Posted on 04/21/2013 4:31:03 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts
On Friday, April 19, 2013, Metropolitan Boston was under pseudo martial law as law enforcement hunted the Boston Marathon bomber fugitive. Residents were notified to stay indoors until further notification. The map linked below shows the extent of the lockdown.
The target of the search area lay within the eastern portion of Watertown highlighted in red on the linked map. Throughout the day the active hunt was confined to an area in eastern Watertown of an area about a half mile diameter. Law enforcement had good reason to believe the fugitive was within the search area. In the end, he was found in the area.
Yet, government leaders exercised their power to lockdown an area 100 times the size of the search area, four cities and three towns. The lockdown not only inconvenienced upwards of a million citizens, it caused the loss of income to businesses and independent contractors. It also caused a loss of public revenue at a time while law enforcement was expending vast resources.
Such a lockdown is unprecedented. Locking down the active search area would have impacted perhaps 10,000 of the 32,000 who live in the town of Watertown. Who is the idiot that decided to needlessly oppress 100 times as many people as those in the active search area? Was it Governor Deval Patrick? Was it President Obama? We need to know more about this level of repression - who and why.
I remember back in the spring of 1970, they (whoever “they” are) imposed a curfew on Lawrence Kansas after a shooting in the black part of town and an attempt to burn down the student union. It was treated as a holiday. A short curfew is fun. If they had tried to extend it another day there would have been grumbling, another two days people would have ignored it.
Hum, an opportunity to do some ‘testing’ of the waters for future events, real or not?
Was anyone arrested for disobeying the edict? How widely was it obeyed?
Was anyone arrested for going out? If not, why not?
Ask the folks in L.A. how much fun their police are when they are after a fugitive...
Every act of terrorism on US soil leads to further erosion of the 1st, (assembly); 2nd, and 4th Amendments.
Sometimes rapidly but inexorably gradually.
No it isn't. They close down the city if there is a dusting of snow down here in Texas and these type of voluntary lock-downs happen for weather often.
It was Governor Patrick and what was being reported all day as a "lockdown" was a request on the part of the governor intended for the safety of the people.
The terrorist was not only heavily armed, but there was a very real possibility that he may have been wearing an explosive suicide vest.
Moreover, as the police progressively closed in on the terrorist, there was also a possibility that hostages might be taken by the terrorist if he felt cornered.
Given the fact that the terrorists had already murdered one MIT campus police officer in cold blood as he sat in his car, everyone was prepared to err on the side of caution if need be.
I am not ordinarily a fan of Deval Patrick, but in this partiucular instance, I think he did the right thing. His "shelter in place" request may have been a factor in the successful capture of the younger terrorist without incurring any further loss of life or limb.
Nonsense. There is no evidence that the fugitive knew about the lockdown, hence it had no effect on him. There is very strong evidence that once the lockdown was lifted, a homeowner was able to go out in his yard and see something out of place, the bloody, wounded fugitive.
The suspect was not found until they canceled their lockdown and a regular citizen was able to travel freely and visit his boat.
The citizenry was much more effective than thousands of Deval/Obama’s storm troopers had been.
You are right. It had no effect on the fugitive, but it may have prevented more people from getting maimed or killed.
Moreover, not everyone was happy about the lockdown being lifted when it was......especially after the shootout with the older terrorist.
I certainly wouldn’t presume to speak for anyone else, but no one would have had to ask me twice to “shelter in place” after seeing and hearing about all those people with missing arms and legs, etc.
“Boston Strong” is not synonymous with “Boston Stupid.”
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