Inform civilians of bomb threats?

[Camarohusky]

Recently a bomb threat was called into a Detroi Tigers baseball game. There were 40,000 fans at the Stadium, but no one was informed until after hey got home.

This raises a potant question: how much information should civilians get on bomb threats? Do civilians deserve to know the information that could possibly save their lives, or does the high amount of panic and disruption combined with low ratio actually finding working bombs outweigh the civilian's want for informatio?

[BumFodder]

More people would have probably been killed by the panic after the bomb rather than the bomb, so its best to avoid any panic at all.

[Angry-Hatter]

At 7/19/12 10:44 AM, Camarohusky wrote: Recently a bomb threat was called into a Detroi Tigers baseball game. There were 40,000 fans at the Stadium, but no one was informed until after hey got home.

This raises a potant question: how much information should civilians get on bomb threats? Do civilians deserve to know the information that could possibly save their lives, or does the high amount of panic and disruption combined with low ratio actually finding working bombs outweigh the civilian's want for informatio?

A couple things. First, I'm guessing that the overwhelming majority of phoned in bomb threats are pranks, just some douchebag looking for attention. Evacuating prematurely would probably be counterproductive as you would be giving the douchebag exactly what he wants, thus encouraging him and others to do the same thing again. If you were actually intending to bomb a stadium, why would you call ahead and warn everyone, giving them a chance to evacuate? I know that's what the terrorists always do in the movies and on TV, but it's not how it works in real life.

Second, no, I don't think that it is in people's best interest to know about a bomb threat when there is a huge crowd of people involved. That information is less likely to save their lives than it is to cause panic and endanger the lives of everyone. People could get trampled while struggling to get to the exit as fast as they can. Even if there was an actual bomb, it wouldn't be the best idea to tell people that that was the case. Better to make up a less threatening reason for why you need to evacuate everyone.

[science-is-fun]

People should be given a psyche evaluation and divided into stupid people likely to panic and intelligent civilised people who will vacate in an orderly manner. Intelligent people should be warned first then once they have left the stadium the stupid people will be informed.

[DoctorStrongbad]

I think that ignorance is bliss, people should be informed after the event has occurred.

[Camarohusky]

I do think in the vas majority of cases the people should not be informed. However, if there is anything to the intelligence that signifies a very high level of credibility, such to the point that the risk of an actual detonation is larger than the risk of panic, the people should be informed. These cases are extremely rare though.

[adrshepard]

At 7/19/12 02:45 PM, Camarohusky wrote: I do think in the vas majority of cases the people should not be informed. However, if there is anything to the intelligence that signifies a very high level of credibility, such to the point that the risk of an actual detonation is larger than the risk of panic, the people should be informed. These cases are extremely rare though.

I don't know. In a huge stadium with thousands of people, it'd have to be a really massive bomb or a whole lot of small ones to endanger a significant number of people, and that's far less likely than someone smuggling in a pipe bomb or something that could at most kill or injure a handful of people. Knowing that, I don't think I'd panic if I was informed, or even really want to leave if I was having a good time.

[morefngdbs]

ATTENTION LADIES & GENTLEMEN.

THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN GET FROM YOUR SEAT TO SAFETY IN THE NEXT 10 SECONDS;
;
;
;
WHICH IS LESS THAN THE TIME YOU HAVE LEFT IF THE BOMBERS WHO JUST CALLED IS TELLING THE TRUTH !
;
KISS YOUR ASS GOD BYE
in
4
3
2
1
;
;
;
Well then, must have been a hoax !
We return you to your game.

[TheMason]

At 7/19/12 02:45 PM, Camarohusky wrote: ... However, if there is anything to the intelligence that signifies a very high level of credibility, such to the point that the risk of an actual detonation is larger than the risk of panic, the people should be informed. ...

Here's the thing though in a case where you have credible intel that the threat is real:

What if the terrorist wants you to evacuate? Some terrorists tactics involve getting people funneled into kill zones and then secondary devices/attacks detonating.

[Camarohusky]

At 7/20/12 05:04 PM, TheMason wrote: What if the terrorist wants you to evacuate? Some terrorists tactics involve getting people funneled into kill zones and then secondary devices/attacks detonating.

The cases I was thinking of were larger explosives, such as one that could destroy an entire building/complex. In that case the danger posed by panic and secondary devices combined is still smaller than letting the crowd be hit unknowingly.

[Iron-Hampster]

it's kind of like having sex with some one knowing that you might have aids (test results haven't come back yet or something) and waiting until after your done before telling your partner that you might have aids, isn't it?

[science-is-fun]

At 7/20/12 07:50 PM, Iron-Hampster wrote: it's kind of like having sex with some one knowing that you might have aids (test results haven't come back yet or something) and waiting until after your done before telling your partner that you might have aids, isn't it?

Only if there is some warning of the bomb threat before the game.

[orangebomb]

Normally, in most bomb threat situations, they largely end up as hoaxes usually done by douchebags to get attention or create a mass panic for whatever reason. In those situations, it is best that nobody was told about it until after they left, because if they were told before, then there would've been a mass panic which certainly would made the situation potentially worse, either through the stampeding crowds, or if terrorists got through security and started to mow down innocents at the exits. This is certainly a nightmare situation for any big sports arena, especially college and NFL stadiums where there could be over 100,000 people in a game, which could potentially be devastating in terms of damage and lives lost in a worst case scenario.

Certainly, 1 bomb is only going to do little damage in Comerica Park which is a very big ballpark, but even with that, that's more than enough to create a panic with the nearly 40,000 people that was there, which as I said, could've turn disastrous due to the panicked fans trying to get out. All the more reason why you don't tell the crowd anything about a bomb threat, because 9 times out of 10, they end up as a hoax or are detected before anything happens.

[Camarohusky]

At 7/20/12 07:50 PM, Iron-Hampster wrote: it's kind of like having sex with some one knowing that you might have aids (test results haven't come back yet or something) and waiting until after your done before telling your partner that you might have aids, isn't it?

Kinda, but with one major difference. When you know you have aids, you know you have it. With a bomb scare the vast majority of the time there is no bomb at all. I don't know any numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if bomb threats only turned out accurate in 1-2% of the threats. On top of that most of the cases where an actual bomb is found after a scare, it does not go off (eiter being fake, a dud, or disarmed).

So it's more like warning a person if there's any remote possibility that you have aids, and even though the chance of spreading it if you do is very low.

If you did that, all you'd end up with is no sex and some freaked out people, in the well over 99% chance you weren't sick and higher chance you wouldn't pass anything on.

[ShakenNotStirred]

At 7/19/12 10:44 AM, Camarohusky wrote: Recently a bomb threat was called into a Detroi Tigers baseball game. There were 40,000 fans at the Stadium, but no one was informed until after hey got home.

This raises a potant question: how much information should civilians get on bomb threats? Do civilians deserve to know the information that could possibly save their lives, or does the high amount of panic and disruption combined with low ratio actually finding working bombs outweigh the civilian's want for informatio?

That like the DKR thread is a hard question to answer. If they informed everyone of the threat and people started running the bombs could have been set to go off then or the person who called it in was waiting for people to freak before activating the bomb.

On the other hand not telling them they could have all been walking out casually and gotten blown to bits or crushed and then panic would ensue.

So the verdict here is simply panic would happen and lives might have been taken had the thread been serious.