure for objects of the kind in DC: extreme caution first.
At worst Greenpeace is guilty of *repeated* carelessness that has cost the taxpayers money and the attention of their police and rangers. At best, they are hypocrites who littered to get on TV.
My thoughts on Greenpeace are they aren’t following an procedures- they are going to pull the stunts they want to pull.
Remember back in the day when they had those boats pulling up to oil tankers? I bet they didn’t ask for permission back then and they prolly aren’t now.
No question about that. I just feel like there should be consequences at some point. If they are wasting taxpayer dollars by abusing police resources perhaps they should lose their tax-exempt status. Or get fined substantially.
They cannot keep getting away with this nonsense.