In Boston and suburbs, shutdown is surreal (Don't call it Martial Law)

Washington Post ^ | Friday, April 19, 2013 | Kevin Sullivan

[Second Amendment First]

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Throughout Boston and its surrounding suburbs — a metro area usually clogged and bustling on a weekday morning — residents found themselves ordered to stay in — or stay out — of their homes Friday morning, as police launched an unprecedented hunt for Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, an immigrant of Chechen origin who grew up in Cambridge and was identified in video footage from the site of Monday’s deadly attack.

The major universities that are the city’s lifeblood shut down. The web of buses and squealing transit cars of the oldest underground subway in the nation ground to a halt. The gleaming skyscrapers with names of insurance companies and banks in downtown Boston were lightly peopled.

Stuck without any transportation, Bostonians watched televised news updates and tracked social media sites at their homes, glancing outside to ponder empty streets and shuttered businesses.

“When big men with guns and bullet proof vests order you to get out, you get out,” said Tim Fiedler, 23, who lives on Norfolk Street, where the Tsarnaev family lives.

A notice from Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s office said residents of Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge, Allston, Brighton and the entire city of Boston should stay indoors.

[Skepolitic]

You ought to check the date on that news article:
it wasn’t last night.

[R_Kangel]

.... Yup .... my bad ... It was sent to me saying it was last nite .... Shoulda checked ..... Turns out it wasn’t ... Still poignant to America tho.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

This whole thing has been a massive screw up

Basic escape and evasion. Find a place of concealment, hide, and don't move. That's what he did. It's not rocket science. Apparently, a bystander saw a bloody trail to his hiding place. That was his undoing. Can't fault the cops. They need some sophisticated detection equipment to find him. I keep reading about all these detectors that can see through walls and such. But if he is lying still under a tarp on a boat, I can see missing him.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I know you have to weigh different considerations, but now we have sent terrorists the message that not only will one of our major cities be shut down but several surrounding towns. And who knows what tomorrow?

The kill count (but not major maiming injuries which should not be minimized) was much higher with those Wash, DC snipers. Did they shut anything down? No. Why not?

Figure this as a Massachusetts Democrat standard - Dukakis in 1978 for a snow storm, and Patrick for a manhunt. It's not economically sustainable. There will be a lot of bitching behind the scenes about the economic loss.

[jimsin]

AWW he’s still kickin’ i was hopin he’d be on a nice ice cold marble slab by now...oh well...

[Red in Blue PA]

If Britain invaded today, they would win. Everyone would be told to ahelter in place and most would dutifully do it, as subjects do.

[Aliska]

There will be a lot of bitching behind the scenes about the economic loss.

Thanks for your perspective on it. It makes sense.

Really, anybody well armed or not-so-well armed and desperate could take a hostage or perpetrate other acts of mayhem whether a city is on lockdown or not.

[greeneyes]

The news services have reported that they are doing house to house searches. Doubt that they have warrents for each individual house. Is there such a thing as blanket warrent for the neighborhood? Or are they using exigent circumstances as an excuse?

[Terry L Smith]

The NATIONAL JUSTICE SYSTEM has a wanted list, that they can’t find!

The bombings happened Monday ... here it is Friday, and if the police had kept all their mouths shut, and let the plainclothesmen/women of the ‘law enforcement agency of the moment’, do their job, we might have had two people in wraps, by now.

NO!!!

Their ineffectual uniformed methods, and, “I have the gun, you DON”T” mentality, screwed up everybody. What about all this hype that law enforcement has all these hollow point bullets, that are DESIGNED TO NOT GO OUTSIDE THE BODY OF THE RECIPIENT??? But, they make everybody leave, because they are proven BAD SHOTS!!!

IF... they got the guy holed up, why don’t they use of those super long range rifles, like the military in AFGHANISTAN, where they do not have to worry about harming others in the immediate area?

OH, THAT’S RIGHT! THEY ARE BAD SHOTS!!

[greeneyes]

Well, I don’t think it takes a dictator, but it does take a sensible majority of people who desire independence and freedom.

[VRW Conspirator]

I'm sure that terrorists-in-waiting are already doing calculations.

Hold all the cards, we have a Bingo. When the scumbags finish there calculations, they will realize that several simultaneous attacks like this will paralyze cities, states, but especially the federal government.

[iopscusa]

Whenever I looked at the idiot box all I saw were a bunch of overfed, overdressed gubermint workers standing around scratching their azzes....if this had been a bunch of patriots these fat flukes would have been pig meat.

[AZLiberty]

The convicted (and confessed) culprit, Eric Rudolph, was apparently a right-wing nut, just the kind of person that today’s left-wing media were hoping for in the Boston Marathon bombing.

[zeugma]

Thanks, I don't doubt LEO’s are operating under extreme circumstances, but I wonder where the precedent will rear it's head in the future. Perhaps they would have been better off to declare martial law, then even the use of Military assets in an Urban US area would have seemed less like a incursion on the Constitution.

Well said.  If they were to come to my house for something like this, I'd simply tell them that neither muslims nor cops without warrants are allowed into my house.