It’s been a few days now since that guy in Boston was caught. You know the standard narrative. Dangerous terrorists on the loose. Extraordinary but necessary steps taken. Hero cops take them down. I am surprised at how completely and thoroughly many of us a are buying that narrative. Proud and thrilled we arr. It makes me worried about the future. People cheering the paramilitary troops, gladly being on lockdown, house to house searches – overwhelming public support for this disproportionate response. Just as demands for federal involvement after Katrina invited federal oversight of “homeland security”, these chants of “U-S-A!” will forever change how the government views its limits (or lack thereof) in times of so-called crisis. We all should have been shocked. These paramilitary units were conducting door to door searches of people’s houses. People were ordered to stay indoors. No travel, no business. All over Boston. And the troops were cheered afterwards. “Great job troops! We will gladly give up our dignity and freedom so that we can feel safe!” Safe from what? A killer that we were told to fear. A killer that the government let slip through their fingers. Killers who they already knew about and who were able to stroll onto the scene with crockpots filled with explosives. So, what was so dangerous? After the bombs, these two had 3 days to kill and didn’t – until the FBI tipped them off that they were onto them. Then they killed a cop. They carjacked a civilian and didn’t lay a finger on them. They kept the civilian’s cell phone and the police tracked it to Watertown. Come on! They teach you on the first day of bad guy school to toss the cell phone. Anyway, the most dangerous time for the civilians was when the police fired hundreds of rounds in a residential neighborhood toward a guy who was nearly neutralized already. In fact, a resident found him in the boat. He didn’t attack the resident. He didn’t flee while he had the chance. He stayed in the boat. Docile.
So, I am not exactly proud or thrilled. I have more questions than anything. I will list my questions in a future post. Maybe those of you who watch the evening news will be able to provide me with some answers 😉