Boston Shows How It’s Done
Apr 20 2013That three days after the Boston bombing the FBI, Boston and Watertown police working in concert had isolated on the two brothers, four days later had found and killed one and five days later had captured the other, is a spectacular feat of law enforcement.
They had to rapidly comb through uncounted miles of of surveillance and 
contributed smart phone footage they had to sift through and correlate, a number that will probably increase our awe of how rapidly these agencies accomplished their mission. Video clips with the sound of hundreds of rounds fired also tell us of the bravery of those law officers. The cheering in the streets as battalions of police and emergency withdrew was inspiring.
There is something disturbing about our brave new world of surveillance cameras watching our every move — Orwell’s “1984” has indeed come to pass. But it is a new world, a world of “non-state actors” unmoored from any morals telling them that killing and maiming celebrant crowds of innocents at public events is the ultimate evil. So in this society, a United States where people can come and go freely, the corollary is that we have to keep an eye on everyone.
Boston tells us that the trade off is worth it. Elsewhere on this page we note that so-called “patriot” organizations have rocketed more than eightfold in the last five years. One can imagine little miscreants out there, grown paranoid about the government coming for them, or reading al Qaeda’s “Inspire” publication on how to fashion bombs, suddenly taking note that an army of law enforcement will materialize to hunt them down if they commit such an act and that today’s technology and social media just served to nail the bad guys with incredible speed. They may reflect on how difficult it has become to pull off a massacre undetected and decide, well, maybe not.
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LFTC, I have to disagree with all the pats on the back for seekers of the terrorists With the state of terrorism in the leaders of this country as “not jihadists” it’s a surprise that nothing more serious has not occurred. Fbi dropped the ball on these guys or one of them, meaning he should have been caught and deported. Also, to swarm over the Boston area as martial law would presumably do in times of real crisis,it was definitely overplayed. If this is the sort of response the US armed forces would use in a horrendous cataclysmic event, that I can see would take all people off the streets and hiding in lockdown by the strong arm of the government. It may be necessary in the future,but let us hope not,looking at how the response was for this minor terror event. Minor in scope, not tragedy! Is Napolitano proud of failure? Is Mueller?
We have in the past expressed alarm with the increased militarization of the police across the U.S. in two articles that asked “Are We Becoming a Police State”. They can be found here and here.