;)
Friday
Apr192013
Bedlam in Boston
Saturday morning, boston.com is rich in stories related to the bombings & manhunt.
Boston Common, last night:
Updated New York Times map of events occurring in the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers. See related content at the Times site:
;)
CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.
Pete Williams: Obama administration -- Tsarnaev will be put on trial in federal court.
Kevin Robillard of Politico: "President Barack Obama on Friday night praised the people of Massachusetts for their response to the bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 100. 'Tonight our nation is in debt to the people of Boston and the people of Massachusetts,' Obama said from the White House briefing room after police arrested the remaining suspect in the bombing. 'After a vicious attack on their city, Bostonians responded with resolve and determination.'”
Erica Goode & Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times: "A kaleidoscope of images, adjectives and anecdotes tumbled forth on Friday to describe Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the two brothers suspected of carrying out the bombings at the that killed three people and gravely wounded scores more."
Adrien Chen of Gawker: "A cached profile photo that matches his picture, and tweets from other users he's interacted with suggest that this is the twitter account of 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, the fugitive suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombings: @J_tsar. The account is listed under the name 'Jahar,' which is what classmates called him.... Surprisingly, Tsarnaev has been active on Twitter since the bombing." ...
... Peter Graff of Reuters: "Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site."
Alex Johnson of NBC News: "Onlookers erupted in spontaneous applause and cheers Friday night as news spread that the second suspect in this week's Boston Marathon bombing had been taken alive — gratitude that quickly spread across the U.S."
CBS News: "As first reported by CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, the FBI interviewed [Tamerlan] Tsarnaev ... [two years ago] at the request of a foreign government to see if he had any extremist ties, but failed to find any linkage.... CBS News correspondent John Miller reports it is likely Russia asked to have the elder Tsarnaev vetted because of suspected ties to Chechen extremists.... This is an issue they've had in the past. They interviewed Carlos Bledsoe in Little Rock, Ark., before he shot up an Army recruiting station in 2009. They were also looking into Major Hasan Nadal before the Fort Hood shootings."
"In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev smiles after acceping the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship." AP photo via CBS News.
Smoking Gun: "A grisly post-mortem photo of one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers appears to have been taken early today after medical personnel turned the body over to law enforcement officials. The image of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, began circulating online this afternoon after it was posted on popular web sites like Reddit and 4chan. The source of the photo remains unclear." Includes photo.
CW: Charles Pierce appeared on Rachel Maddow's show briefly before the press conference started; I think he'll be back. Update: guess not; upstaged by Obama.
Police press conference at 9:30 pm ET. Ed Davis, Boston Watertown police commissioner (or chief), says a man walked out of his house after the governor lifted the stay-in-place order & noticed the blood, then lifted the tarp & saw the suspect. He "retreated" and called police. Hostage rescue team tried to talk him out of the boat, though he was "not communicative." No IEDs found when Tsarnaev captured.... Carmen Ortiz, US Attorney: active investigation; will give no Miranda warning because of public safety exception. Another policeman says he had been at the house that they surrounded this morning, that they found blood in the house (and maybe in the yard). ...
... Update: Ian Millhiser of Think Progress explains the public safety exception.
Politico has some photos of the Tsarnaevs, taken by AP photographer Bob Leonard, shortly before the first bomb detonated.
Lindsey Graham Is Still an Ass. "Constitution? What Constitution?" David Graham of the Atlantic: Sen. Lindsey "Graham [R-S.C.] (no relation) is suggesting that an American citizen, captured on American soil, should be deprived of basic constitutional rights. Keep in mind that Graham isn't just an angry citizen; he's not even just a U.S. senator. He is also a trained lawyer, a colonel in Air Force Reserve, and a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, the legal arm of the Air Force." ...
... Oh, and Glenn Beck is still crazy.
Boston Globe: "The man believed to be responsible for placing the bombs that struck the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing 3 and injuring more than 170, has been taken into custody after a standoff lasting nearly two hours. Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge was apprehended shortly before 8:45 p.m.... A state official said that the suspect was in 'extremely serious' condition. He was found on the stern side of the boat, leaning over." New York Times story here.
It's Over. WHDH: Police are saying they have "a successful recovery." He's in custody & he's alive; have asked for medic. It's over. There's an ambulance on the scene. People on the sidewalk are reacting with cheers. Pete Williams: he'll be in federal custody. Boston Police: Officers are sweeping the area. Residents are cheering passing police cars.
Boston Globe: "Police arrested three college-age suspects in New Bedford related to the bombing investigation, according to the Globe." ...
... Update. Dee DeQuattro of ABC Providence: "Neighbors say three have been arrested in New Bedford in connection with the Boston Bombing suspect. Police apprehended suspects from the Hidden Brook Apartments on Carriage Drive in New Bedford. Neighbors say they think that the girlfriend of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have lived in the complex and they have seen him in the area as recently as yesterday."
Lester Holt: boat tarp had a tear in it; also blood stains around the boat.
Brian Williams is also surprised Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is (evidently) still alive. Apparently, a lot of things surprise Brian Williams.
This is a Bing Maps street view of the boat in the back yard on Franklin Street.Michael Isikoff: a police negotiator is on the scene. Brian Williams can't figure out why they would bother with a negotiator.
Michael Brunker & Bill Dedman of NBC News: "The family of the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev confirmed Friday that their 24-year-old daughter was married to the Chechen immigrant who died in a confrontation with police earlier in the day, saying, 'We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child,' Warren and Judith Russell, whose daughter Katherine was married to Tsarnaev, said in a statement distributed to about a dozen reporters who gathered outside their home in this well-landscaped, upper middle class neighborhood outside Providence."
WBZ Boston: suspect covered in blood, possibly from incident last night. The location of the boat is just outside the perimeter of the Watertown area where the police went door-to-door.
Brian Williams says there were two incidences of gunfire. Pete Williams: there is a fire in the boat.
Boston Globe: police determined a person was in the boat via thermal imaging.
NBC News: a woman on Franklin Street thought there was something wrong with the boat. NBC has put up a still photo of the boat, which is standing on a trailer in front of a detached backyard garage. (Update: see photo above.)
A CNN producer says he's heard explosions. Police are under the assumption there are explosives in the yard where the boat is located. Oh, the explosive sounds are from "flash-bangs" which police are using to try to flush the suspect out of the boat. Police removed the family of about ten people from the house where the boat is located.
CW: Chris Matthews said there was another round of heavy gunfire at about 7:49 pm ET, but Andrea Mitchell says it was a replay; she reports that police scanner says there is someone sitting up in the boat & police have been told to hold their fire. Pete Williams is reporting he's been hit but is still alive; believe he has been in the boat much of the day. This is all pretty terrible.
Kerry Sanders of NBC News heard volleys of gunfire in Watertown at about 6:58 pm ET & said law enforcement vehicles were rushing toward the scene. NBC Boston says dozens of officers are crouched in defensive positions around a particular area. "Not clear who was firing at whom." ...
... Update: so now the story is that a resident who lives near the Charles River noticed a ladder perched up against a boat (in his yard, I gather) which had not been there before. The gunfire came from officers on the scene. Apparently somebody saw a person's limbs on the boat, so they're "sure" a person is hiding in the boat. Police, bomb squad, etc., are forming a perimeter around the boat to secure the scene. Residents in the area are again being asked to stay in place. ...
... Boston Globe: person in boat is not moving.
"Police patrolled through a neighborhood in Watertown, while searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings." Boston Globe. AP photo.
At a presser, Gov. Patrick says authorities are lifting the stay-indoors request effective immediately (6:09 pm ET). The Watertown police chief said, "There's a lot of events in Watertown tomorrow, and we're gonna have 'em." The chief of the Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Timothy Alben says suspects were not involved in the armed robbery of the convenience store but were coincidentally in the vicinity & that's how they obtained the image from some surveillance camera. Says authorities believe suspect is still in the Boston area; they don't know of any vehicle he may be driving. ...
... Natalie DiBlasio of USA Today, "There was a 7-Eleven robbery in Cambridge last night, but it had nothing to do with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. Margaret Chabris, the director of corporate communication at 7- Eleven, says the surveillance video of the crime was not taken at a 7-Eleven and that the suspect that did rob the 7-Eleven does not look like Tamerlan or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev."
"Substituting Identity for Motivation." Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "Assuming these two brothers are indeed the bombers, they're literally Caucasian, but they're also Muslim. Most importantly, as of yet we know absolutely nothing about what motivated them. Nothing.... But for many people, their motivations are of no concern; all that matters is their identity. The sentiment coming from a lot of people on the right today runs to, 'See! See! Mooslems!!!' Some of them are using the suspects' identity as a reason why we shouldn't pass immigration reform...." ...
... Which brings us to the Brain of the Senate: Chuck "Death Panel" Grassley. Ashley Parker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: Grassley (R-Iowa) "said Friday that the approaching political debate about an immigration overhaul should take into account the revelation that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing had apparently emigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union.... Grassley..., the most senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened a hearing on immigration legislation by stressing that the issue was important 'particularly in light of all that’s happening in Massachusetts right now and over the last week.'"
CBS News Boston: "CBS News correspondent Bob Orr ... reported Friday afternoon that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became an American citizen on Sept. 11, 2012." Hmmm. September 11??
Via the Atlantic, "There will be a press briefing at 5:30 p.m. with Mayor Menino, Gov. Deval Patrick and state police officials."
Mike Isikoff of NBC says the police have already found 7 IEDs in the Boston area.
Map from the New York Times. Go to the Times page for explanatory blurbs on each point of the map:
Since we're doing maps, for those of you unsure of where Chechnya is, here's the answer:
Boston Globe: "A relative of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said he repeatedly warned the 19-year-old fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev about the bad influence of his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed overnight in a shootout with police. A picture has begun to emerge of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an aggressive, possibly radicalized immigrant who may have ensnared his younger brother Dzhokhar -- described almost universally as a smart and sweet kid -- into an act of terror that killed three people and injured more than at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday."
Bianna Golodryga & Christinia Ng of ABC News: "The father of a suspected Boston Marathon bomber called on his son today to give up peacefully, but warned the U.S. that if his son is killed 'all hell will break loose.' Anzor Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News from his home in the Russian city of Makhachkala as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.... 'If they kill my second child, I will know that it is an inside job, a hit job. The police are to blame,' the father told ABC News. 'Someone, some organization is out to get them.' Anzor Tsarnaev said that his sons were 'set up' and that they are 'very nice kids' who have no experience with weapons and explosives."
Re: commentary by James S. -- Jessica Misener & Rachel Sanders of BuzzFeed: "Jessica Cadorette, a store manager at a Dunkin' Donuts in Newton, Mass., told BuzzFeed: 'There was an automated message going around telling businesses to close, but because we're Dunkin' Donuts, we called the police department and they said we didn't have to [close].' ... Dunkin' Donuts has released the following statement to BuzzFeed. 'At the direction of authorities, select Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in the Boston area are open to take care of the needs of law enforcement and first responders.'"
I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? -- Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell (R)
Far be it from me to suggest that any of my fellow residents of the Commonwealth (God save it!) might want to discuss Representative Bell's insights with him, but here's his official contact page. Be polite. Be nice. Tell him that God loves him as he loves all mouthy hicks. -- Charles Pierce
Bell later apologized for his "poor choice of timing."
Pete Williams: Dzhokhar may have been wounded in shootout earlier today.
NBC: The FBI considers a third person an accomplice. Another IED has been disarmed in the Boston area.
The Lede (9:56 am ET) 5-year-old photo essay of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was an amateur boxer.
New York Times The Lede (10:08 am ET): "The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police, which has authority over the [Amtrack] track in New York and Connecticut, along with police from Norwalk, Conn., stopped the [Boston-New York City] train between the East Norwalk and Westport, Conn., stations and the Norwalk Police Department’s SWAT team swept the train, but did not find the suspect, the official said. While the authorities believe it was unlikely he was aboard, they were reviewing video surveillance footage from the stations in Providence, New Haven and New London, to be sure that the suspect did not get off before the train was stopped and searched.
CNN: high school friends, former teacher say Dzhokhar was a very nice kid, on the wrestling team, not at all a troublemaker, etc.
NBC: third suspect was apprehended on a train. Police believe they have "cornered" Dzhokhar in Watertown.
CNN: a suspect may be in a gray Honda CRV. Massachusetts plate. Update: '99 Honda CRV:
NBC: Sean Collier, 26, was the MIT officer who was killed.
Pete Williams: the family came here in about 2002, claiming political asylum because the father was some kind law enforcement official in or near Chechnya.
AP has contacted the father in Russia.
NBC News: police say they know where Dzhokhar is; have "concern" for another person. Pete Williams says there may be an accomplice or accomplices.
Another image of Dzhorhar Tsarnaev, from the Massachusetts State Police.
NBC News: the Tsarhaev brothers have lived in the U.S. for at least a decade.
CNN: there's a huge police presence at a particular site in Watertown. Homes have been evacuated. May have located Dzhokhar.
NBC says "person" is in police custody, taken from home where suspects lived. Update: is not a suspect. Update 2: Now says two non-suspects from the home are in custody. Three dozen FBI agents have secured the area.
Air space over Boston also shut down.
CNN is saying the younger brother drove over the other in making his escape. Also, they IDed themselves as the Marathon bombers to the driver of the vehicle they carjacked. Doctor where Tamerlan was taken said he had burns on his body, apparently from explosive device, as well as bullet wounds.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect at large.The NBC News livefeed is here. The CNN livestream is here.
Gov. Deval Patrick , law enforcement authorities held a brief press conference at 8 am ET. The "shelter-in-place" recommendation extends to all of Boston.
NBC 2: Suspect No. 2 born in Kurdistan Kyrgyzstan (or Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan); brother who was killed was born in Russia.
CNN: The older brother -- Tamerlan Tsarhaev -- was 26 years old, attended Bunker Hill Community College.
Charles Pierce lives in the "extended crime zone."
Shelley Murphy, et al., of the Boston Globe: "A massive manhunt is underway this morning in Boston and several surrounding communities for one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon terror bombing attacks. A second suspect has died in a confrontation with police, while one police officer has been killed and another wounded."
Katharine Seelye, et al., of the New York Times: "The two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings led police on a wild and deadly chase through the suburbs here early Friday morning that ended in the death of one of the suspects as well as a campus police officer; the other suspect remained at large while hundreds of police officers conduct a manhunt through Watertown, about five miles west of downtown Boston.... About 10:30, police received reports that a campus security officer at M.I.T. was shot while he sat in his police cruiser. He was found with multiple gunshot wounds.... The officer was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A short time later, police received reports of an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge, the statement said. 'The victim was carjacked at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour,' the statement said. He was later released, uninjured, at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Police immediately began to search for the vehicle and pursued it into Watertown. During the chase, 'explosive devices were reportedly thrown from car by the suspects,”'the statement said, and the suspects and police exchanged gunfire in the area of Dexter and Laurel streets."
Pete Williams, et al., of NBC News: "With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice brother robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives in an extraordinary firefight with law enforcement, authorities told NBC News."
NBC News: The 2 suspects are brothers -- Dzhokhar Tsarhaev, who is still at large is 19, a resident of Cambridge, has a Massachusetts drivers license, he & his brother are legal & permanent residents of the U.S.
Here are pretty good explanations (yes, more than one) of more-or-less what happened last night & this morning:
An eyewitness account:
Boston Globe liveblog: "Police this morning are searching a 20-block area in Watertown for one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects after a violent night during which an MIT Police officer lost his life and a Transit Police officer was seriously wounded in a firefight. The other Boston Marathon bombing suspect, who was wearing a black hat in photos released Thursday evening, is dead after firing bullets and launching explosives at police. Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said the man now known as Marathon bombing Suspect #2, the man with the white baseball cap who actually dropped the bombs at the race finish line, is the person being sought by a massive collection of federal, state, and municipal police."
Authorities have shut down all public transportation -- buses, subway, taxi service, Amtrak -- in Boston. No vehicles are allowed into or out of Watertown. Public schools, all universities have been shut down. Newton, Watertown, Waltham, Belmont, etc., are on lockdown. Thousands of police are going door-to-door to find Suspect No. 2.
New image of Suspect 2, who is the subject of a massive manhunt.
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Reader Comments (19)
Re: Teach your children well; You gaze into the young boy's eyes and see innocence; eyes not capable of slaughter. Who hardened those eyes? Which teacher of hate turned promise and hope into a killing machine?
Fox must be salivating that these guys were living in Cambridge. Can't wait for all the "Cambridge Liberals Shelter Terrorists!" screams.
Given that in order to find these suspects our police, FBI, etc. have been in full force and given that the explosion at a chemical factory in Texas was last inspected in 2006 (we don't have enough inspectors working for OSHA) wouldn't it be a simple deduction that preventing increasing funds for both as the Congress has done is downright STUPID? I'll be interested to see if any of the Texas Republicans who voted nay on funds to help New York will now come peddling their pleas to help Texas.
Can you imagine what it must be like to live in one of those locked-down communities––cell phone clutched in your hand, eyes darting out the windows, jumping out of your skin at some noise in the cellar? Do people that go through something like this like to watch thrillers or does this experience have the opposite effect? One of my daughters-in-law's brother, a German photographer,was killed during the Black Hawk Down debacle and she cannot watch anything that has to do with terror. On the other hand I had a friend whose relatives were all gassed during the Holocaust and she couldn't get enough of watching films and reading about it.
Richard Engel is on MSNBC and WHEN they let him speak, he seems to have the most accurate take on the situation. Probably the most well informed and educated news person in re: Islamic extremist. He is positing that the brothers may be members of Islamic Jihad Union via his contacts, a Chechen group who Engel characterized as very violent. Engel is also consistently suggesting there are more suspects involved as well as emphasizing the situation is more complicated than getting hung up on domestic or foreign. I suspect Tahrir square might have been easier to deal with than the idiot behind the desk on MSNBC.
Cliff Van Sandt, the in-house MSNBNC profiler who worked on the Lindburgh kidnapping is, too say the least, annoying. Yikes. Shut up!!! This is not Bubba holding his family hostage for a helicopter and unlimited mai-tais.
I have mixed feelings about all this involvement by "authorities."
On the one hand, I understand the need to stop such horrible perpetrators. On the other, I quake before this demonstration of the power of the militarized police state. Just like the demonstration of the militaristic training exhibited by the UC Davis police at the "pepper spray" incident, this swarm of the armed and obviously militarily trained powerful people with weapons drawn just plain scares me: the potential for abuse is too obvious.
Did we have a national discussion about militarizing our police forces?
And, for full disclosure, I used to live on Norfolk St. in Cambridge - a lifetime ago. It was a little impoverished and edgy at the time, but to have RoboCop intrusion on that quiet street - even now?
Can't wait to hear what the anti-immigration crowd has to say (they've already been yapping all week, but the brothers from Chechnya will give them plenty of new high powered ammo).
Steve King and his FUD brother, Peter King, have no doubt already drafted their speeches on how immigrants are coming to kill us all.
There will shortly follow a high-minded and serious intellectual debate on immigration reform.
(sardonic snicker)
And in the Too Ironic for Irony Department, Marie this morning posted a link to a story about parents of shooting victims who verbally expressed their dismay from the Senate gallery towards the cowards who voted against background checks for purchasers of weapons because something, something, privacy, something, something, freedom.
These mothers, for the terrible crime of speaking the truth, were detained by the Capitol police and held while they performed....background checks.
Marie please excuse the criticism but Boston, esp Watertown, just ain't a scene of 'bedlam'. Au contraire. I expected scenes of police barricades holding back masses of rubberneckers. But the streets seem deserted unless inundated by military/paramilitary forces. Incredible picture of public discipline and government power Processions of armoured cars with machine gun turrets are most impressive.
I just heard Tom Ridge on MSNBC call these young Chechen killers "suicide bombers," and speculate on whether the older (dead) brother was trained in jihad abroad. Of course, he has no such evidence, but Ridge was a Bushie Homeland Security cretin and seems (to me) to be trying to link this to Al Queda. He also speculated that there are "probably" others in on this "plot."
My worst nightmare appears to be happening. America is once again starting to get all wingnutty and most likely will be talking about invading some poor Muslim country they believe to be training jihadists. (Or maybe they'll just give our drones a good workout!) Pity the innocent Muslims who live in the U.S. They are going to have even more abuse and speculation heaped upon them. Yes, it is true, I am quite sure--that these brothers were over-the-top religious nutcases. But being Muslim in America, even moderate, means you are guilty of "evil." No trial needed.
One bellwether of the power of crowdsourcing (for good and bad) can be seen in what's happening on reddit.com.
People on reddit (in a subreddit called "findbostonbombers") have been poring over pictures and time stamps for the last few days and have come up with some pretty amazing things. One site credits reddit with helping to identify the bombers. In one picture you can see the dropped bag. It's placement is curious until you consider that these guys are Chechen. It's right behind the Russian flag. Maybe it was their little joke, who knows. Other pictures are here that I haven't seen yet.
But a warning, if you go to reddit, there is a picture (unconfirmed) of the older brother, dead, on a gurney in the emergency room at Beth Israel Deaconess. Definitely not for the squeamish. Typically, reddit scanners are at work trying to determine, based on photo comparisons, if this image is legit and so far it seems like it might be. If it's photoshop, it's an expert job.
Like any other online forum this subreddit attracts the serious, the goulish, the hyenas, and the racists.
reddit-findbostonbombers
For comic relief, apparently, the Boston police asked Dunkin Donuts to stay open during the lockdown.
So you want to know the reason for the bombing in Boston AND the Newtown massacre?
Sex without permission from god and the FRC.
Rightwing watch has the scoop.
Yup. According to the ever interesting Tony Perkins (wasn't he the crazy knife murderer who dressed up like a woman and wanted to boink his mother in Psycho?) of the hysterically named Family Research Council, way too much sexytime, too many abortions, and not enough time praying in church are the real culprits for, well, just about everything.
So now you know.
In other news, Texas Gov. Rick (what's his last name?) who was going to take Texas out of the union and become an independent country because he objected to Texas tax money being squandered in other states to clean up disasters, is now declaring West Texas a disaster area to qualify for Federal funds to aid in their recovery. Ain't Karma a bitch!!!!!!
@cowichan: it was appropriate when I posted it, after the shootout & news of the carjacking & murder of the MIT officer. The word the media were using was "chaos." Too late to modify the title now.
Marie
Some genius on WBZ just said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was known as a pothead. Holy shit.
I thought you all would like to know that I took great pleasure in emailing Nate Bell. Also I realize that the show of force in Boston is frightening but what would you accept as an alternative. I live in RI and have friends in MA. Many of us are working to reduce violence on a small scale and to affect change in local gun laws. However I have lived next to cops, respect them, and want them to be well trained and capable since I don't want to carry a gun etc.
The following is what I sent Nate Bell
Dear Mr Bell,
"I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? -- Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell ®"
A gun would not make me feel safer. I grew up with them. My father, a career naval officer, taught pistol at Annapolis, collected guns, carried a pistol when carrying security papers in the 50's and was an avid hunter. He felt no one needed more than a double action shot gun since you should have a second shot if you wounded an animal, He stated that you should not own a gun if you are not proficient enough to be accurate within two shots.
I realized as a young graduate student in Chicago that I would not kill another human being much less a deer or a bird. Therefore I'd rather pay taxes to make certain that my police, state troupers, and if necessary the FBI are well trained and accurate. In return both my husband and I worked hard to be good teachers and also initially my husband was a Merchant Mariner and I was a physical therapist.
I live in RI and am grateful that the police, troopers, FBI, AFT and the emergency care people are doing their jobs well. Many of my friends or friends of friends in MA are depending on this. I think you owe an apology to all these public officials who are doing their jobs. Armed civilians would truly cause disasters in this crisis.
Lotsa schock. Not much awe. Great sadness.
One of my simplistic reactions: Another "thanks so much" to Bush II and his demented crew, who taught thousands, maybe millions, how to treat innocent civilians.
I have no backup - no links - but if I may I offer another opinion as to the motivation of Jhar... Many school friends report he was a very nice guy. He adored his brother who must have had much to do with bringing him up (absent father?). The older brother appears to have been radicalized around 2008, maybe via trips to Chechnya (sp?) more likely thru the net. I think Jhar was brought into this awful plan by his beloved brother. He was not a religious crazy. I heard one of his high school friends speak of him today with much sadness - there is no way out for him. Am I crazy? I feel sad for him, too.
@Haley
That's the way I read it. The kid is scared. This truly is a tragedy for all affected by it.
@Marie
Thank you for the excellent coverage and updates of the Boston Marathon bombings. I appreciate the multiple aspects you (and commenters) provide.