Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer by Abigail Madeleine u Roux Urban Page A

was open late for Sea Life Safari,
    an educational evening program for kids in kindergarten through
    second grade. The program was sold out with forty children in
    attendance.”
    The visual cut to a grim-faced older man with graying hair
    wearing a blue polo embroidered with the aquarium‟s logo. The titles
    labeled him as a Facility Proctor . “We were having a great time,” he
    said. “The kids were really enjoying it. We were spread out all over the
    aquarium in little groups, to give them more one-on-one attention, but it
    made it harder to get them all out without panicking them. We didn‟t
    want to panic them.”
    “How did you hear about the bomb threat?” the reporter‟s voice
    asked.
    “A security guard came up and told me we needed to get the kids
    out quickly and quietly. He didn‟t tell me why, just that we had to go
    now . Now, you have to understand, these are little kids, and they‟re all
    spread out through the room, and we just had two adults per ten kids,
    which is normally fine,” the man answered, starting to ramble.
    The reporter cut in. “So you ordered the evacuation of the
    facility.”
    Divide & Conquer | 39

    “Security did,” he said, starting to look a little nervous. “We did it
    as fast as we could.”
    The video cut back to the outside of the aquarium and Andrea.
    “WBAL News arrived just as the children were being escorted from the
    building and, we are told, right after the first police car arrived.”
    The picture changed to a well-lit nighttime scene of the front
    expanse of concrete along the harbor. For a few seconds, children
    rambled out through the doors, some skipping and singing, some
    jogging, others dragging along as the proctors tried to shoo them
    directly away from the front door. A voice-over started.
    Two squad cars sat parked at the curb, blue lights flashing, but the
    uniformed policemen were fifty yards up the pier toward the museum,
    moving the children away from the building. At the same time, the
    rumble of an engine covered the chatter of children‟s voices.
    “As we filmed, several off-duty officers arrived on the scene.”
    The footage shook and swung around to a man sprinting toward
    the aquarium through the jumble of concrete and carefully manicured
    shrubbery between buildings. He leapt over a barrier, using his hand to
    support him as he literally ran sideways against the wall beside him and
    then hopped down again, running full-tilt toward the aquarium
    entrance, jumping over low barriers and concrete planters instead of
    going around them. The badge hanging from his neck was easy to make
    out as it bounced around, glinting in the various lights of the harbor.
    “Over there!” a crew member shouted and the camera swung
    again. A cobalt blue motorcycle tore up Pier 3 from Pratt Street to the
    brick and concrete courtyard and skidded to a stop next to a lamppost.
    The man‟s helmet hit the concrete as he yanked it off in his hurry to get
    off the bike, and the camera zoomed in on a badge hooked onto his
    waistband before panning to the right to follow him as he ran.
    More plainclothes policemen began to arrive, most on foot from
    the parking lots, and the camera jumped from one to the other, going
    back to the two who had arrived in such spectacular fashion as they met
    for mere seconds in the center of the courtyard with a few other
    policemen and then hurried to the aquarium entrance. The footage
    40 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    remained on the front door for a moment before it was kicked open and
    an off-duty came out carrying a child under each arm.
    “With the help of the officers, the evacuation finished quickly.
    We are told that the news spread through word of mouth and police
    radios, though officers are not required to leave their radios on if they
    are not on call.”
    “The bomb squad arrived as the evacuation finished and, after
    searching the building, declared it a false alarm. Despite this, parents
    and officers are