On January 31, Boston and Massachusetts officials terrorized that city and made asses of themselves in the national news. And they extorted $2 million and almost ruined two people’s lives over a cartoon character they intentionally mischaracterized as a threat. Apparently trying to repeat their performance, they sent the bomb squad out again Wednesday to blow up another “suspicious device” in Boston’s financial district. Only this time, the plan to extort some other hapless company backfired in their faces.

Last month’s incident, in which officials tried to call electronic light boards depicting cartoon characters from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force show threats, even well after their true nature was known, resulted in two people being arrested on trumped-up charges, Turner Broadcasting having to pay the city $2 million for its incompetence, and actually wound up dividing security experts on whether officials acted appropriately. Wednesday, it became clear that not only did officials act inappropriately then, they still are acting inappropriately. This time, though, they weren’t able to terrorize the city as last time.While details are sketchy right now, what’s known at this time (courtesy FOX 25, the only media outlet so far to actually dignify this stupidity with coverage) is that the bomb squad detonated a suspicious device in the financial district. The device turned out to be a traffic counter owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Traffic counters count the number of cars which pass by a given location during a specific time period. The box itself was found chained to a street sign where it was presumably supposed to be counting traffic.

I think it’s pretty clear at this point that Boston and Massachusetts officials involved in both of these incidents need to resign or be fired. Or perhaps, out of an overabundance of caution, called in to the bomb squad as suspicious devices.

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