Boston police commissioner defends response to suspicious devices

BOSTON -- Boston's police commissioner is blasting critics who say the city overreacted to reports of suspicious devices that turned out to be part of a marketing campaign for a TV cartoon show.

Ed Davis says police had no choice but to treat the devices as possible threats to public safety. The electronic signs were placed in critical, high-traffic areas, including bridges, railroad lines and hospitals.

Davis says that after the first device was found, police received a rapid series of reports of more devices. Some of them turned out to be electronic signs, but police also found two devices that looked like home-made pipe bombs.

He says there was also a confirmed report of a man walking through a Boston hospital making a rambling speech that included the words: "God getting us today."

Davis said it would have been irresponsible for police not to have investigated each report thoroughly and shut down key areas.

He also noted that Boston was the starting point for the September eleventh hijackers who used planes to attack the World Trade Center.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)