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The Problem With That Cellphone Alert About the Chelsea Bombing Suspect
A few minutes before 8 a.m. Monday, millions of New Yorkers' phones screeched almost simultaneously. They all received the same notification:
Emergency Alert
WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-year-old male. See media for pic. Call 9-1-1 if seen.
That's it. No links, no pictures, no further context, no one to call except 911. I got the alert while feeding my toddler breakfast, and in my pre-coffee haze, I glanced at my phone and mistook it for an Amber Alert. Elsewhere in the city, subway cars full of people must have looked up from their phones and regarded one another warily. Might one of their fellow passengers be Ahmad Khan Rahami? Young men with brown skin might well have wondered: Might one of my fellow passengers mistake me for Ahmad Khan Rahami?