Boston “Abolishes” Special SWAT Team That Captured Marathon Bomber

hotair ^ | August 2, 2020 | JAZZ SHAW

[MarvinStinson]

If you happen to be an aspiring domestic terrorist, particularly in or around Boston, with a hankering to blow up a marathon or some other large, public event, it’s been a pretty good week for you. First we learned that Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death penalty sentence has been revoked. (At least temporarily.) And now we find out that the elite Boston Transit SWAT team that was widely celebrated for bringing Tsarnaev to justice has been unceremoniously disbanded. Officers assigned to the highly-trained unit were told to turn in their special equipment and return to more regular duty. (CBS Boston)

The highly trained Transit SWAT team that was once celebrated for capturing Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been dissolved.

Transit Police spend a lot of time training for anything that could happen. And in 2013, the unimaginable did…

For a unit that was so highly trained and regarded, sources say the team is disappointed that it has been dissolved.

The I-Team reached out to the Transit Police and were told it had no comment on disbanding the unit.

The obvious question here would be… why? The CBS News team who broke this story asked the Boston PD but received no comment. The closest they came was an observation made by some inside sources who said that the tactical team “had not been used on calls much over the last few years.”

It’s hard not to wonder if the current climate of social unrest and riots isn’t playing into this decision. Mayor Marty Walsh has been under a lot of pressure to defund the police and institute other sweeping reforms. One of the big complaints we’ve been hearing regularly out of Seattle and Portland is that the police are too “militarized” and they shouldn’t be looking or acting like “storm troopers.” SWAT teams tend to go about their business while very well armed and armored. Was this some stealth maneuver intended to fend off that sort of criticism by making the transit cops look more warm and fuzzy?

[bkopto]

Agreed.

[PapaBear3625]

Was this the unit riding in Mraps pointing ar-15s/m4s at residents peeking out of their windows?

Yes. Just for that, I would disband them.

And it wasn't the SWAT team who found him, it was a resident who noticed him hiding in a boat.

[Spirochete]

Abolishing the SWAT units doesn't go far enough.

All of the "tacticool" gear should be relinquished to the national guard or otherwise disposed of, to preclude their use by regular police. It includes:

Armored vehicles
HMMWVs or MRAPs
Rifles of any sort
Automatic weapons of any sort
PASGT helmets and helmet-mounted accessories
Load-bearing tactical vests or harnesses
Any uniforms not normally worn by patrolmen

Posession of these items transforms the officer's mindset from public servant and protector to warrior and elite killer, like some sort of "Rainbow Six" operator from Tom Clancy novel. It leads to the sort of abuse pictured here:

These elite lardasses geared up to take down a COVID sofflaw bar owner in Texas. Sad and pathetic.

[1Old Pro]

but got sidetracked when lard on Left shoots lard on Right in butt.

[stinkerpot65]

We have yet to grasp just how truly evil Democrats have become

[Charles Martel]

Was this the unit riding in Mraps pointing ar-15s/m4s at residents peeking out of their windows?

Yep. Auditioning for BATF jobs, perhaps?

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

"The highly trained Transit SWAT team that was once celebrated for capturing Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been dissolved."

That has to be the fake news story of the day, or history is already being re-written.

In fact, the younger Tsarnaev was found wounded and hiding in a boat by a guy in Watertown who went out back to smoke a cigarette. The various SWAT teams, police, and federal agents had missed him as the searched the neighborhood and rousted people from their houses.

Way beyond fake news. The brothers were pursued by about 1,000 cops from departments of many surrounding cities and towns. The posse left the neighborhood bullet ridden where the younger brother ran over the older one. The posse even shot one of their own. Yes, the posse caught up and found the older brother. Two helicopters circled the area the next day looking for the younger one. They stopped shortly after noon. late afternoon we heard a volley of rounds fired. That's when the search ended for the younger one.