Lockdown

[poliphilo]

Did I hear that right? Did they really put Boston on lockdown? A whole city? Something like a million people?  And all for one man? Tell me I heard wrong. Tell me it was just a district- a neighbourhood.

No. I got it right. I checked. It was the whole fucking city.

How does this happen?  There's a bombing followed by a gun-fight and a whole city retreats behind locked doors? It's disproportionate.  But it's that word "terror", isn't it? It makes us all a little crazy. A punk kid with a gun is just a punk kid with a gun until we learn that his motive is "political" and then, suddenly, he casts a giant shadow. They wouldn't shut down a city for  a crazed gang-banger or a spree-killer. Or would they? Perhaps after this, they would. Because now they know they can.

The cops must be amazed at their own success. They tell a population, "You've got to stay inside. You can't go to work. You can't take your kids to school. You can't take a stroll in the park." And nobody demurs. Nobody- in a population of a million- tells them to go take a hike. Don't you think that's a little frightening?. Who knew it was that easy to create a police state?

A couple of bombs go off. And everyone loses their cool. The Governor and police over-step their authority, the populace responds with docility- so handing those those two punk kids exactly what they wanted.  And more. They planned to create a little mayhem. And look what happened: they paralyzed an entire city. Does Kabul go into lockdown every time a car bomb takes out a market-place? Does Baghdad? People in the Middle-East must look at us Westerners and think, "God, but they're soft!"

Comments

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Bostoners get a three day weekend and the rest of us get all day cable news coverage. And NPR postponed their pledge drive for a day. Everyone wins!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Nice...

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

UK cities weren't put on lockdown during the IRA bombings, nor during the more recent attacks. We just kept calm and carried on. What is more, they didn't find the second bomber until they called off the lockdown and someone emerged from his house and noticed a blood trail. How long would it have taken to find him if the police had had to search every single property?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My own thoughts entirely. Manchester had its centre blown apart. Warrington, a tiny place compared to Boston, had a bombing that took two lives. Northern Ireland suffered atrocities on a daily basis.

And life went on.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

All very true.

[charliemc.livejournal.com]

Let's just say that we found it astounding that they would CLOSE DOWN the entire city over this! I can't even begin to believe it...

It just seems WRONG in so many ways.

(sigh)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any precedent.

Most great cities outside of the United States have experienced similar atrocities. None of them ever went into lockdown.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what I think about this. The police can't command people to do this, they can only recommend they stay indoors with doors and windows locked, and the people did it because they thought the guy was armed, he had already killed, and most importantly, the Boston Police's twitter feed and the Boston Globe kept everybody informed online. More than 24 hours and I am sure people would have started wandering about as normal.

It's all very well saying "a couple of bombs go off and everyone loses their cool" but this was not such a bad way to avoid further carnage, considering the whole unfolding of events.

I do however take the point that, presumably, the way the householder noticed the trail of blood was to be wandering about, against police advice.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The police seem to have issued the request as if it were an order. And the people seem to have responded meekly.

I can understand putting the neighbourhood in lockdown, but a city of a million people?

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And all the 'I'd have taken that punk down with my magnum' types were where, exactly?..................

[negothick.livejournal.com]

To be exact, the householder went outside the moment the "stay inside" order was lifted--in order to smoke. If he had gone out earlier in the day, the suspect might have been more lively and shot him. If he had waited inside till it got dark, he wouldn't have seen the blood.

[heatherp8.livejournal.com]

thank you.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I thought it was nuts. I am very concerned about the population, which accepted this infringement on their freedom with sheeplike compliance.

On the other hand, when they reached the one they shot first they found a kettle bomb strapped to his torso, so they probably were thinking of collateral damage.

It's because this kind of stuff is so rare here that we come all unglued.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I thought it was outrageous that the Governor demanded that of the people- and that they complied so meekly.

Your last sentence puts it in some sort of perspective. Most European cities of comparable size are used to being bombed.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Thank you for bringing this up. I didn't even think about it, being on the opposite coast.

Had I been in Boston, I would have stayed indoors without complaint. I know this because I stay in whenever I hear that the police are doing a DUI checkpoint in my city. I have learned over the years to just avoid the police whenever possible.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You think the people of Boston were more afraid of the police than of the bombers? Could be.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I think everyone is afraid of everything lately. I think it actually makes people feel a little more comfortable if they can pin it on "Muslim extremists". But, truth be told, it seems like at least once a week someone goes on a shooting spree.

I avoid the police because when I lived in Baltimore... the second most violent city in the U.S. at the time, I was stopped and detained for 45 minutes because my car's front license plate had fallen off and I had it in my front windshield. While I was sitting there, I watched thugs on the street opening sell drugs and prostitutes. When I asked one of the cops why they were detaining me when there was obvious crime going on all around me, he answered "different police officers have different types of crime that they like to focus on." WTF? From then on, I just avoid police whenever possible.

[negothick.livejournal.com]

Um, folks with short memories? Boston did live under frequent bomb threats and occasional real bombings in 1969-71, during the actions against the Vietnam War. I was there. Generally by accident, since I wasn't one of the activists, but once I was caught up in the riots in Harvard Square. Nobody died, but many were injured--generally by police nightsticks. My own college dorm was evacuated frequently, and actually firebombed twice. They never caught the culprits. And there was no such thing as "lockdown" (even for the dorms, except temporarily). Classes went on while the bombs went off. No Facebook then, no Internet--in our college, not even any pay telephones, because too many "phone phreakers" (the ancestors of hackers) had hacked them for free calls.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Oh, heavens.... people here can't remember the 90s!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ha!

Truth of the matter is it's a whole lot easier to deal with minor traffic infringements than to get stuck into serious crime.

Safer too.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY! Especially when the perp is some 5ft tall grey haired white woman.

Hence... I avoid police.

[angiereedgarner.livejournal.com]

Without looking into it, I assumed the citywide lockdown was somehow the result of the same US legal concerns I was told about when I asked, why does the US State Dept. issue frequent or blanket security warnings for US travelers and expats, even for very safe or generally safe countries. The warnings are so frequent and so utterly devoid of any useful content that most of us don't bother to sign up to be notified any more.

What State dept employee explained: it is driven by lawsuits-- the legal case has been made and can be made successfully if the State dept. has information suggesting a potential threat, does not share it, and a citizen is hurt/killed as a result, gov't is therefore liable.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There was a case over here (it's probably still on-going) where a police officer tripped over a step on a call-out, sustained some minor injury and is now suing the crime victim who made the call because he didn't warn her about the hazards on his property.

How do we get ourselves out of this ridiculous situation?

[angiereedgarner.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew.

And as awful as it is, I still appreciate some of the benefits of having legal recourse against unmitigated public safety hazards in the States.

I've lived in 3 countries without such (Germany, Pakistan, UAE) and the streets and sidewalks and public buildings are simply not as safe, especially for children, elderly etc. Things like water and other fluids puddled in grocery store aisles (ok, that one never in Germany), exposed manholes and water access holes in sidewalks and parking lots with not even an orange cone, polished granite pedestrian entrances and polished granite sidewalks like iceslicks, protruding jagged pipes, street signs spanning sidewalks with sharp metal edges at pedestrian head height (my sweetie did a total header into one of those a couple of days ago, we were talking politics and he didn't realize he wouldn't clear it. His hat saved us a trip to the emergency room.) American autopilot is not adequate if you are walking someplace not governed by US litigious possibilities. It's easy to scoff but am in favor of nonslip surfaces.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I take your point.

The situation is exacerbated by a new(ish) breed of ambulance chaasing lawyers. We get regular phone calls from firms offering to represent us in seeking redress for our accident- even though we haven't had one.

[mokie]

If this writer is to be believed, compliance wasn't quite 100%...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Kinda restores one's faith in human nature....

[mokie]

Another user who claimed to have been listening in on a police scanner suggested that the lockdown had more to do with the killer being an active and mobile threat at that point: believed to be wearing a suicide vest and threatening to take people out, going house to house breaking in and taking what he needed and leaving buildings wide open afterwards.

I want to believe it, because it makes more sense--the police do commonly tell people to stay inside (and out of harm's way) when they've got someone armed and dangerous roaming a neighborhood with cops on his heels--but I can't find any independent verification just yet (and, as you said, it wasn't just a neighborhood but the whole city). It doesn't help that the media is still in "OMG! Boston!" mode.

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

I think part of what makes people compliant is that they can follow along on their smartphone/however they access livestreams, and feel part of the drama.

Kind of like in this year's second episode of Black Mirror.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[algabal.livejournal.com]

Oh God. This is exactly how I feel. I especially despise how everyone suddenly becomes a super-patriot mindlessly supporting whatever insane policy the government comes up with.

They had tanks on the street. Tanks on the street.. They put my city under martial law over one person, one person armed only with things that any gun nut or crazed loner can get a hold of. And they had tanks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Tanks were wheeled out after the London bombings. At one point they had them ringing Heathrow airport. What on earth did they think they were going to do with them? How does a tank deter a lone bomber or gunman?

Standing O

[seaslug-of-doom.livejournal.com]

What really bothers me is that when the suspect was apprehended, and the many, many police were driving away in, essentially, a parade of cars, lights flashing, sirens wailing, the populace of Watertown broke out in cheers and applause, not stopping until every emergency vehicle had driven away.

I thought to myself, "You people really don't know what just happened, do you?"

And did you see the press coverage shortly after the capture in which the mayors of Boston and Watertown, the various law enforcement commanders, and lawyers, some with speeches at the ready, went through a Round Robin of back patting and congratulations and heart-felt thanks for the cooperation (something apparently exceedingly rare) that went on between them; all of this stage-managed by some woman off stage who trumpeted out the name of each individual, that worthy then meekly stepping up to the battery of microphones to begin his or her mewling. That woman off-stage is who should have been in charge.

Next thing that will happen is that shrines will be built at the site of the bombing - likely with buildings being torn down and ten years of debates and contests to determine what sort of bronze plaque should be placed in its stead - and also at the 7-11 where the carjacking took place, and in all likelihood, on top of that guy's boat, too!

Re: Standing O

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I saw jubilant crowds chanting,"USA...USA". It was like they'd just won a war.