Bomb Threats and Counter Terrorism in Park City? WTF?

I feel like I’ve woken up this Monday morning in Park City Bizzaro Land. First I read that not only did the Utah Attorney General’s office going undercover to investigate Human Trafficking at Sundance but that “undercover agents also attend[ed] film screenings that authorities believe might have potential for some type of disturbance, including terrorism.” Don’t get me wrong, I get the correlation to what happened with Charlie Hebdo, but that frankly amazes me. I’m torn at trying to understand whether this is an overreaction by what some would call the “rise of the police state” or whether the likelihood of such an event actually extends into the 1% or greater range. Perhaps it’s bad either way.

Then I read about bomb threats tied to the TangerOutlet Mall and two police facilities. Evidently a bomb threat was called into the police at about 9PM on Saturday, with a voice that sounded like it was tape recorded. While the local police agencies deemed it was likely a hoax, they evacuated the mall — as they should have. No 75% off sale is worth even the small chance of being blown up in Park City (did I just write that?).

Looks like we’ve come a long ways from teenage parties being busted up by the Summit County Sherrif. At some point, people are going to question whether hosting Sundance is worth it. I tend to think it is, because so many of our businesses make it or break it in those 10 days…but it sure seems the times are a changing.