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poliphiloDid 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!"
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!"
