Boston's a Ghost Town: Is That a Smart Move?

Newser ^ | 04/19/2013 | By John Johnson

[Responsibility2nd]

As the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev continues, one of the questions getting tossed around is whether the powers-that-be overreacted by shutting down the city of Boston. (Business Insider rounds up some of the remarkable photos being tweeted of the "ghost town.") Some samples:

• Nate Silver of the New York Times, via tweet: "Can't wait til they catch the bastard, but it's valid to inquire about the tangible and intangible costs of shutting a whole city down."
• Allahpundit, Hot Air: "You don’t want people milling about in a park when there’s a guy with a suicide vest, guns, and ammo on the loose. But then, murder suspects are on the loose all the time in big cities and nothing shuts down for them, even though in theory they’re just as likely to go out in a blaze of nutty glory among a crowd. If you’re an aspiring terrorist, knowing that you can shut down a city for a day must be encouraging."
• Andrew Sullivan, the Dish: "I take Allahpundit’s point. If we discover this is a function of two twenty-something loser religious fanatics, what kind of precedent are we setting?"
• First line in Bloomberg report: "An American hub of finance and technology was immobilized Friday by a terrorist manhunt that idled or distracted more than 1.5 million workers."
• Quartz reports that "shut-it-down" has evolved into the go-to response for cities in any kind of emergency. It quotes a security analyst calling today's decision smart: "The priority is to get everyone off the streets," he says. "You have a person who has shown the ability to use explosives and has firearms. That puts the public at risk, and we have learned that we have a responsibility to prevent further injury to the public."

[Average Al]

"I wonder if the cops catch you out driving about - will they arrest you?"

It wasn't mandatory. With most businesses closed where are you going to go?

[nascarnation]

You’re right of course, and if this was a place where significant numbers of citizens owned firearms, they could turn the populace loose to find the guy.

[tomkat]

Is this really the country that beat the Nazi’s and the Japanese in WWII?

Uhmm no, actually, it's not

[tomkat]

OUTstanding story !

[dfwgator]

Heck, I wonder if we could even win in Grenada today.

[Jacquerie]

Hmmm, and who granted general search warrants to the police?

[Uncle Chip]

I find this de facto martial law disturbing.

You're not the only one.

All this local and state and federal and military manpower undergirded by sophisitcated technology costing billions of taxpayer dollars on display and this thug is still on the loose.

Do they really want to catch him or are they just enjoying the hunt.

[tomkat]

But damned sure not for lack of some fine kids !

Putrid rot at the top, plain/simple

[Hot Tabasco]

Another blogsite feeding speculation and disinformation?

No thanks.......I'm getting sick of this crap

Post it on chat!

[Caipirabob]

SO, HOW IS THAT CO-EXIST THINGY WORKING OUT?

[Responsibility2nd]

And we’re getting sick of your crap. Your intolerance of all things FRee Republic is getting tiresome pal.

Just log off and go away if you don’t like it here.

[MNDude]

Reminds me of the beginning of Finding Nemo where Marlin teaches his son Nemo how to be safe:

“first you poke your head out of the anemone and look around, you pull it back. you poke your head out, you pull it back. Sometimes you’ll have to do this 20 times before you finally come out...”

America’s most pathetic generation

[Sacajaweau]

They’ll stop you and they have no right to do that without a warrant.

[Sacajaweau]

Just stupid....they have a better chance of catching him with 500,000 eyes rather than 10,000 eyes.

[ConservativeStatement]

[nascarnation]

Surprised they didn’t dump Biden in favor of Deval.
He’d be perfectly positioned to run against Hillary in the primaries.

[ConservativeStatement]

I think Patrick has a bond with the Clintons.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“Hmmm, and who granted general search warrants to the police?”

That is exactly what my fiancee’ was just saying over dinner. The cops don’t have the right to blanket search every house in the neighborhood just because they are looking for a fugitive. They could knock on your door and ask you if everything is OK. If they think a house is suspicious they can get a search warrant.

Personally I don’t know if this terror attack was real or contrived. I hope it was real. But never the less it appears the cops are using this as a test case to basically use martial law and see who sqwawks about it. So far hardly anybody. If nobody objects they will start doing it as standard practice.

[mrsmith]

“A Billion Dollar Shut-Down”

And the rest of America will be expected to pay for it.
Bet there’s a bill being written in the Senate and the House right now.

[trapped_in_LA]

“Two dumb (bleep) punks are doing this. A Billion Dollar Shut-Down

Don’t think for a moment that real terrorist aren’t paying attention.”

Given the response I’d say that those “two dumb punks” were real terrorists. They certainly seemed to have terrorized the ruling elite of Boston in any case.