# The Boston Marathon Bombing Debate Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 15, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799 "2013-04-15T23:21:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/241 "2013-04-19T15:17:42Z")
Father is threatening that ‘all hell will break loose’ if the younger son is killed as well. No idea what that’s supposed to mean…the kids only chance is to turn himself in. If he fires at the police he’ll be killed just like his brother was. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/242 "2013-04-19T15:44:00Z")
Boston bombers are \_\_\_\_\_ . a) punk kids b) pissed off white losers c) Muslim immigrants ETA: d) all of the above ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/243 "2013-04-19T15:49:49Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Father is threatening that ‘all hell will break loose’ if the younger son is killed as well. No idea what that’s supposed to mean…the kids only chance is to turn himself in. If he fires at the police he’ll be killed just like his brother was. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; if he was my kid I’d say “shoot the cocksucker.” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/244 "2013-04-19T15:50:36Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Assimilated? Where do you get that from? From local TV interviews with the younger one’s HS classmates. It might not be as true of the older one, though. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/245 "2013-04-19T16:27:37Z")
All in all this whole story has not been the news outlets’ finest hour when it comes to painting clear pictures. But then again the news cycle demands that they report SOMETHING. Sounds to me like a scenario of individual radicalization - and sometimes “assimilation”, paradoxically, reinforces rather than dispels alienation. You do what it takes to “fit in” but inside you “know” (or it has been repeatedly preached to you) that you’ll always be an outsider and it gnaws at you. Fertile ground for someone with an idea as to how to make “them” pay. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/246 "2013-04-19T16:30:51Z")
These guys are originally from an area very close to where the Winter Olympics will be in 2014. I wonder if there is some tie-in to that. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/247 "2013-04-19T16:32:19Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > You do what it takes to “fit in” but inside you “know” (or it has been repeatedly preached to you) that you’ll always be an outsider and it gnaws at you. This is the story line for Quadrophenia, basically. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/248 "2013-04-19T17:49:09Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > The _Boston Globe_ has an article up right now describing them as “assimilated,” in which Americans that knew them call them “normal” and “friendly.” Well, the older brother didn’t come to the US until he was 20, so I’d be suspicious that he was fully assimilated. The younger brother, who came here at age 8 or 9, sure. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/249 "2013-04-19T17:52:45Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > You do what it takes to “fit in” but inside you “know” (or it has been repeatedly preached to you) that you’ll always be an outsider and it gnaws at you. Fertile ground for someone with an idea as to how to make “them” pay. That’s also called “teenage angst”. And no, not every teen outgrows it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/250 "2013-04-19T18:29:28Z")
The older brother was pretty successful as a boxer and had talked about using that as a way to become a citizen. He seemed approving of the U.S. in a general way at the time, even if that’s not the same as being assimilated (he talked about having no American friends). The boxing thing didn’t pan out as a career and over time perhaps the culture grated on him and he became bitter and isolated and frustrated. There were reports he went to Chechnya for about six months last year, assuming those haven’t been retracted. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/251 "2013-04-19T18:30:05Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; if he was my kid I’d say “shoot the cocksucker.” You might not. The father is probably still trying to grasp that his sons are responsible and part of him probably doesn’t believe it. His response is just wild reaction. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/252 "2013-04-19T22:46:05Z")
These kids were Chechnyan jihadists, right? ([Source](http://drudgereport.com/)) or is StraightDope still looking for a way to make a Tea Party connection? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/253 "2013-04-19T22:47:35Z")
Perhaps you could read the thread and find out for yourself? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/254 "2013-04-19T22:48:33Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > I predict that the bomber(s) will be: > 1.) not right-wing terrorists nor Islamic extremists half right, but I guess you were guaranteed at least a half-point on this one no matter the outcome. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/255 "2013-04-19T23:15:29Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > These kids were Chechnyan jihadists, right? ([Source](http://drudgereport.com/)) or is StraightDope still looking for a way to make a Tea Party connection? * * * Drudge?\*\*\* Really? As far as we can tell they’re Chechens by origin, they lived in the USA for over a decade and they (or at least the elder brother) apparently got radicalized, presumably by violent Islamist-nationalists, relatively recently. That seems to add up all right. I would wait to see if the investigators can dig up some sort of manifesto, parting declaration, statement, etc. where one or the other comes right out and says what possibly conceivable justification they claim for this. Otherwise it may never be fully clear if the primary motivator of this particular rampage was specifically to spread jihad, to stand up for the Chechen nation, to right some other real or imagined grievance in a way that may have made sense in Tamerlan’s mind, or mere sadism. Or like the uncle said: “Losers who could not make it and took it out on those who did. The religious part is a fraud.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/256 "2013-04-19T23:29:17Z")
Great Antibob: I live in Indiana. I chose MIT or Harvard because I figured the terrorists had attended a good college (at the minimum) and those were the only two off the top of my head that I could think of in the Boston area. I didn’t feel like googling for others. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/257 "2013-04-20T01:07:54Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; if he was my kid I’d say “shoot the cocksucker.” Some of the things one reads on the internet are surreal, and I put this in the same bucket. Then, it could be that a lot of people think my posts are surreal. Do you always assume that the police are chasing the right people, and have correctly identified them? Do you have kids? Yes, the police probably identified the right brothers. But probably isn’t good enough. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/258 "2013-04-20T01:18:50Z")
Kudos to the police for capturing the suspect alive. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/259 "2013-04-20T03:01:07Z")
The FBI has invoked the “we declare we don’t have to follow Supreme Court rulings on due process if we don’t feel like it” principle and refused to read or recognize the detainee’s Miranda rights. I hope all you people who have been advocating for four years that the Obama administration should assume unlimited power because the Constitution is a piece of paper written by dead white people are pleased with yourselves. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799/260 "2013-04-20T03:07:26Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > The FBI has invoked the “we declare we don’t have to follow Supreme Court rulings on due process if we don’t feel like it” principle and refused to read or recognize the detainee’s Miranda rights. > > I hope all you people who have been advocating for four years that the Obama administration should assume unlimited power because the Constitution is a piece of paper written by dead white people are pleased with yourselves. [Miranda Public Safety Exemption.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_v._Arizona#Subsequent_developments) > [@](#): > > There is also a “public safety” exception to the requirement that Miranda warnings be given before questioning: for example, if the defendant is in possession of information regarding the location of an unattended gun or there are other similar exigent circumstances which require protection of the public, the defendant may be questioned without warning and his responses, though incriminating, will be admissible in evidence (see New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649 (1984) Notice the date. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boston-marathon-bombing-debate-thread/655799.md?page=14)