Helicopters overhead this afternoon. Found out that they brought the body of bomber #1 to a funeral home in my town. People on facebook are all losing their minds saying they are going to boycott the funeral home from now on. I can understand being pissed at him…but why take it out on the funeral home?
I also saw a story where they were originally planning on targeting the July 4th celebration in Boston on the Esplanade where the Boston Pops plays to the fireworks display. Doesn’t that get aired nationlly?
As for the bomber’s body, I don’t think people should take it out on the funeral home either. As a Catholic, I’ve been raised to respect the dead and the remains of the dead and I feel strongly that everyone deserves a proper burial no matter what they’ve done in life. So I respect the funeral home for taking on a difficult task.
Maybe they think Tamerlan is going to turn into a zombie? Really, who cares what mortuary a dead body is shipped off to? It has to go somewhere once the forensic autopsy’s completed, and dead is dead.
I read yesterday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow is under investigation, specifically phone calls that he made to her both before and after the attacks.
More interestingly, it appears that all phone calls made in the USA are potentially recorded, stored and accessible to the authorities after the fact.
I’d find it very surprising if they didn’t investigate a bomber’s wife. They’ll also be talking to his former co-workers, neighbours, etc. Investigating her doesn’t mean she did anything wrong. Perhaps she did, but I’d have expected something to have come out about that by now.
I agree that the investigation itself is unsurprising. What is more surprising is the seemingly casual admission that any “private” phone conversation can apparently be called up on some giant database and listened to. Quite apart from the privacy implications, that’s some serious storage and indexing capacity right there.
Thing is, she hasn’t made an effort to claim him has she? From what I understand it’s Uncle Ruslan (sp?) that took possession and cleaned him in Muslim tradition but is now finding no cemetery will accept his body for internment. The wife seems to be distancing herself, which probably doesn’t come as a great surprise to anyone.
I saw too that a group has raised 5K to send his body overseas. Obviously, for some a cemetery is a place for bodies, for others a place for memories.
I don’t know if she has or not, but if the US (or companies and institutions in the US) afford him a proper burial then that demonstrates that you are a better people than some terrorists apparently think you are.
The dead should be buried with whatever ceremony is appropriate, and their loved ones allowed to grieve, because that’s what you usually do and terrorists can’t take your principles away from you.
Yep. I think the problem lies with the fact that no one wants to prevent a family from grieving a burying a realtive, no matter what crime they’ve committed, but understandably neither do they want this person buried near one of their loved ones, this both out of respect for their dead and because they don’t want to see that site become a focal point for hate or false martyrdom or anything else other than a place of quiet reflection and tranquility.
This is one of those issues where I can’t grasp the outrage. He’s dead, and it’s unlikely that the location of his burial will be disclosed. All sorts of serial killers and assassins get buried. There’s no point in treating this guy differently.
I haven’t read most of this thread, but there is something that I’d like to share about the bombing.
On Saturday, for the first time since the marathon, I ventured into Copley Square. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be a ghost town? Would there be few people there, all cowed in fear? Would it be a police state?
Quite the contrary. It was almost like a party. That’s probably the most people I’ve seen there except during, well, a marathon. Everyone was happy and smiling. There was a motorcycle “race”, for which a huge crowd was gathered. The place had LIFE.
As horrific as the events were, they really pulled together the people of this city. I am seeing more and more t-shirts that say “Boston Strong.” I just saw one that said “Wicked Strong.”
And just after the bombing I saw a lot of things of facebook from some sort of organization calling itself NY(heart)B. Thank you, New York. It was like an older, experienced brother comforting us right after we got beaten up.