I was so impressed with the show of force in Boston during the Watertown manhunt! I suddenly feel so protected.
Seeing so many people decked out in those all black uniforms with all the padding and big guns running around in a residential area right here in America… Wow. I’ve never seen more than one SWAT Team or Bomb Squad in one place before. They looked mighty! And where did all those huge black military-like vehicles suddenly come from? I knew each city probably had 1 or 2, but there was a whole huge fleet of them! Like huge tanks rolling down a residential street! So cool! I feel like now if anyone tries to mess with us on our own soil…God help them because we can really kick some ass! I don’t know that I ever felt that confident prior to seeing the Watertown manhunt. I’m so thankful for the people who put the plans and resources in place to have such a force ready for us, and for all the people who dedicate their lives to protecting our lives.
What overall impression did you come away with after all the events in Boston?
It all reflects well on the police departments in the area. As usual it’s the cop on the beat that takes the brunt of it. My sympathies go to the MIT policeman killed, and the transit cop now in the hospital. My office is in Cambridge, it’s disconcerting to think I might have passed right by the MIT cop or the two shitheads any time I was out on the streets.
It’s not the body count that’s causing the reaction. It’s the fact that the attack is against the public with unknown motive. Take your black Georgian, but change it so he’s on the run, and has so far stabbed three random people out on the street, and the reaction would be closer. The devil you know vs. the devil you don’t, basically. Fear of the unknown.
That this is why certain elements of the population haven’t gotten around to exercising those “Second Amendment remedies” they love to blather on about.
You seem to forget that, along with the 3 dead, 170 people were wounded in a matter of seconds. Your hypothetical guy in Georgia must have one hell of a knife.
Perhaps, in retrospect. But if he wandered into a crowd a blew up a few more people and injured dozens more then the police would have been criticized for that too.
On the news this morning they bumped the number of wounded up by 100, so it is around 280 now…most with minor injuries, or hearing loss.
Well, they didn’t shut down the city after the bombing itself, only during the pursuit in which 1 police officer was killed, another critically injured, a carjacking, multiple shoot outs, and multiple explosives (grenades and at least one other pressure cooker bomb) were used.
At the time, it didn’t seem strange at all. I was in the voluntary “shelter in place” region. I didn’t mind at all. Seriously, what else was I going to do that day?
They also didn’t shut down the entire city. They suspended the T (plus cab service for a couple of hours) and asked people to stay home. Other than in Watertown, where they were actively seeking Suspect #2, all shelter in place “orders” were requesting compliance, not demanding it.
People have to know a reason for the violence. A motive. If they can’t find one or if there doesn’t even happen to be one, then this creates a massive amount of fear.
My impression is that law enforcement agencies have taken advantage of public fear of terror and distaste for drugs to spend huge amounts of money on equipment that adds very little to their ability to accomplish their mission.
I’m regularly astounded but the displays of military equipment displayed at local parades and such in communities no matter how small and safe.
The sense I’m getting here is “I like complaining about the existence of the police and I really hate it when some criminals reminds everybody of why the police are necessary.”
This. Obviously a knife can’t do as much damage as quickly as a bomb. And typically some guy stabbing a couple of people would be a crime of passion or some personel vandetta. The perpetrator wouldn’t pose an immedate threat to the general public.
A mad bomber OTOH, has a randomness and level of dsetruction to it that requires a more immediate response.
When people try to minimize stuff like major terrorist attacks or mass shootings, I often wonder if they have a similar detatchment and disconnect from reality that actual terrorists and mass shooters have?