Cell Phone Signals Shut Down

[Possumpoint]

My son and his boos attended a Obama rally in Leesburg, Virginia last night. He said it took them more then two hours to get through security. Just about the beginning of the rally he noticed he lost cell phone reception and that everyone around him had lost theirs. I told him that the Secret Service probably had the cell towers turned off. I thought that so that no one could remotely trigger a cell phone bomb.

My next thought was what right do they have to do so? Does the security of whomever the candidate is over ride the need for others to use their cell phones say in an emergency? We do live in a police state.

[Extend a Hand]

1. That's really weird

I went to a rally in Dayton, and the handed out phone bank list and ask us to make calls at the rally.

[kansasblue]

2. I've been in big rallies before and just the number of people

make them very very slow. That was downtown DC. But the signal never stopped.

[NeedleCast]

3. Security Line Portland was 12 blocks long at one point

but I never had an issue with cell phone reception. I wonder if they over-loaded the tower? Is that possible?

[Blue State Bandit]

4. Obama rallies always open with...

someone requesting everyone to call some friends and get them on board.

[1]

5. or it could be that your son just lost cellphone reception like i do all of the time...

introducing the "probably" into your post is wonderful drama, don't you think?

[TheWatcher]

10. Delete.

Forget it. I am so not in the mood for this.

[Robbien]

6. Perhaps your son should stop going around with his boos

maybe next time he should hang with some yeas and the security people will leave his cell alone.

:evilgrin:

[1]

7. ...

:rofl:

[melody]

8. If it means protecting Barack, it's worth the inconvenience n/t

[GetTheRightVote]

9. Probably just dropped but our Civil Rights must be protected even in the name of someone's security

They are fundamental to what America represents, they're principles which speak of who we are and where we stand.

:kick:

[MilesColtrane]

11. Using your cell phone=Civil Right?

Even rights that are specified in the Constitution may be temporarily suspended, especially on private property.

Let me know when you find a court that agrees with you.

[Ikonoklast]

12. Call your Congressman and complain.

I'm sure he'll think your just as batty as you sound here.

[backscatter712]

13. I don't doubt it.

It'd just take one person to text "BOOM" to a cell-phone bomb somewhere in the audience...

If there's an emergency, there's more cops than you can shake a stick at, and there's EMTs there to deal with medical emergencies, and I imagine fire dept. and other emergency personnel are available too.

[spin]

14. Could be...read this...

Terrorists have long used cellular phones to trigger improvised explosive devices (IEDs) not only on Iraq roadsides, but also in attacks worldwide. Notably, cell phones detonated the bombs that destroyed public transportation in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005 respectively; terrorists also planned to use them to bomb commercial U.S. flights in August 2006.

Although in the two previous cases, most of the bombs exploded within seconds of each other, one London bomb took nearly an hour to detonate after the initial attacks. This discrepancy has led some law enforcement advocates to conclude that police should be able to use cell phone signal jamming equipment to prevent future attacks.

However, under current federal law, only federal law enforcement agents can use such equipment. Local police fear this isn't enough; they cite, as one major issue, longer-than-desirable federal response times to terrorist incidents or suspected plots. As a result, one vendor has challenged the law.
http://articles.directorym.net/Cell_phone_bombs-a907533.html

If the Secret Service did shut the cell phone signals down, they must have suspected an attack. That's the scariest rumor I've heard all week.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

15. Interesting... I wonder what communication the F.B.I. & S.S. use?

They talk with each other all the time, even during a "blackout".

[orleans]

16. maybe he was in a dead zone? or maybe it was overloaded? n/t