So someone left a car bomb in Times Square. The immediate questions that come to mind are who, why, what was its capability, how can such things be prevented from happening again?

Who? Using my deep understanding of investigation (Law & Order, CSI, etc. etc.), I would determine who it is by the strategy of the bomb itself and its parts. There were no simultaneous attacks, use of suicide or possible high death toll, which leaves out the big professionals, such as Al Qaeda. It was made from easily obtained parts, such as propane tanks, gasoline and a stolen Nissan SUV, with Connecticut license plates. It was discovered, fairly easily by nearby workers and also seemed to malfunction. This screams out American Made to me; someone who grew up in our cozy country without any real knowledge of explosives, or even effective uses of terrorism, and is getting in the game a bit late. If I had to make an educated (Silence of the Lambs, The Mentalist) profile, I would say it was a white middle class male, 20’s or 30’s who considers himself an anarchist, maybe even a primitivist. An angry vegan.

Why? Why blow up Times Square?…Why NOT blow up Times Square? Sorry, that’s a joke (kinda); one that I can say because no one got hurt, thank God! But it’s also a joke that New Yorkers would understand in a second. You see, we’ve become an economy based on tourism. You know how you go to a vacation spot where once a proud people were colonized? They now serve you drinks on the beach, and when they smile at you you’re not really sure whether they secretly want to kill you or are just looking for a bigger tip? Well, that’s what happened to New York City, but instead of us having to serve you drinks on the beach, we have more Irish bars than Ireland, well almost. We don’t smile, because that’s not what people come to see. They’ve seen the rude New Yawker in the movies and they’re just waiting for someone to tell them to go fuck themselves, because A) They should, and B) it’s a great story to tell whence back in their town or smurf village or wherever these people come from, and they’re not hard to be angry at as they force us to walk into them, stopped, in the middle of the sidewalk staring up at tall buildings. Some watch me from the tops of double-decker buses, taking pictures as if on Safari and worst of all, some take up a whole corner whilst Mom, Dad, and 3 children with odd haircuts look at a map, deciding whether to take the red, yellow or green subway line to Brooklyn Bridge.

We don’t have beaches on the edge of our island; instead, we turned the center of it into an open-air temple of capitalism. Look at the big shiny lights! The huge Billboards! I’ve traveled half way around the world to see the biggest, brightest advertisements in the world! Take a picture of me within it!

So many people came to worship at this temple, milling about willy-nilly (yes willy-fuckin’-nilly!), that the already street congested “crossroads of the world” became sidewalk-supersaturated, to the point where either the people had to go or the cars did. The two were occupying the same space and time violating not only laws of nature and NYC traffic code, but the aesthetic illusion that New York City is a safe place, in fact, one of the safest big cities in the world. So the cars were pulled from Times Square in some parts…but not all.

Add onto this brief history of the universe, the fact that Times Square is where people used to go to jerk-off, solicit prostitution or get a cheap drink, and you may finally get an understanding as to why the modern Times Square is not well thought of in the minds of Manhattanites. The City turned peep-shows and Triple X theaters into Wax Museums and Disney Stores, hence the oft used term “The Disneyfication of Times Square”. There is no such thing as a cheap drink in Times Square anymore and the only whores you’ll find are the kind that fuck YOU when they convince you to pay top dollar prices to get bad Chinese food from Ruby Foos or will blow you if you buy enough tickets to their Stand Up Comedy show. Times Square was a manly red light district oasis that has been redressed as a beautiful woman that everyone can enter. Speaking of which, Times Square from henceforth will be referred to as T/S.

With a bad case of blue balls, and dumbstruck tourists in our way of getting a cheap drink, New Yorkers have lost their love for Times Square, even if it does bring in the tourist dollars so badly needed.

So, back to the Bomber, is he a New Yorker who has dehumanized T/S tourists (snicker), or is he someone simply looking for a stage that the world watches? My intuition and I’ve learned from my lifelong education of investigation techniques that one has to trust their gut, that this is someone with a strong NYC base. Maybe not someone born here, but someone who has lived here for a good period of time and understands this feeling that New Yorkers have about T/S. The bomber did not communicate his reason why. Amateur. If he’s not so embarrassed at his ineptitude that he decided to cancel communicating why, then he must feel that the act itself communicates the why.

T/S represents a pinnacle of capitalism, like The Towers did. This particular pinnacle represents consumerism. The worshipping of Billboards and television shows, fast food, companies that package fairy tales and re-sell them to kids as merchandise and media, they can all be found in one square mile in the middle of the Capital of the World. For many, T/S represents where America and The West has gone wrong, why we are ruining our eco-system and waging war around the world. That is what I believe the T/S bomber was fighting against when he left a bomb on 45^th and 7^th avenue, one of the few places where cars are still able to drive in T/S.

I believe the car is significant for one reason, I believe this bomber is very likely the same as the bomber who left an explosive device in front of the Army recruiting station in T/S in March 2008. In that case, the bomber used a bicycle to arrive at the scene of the crime and make his getaway. The device was also “amateurish”.

The use of a bicycle, the thought process that says go low-tech to fight high-tech, yells out anarchist, and likely primitivist. There was also a thought amongst intelligence circles, at least the ones I travel in, that this bike-bomber was related to a bombing In October of 2007, when two small explosive devices were tossed over a fence at the Mexican Consulate on Manhattan’s East Side, shattering some windows; police said they believed someone on a bicycle threw the devices.

My belief is that this was in retaliation for the death of Brad Will in 2006, an anarchist filmmaker/journalist/activist killed in Oaxaca, Mexico while filming a violent teacher’s strike. The gunmen that killed Will and others located in the area of the strike were almost definitely local Mexican officials.

Brad Will was well loved in Anarchist circles in NYC and other places, the recent Anarchist Film Festival held in April was dedicated to him and tears were shed when people spoke about him. By the way, The Anarchist Film Festival was the most disorganized Film Fest I’ve ever attended. Go figure. It did not speak well for the merits of Anarchy. Our newest anarchic bomber’s first thought was to use a bicycle, as he knows that this vehicle allows more access to entry and escape than any other in NYC, because he is a biker in NYC. He has now changed tactics to stay ahead of law enforcement, and he knows how to drive an SUV easily, because he is originally from outside of NYC, where one learns to drive at an early age, a skill that cal always come in handy in this world.

This city has a long history of bombers. A long history of malcontents who use I.E.D.’s to make their points. We’ve got a new one and I hate to bring back the image of the bomb-throwing anarchist, as I know most anarchists are quite the opposite, but I do believe that is what we have here today, in the 21^st Century.

Bombers cannot be stopped. We cannot make inert, chemical reactions that can be caused with household items. We cannot stop terrorism, it is the last refuge for those that want to truly change our society, even if it’s really too late to make that particular means reach its desired end. As any self respecting anarchist, or islamo-fascist, or white supremacist knows, engaging in the current political system is useless, and ultimately leads to the death of the iconoclast, rather than the state. The only options left are isolation and retreat from society or to rail against the system violently like a toddler having a tantrum. R.I.P. Joe Stack. In fact, you can try doing both like the Unabomber. But some like the City, or at least parts of it and they see a battle happening on the streets. Our particular malcontent is angry, violent, highly idealized, and quite incompetent. Long gone from the New York City area I would suppose, he will be found either in a place with little to no modern technology sometime in the future or here in the Big Apple, when he’s adapted to this failure and comes back to Times Square to try his hand again with a bigger and maybe better bomb.

Tweet  Print This Post

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government, race & culture, religion & philosophy, technology, television, terror & war // 2 Comments »