[Boston Terrible Things Open Thread]

Submitted by Gobgoblue on

Shots have been fired and at least 1 officer has died.  There are 2 suspects.  One is caught, the other is still at large, but police are expanding the perimeter.  

The police and MSP are treating these suspects as the Boston marathon suspects.  They are armed with grenades, home-made bombs, and assault weapons.

Police scanner if you wish: http://t.co/I1stA1IjKG

This guy is live-tweeting it: https://twitter.com/alertnewengland

What the hell is up with humanity.  Godspeed all involved and prayers/thoughts with the officer who was killed.  

Mod edit: Changed the title to make this the open thread for Boston topics today. New threads are highly discouraged and will almost certainly be removed; this forum topic is fine for discussion today. JGB.

XM - Mt 1822

April 19th, 2013 at 9:21 AM ^

the time element is spent securing the area, verifying any other civilians in the fire zone, and at least some time is spent trying to take a guy like this alive.  highly unlikely this guy is alive by the time we go home from work today.  could happen, but i wouldn't bet the farm on it.   if they are going to be really patient they will keep him up and talking for as long as possible.  at some point the bad guy gets tired.  then he dies. 

Sopwith

April 19th, 2013 at 9:22 AM ^

I'm just waking up in California to all this news... holy crap!  Wait, so I'm trying to follow the mind of international terrorists... you have 72 hours after a bombing to get to a safe house in Prague, Bolivia, Sana, Lagos, London, or wherever.  Instead you stay in greater Boston.

Then, with your pictures out on the airwaves and the entire world looking for you, you decide to head out at 10pm to rob a 7-11 and jack a Mercedes.

What, were they out of smokes or something?  This sounds less like sophisticated international terrorists and more like thugs gone wild.  I'm glad one of them is on the run and not dead-- his last few hours will be spent in total fear.  This is a good morning.

Moleskyn

April 19th, 2013 at 9:32 AM ^

Yeah, that's a good question: why did they go out? I think it makes more sense to try to lay low and wait things out than bolt the country, but if that was their plan, why did they go to the 7-11? I think that's more confusing than why they stayed in the US. If they planned this out this well, you'd think they would have stocked up on enough food/water to last them at least a week.

Sopwith

April 19th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^

so instead of knocking off a convenience store, you can just, you know, buy your smokes and Cheetos or whatever instead of pulling a gun on the clerk.  Does anyone get the feeling this is some new category of "thrill terrorists"?

What a world.  This is why I need Michigan sports as therapy.

thisisme08

April 19th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^

Well it could be that they never expected to get out of this alive aka kill as many as they can/suicide by cop. 

They went out, knocked off a 7/11 to start another spree, carjacked a guy and bam now they got the whole BPD out to get them.  This is the response they wanted and expected so now they go out in a blaze of "glory".  

Needs

April 19th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^

Knocking over the 7/11, carjacking someone, all this suggests to me that they had no plan beyond the initial bombing. If this seems like an action movie, it may be because that's the main influence on their strategy (note: this is not a "violent movies caused this" argument.) 

True Blue Grit

April 19th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ^

and flee.  But, they must have assumed they wouldn't get caught up with so fast AND had more terrorism plans to carry out.   Hopefully they'll find him very quickly.  But there's no way he's captured alive at this point. 

Moleskyn

April 19th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^

FYI, the guy who had his legs blown off (you've probably seen his picture by now), apparently helped authorities identify the older brother. Just absolutely crazy. LINK

WingsNWolverines

April 19th, 2013 at 11:01 AM ^

It's time we do something about this and shut down our boarders to immigrants from over seas. This can't go on. Don't blame us blame the people who have caused it. It's time we make a stand.

Louie C

April 19th, 2013 at 11:20 AM ^

But I could have sworn that Lanza, McVeigh, Kazynski (sp) Harris, and Klebold were US citizens. There are people that are angry, some that are brainwashed or manipulated, and some that are crazy, or just simply want to see the world burn.



Closing borders, taking guns,or any drastic knee jerk reaction isn't going to fix anything as long as we occupy this planet.

clarkiefromcanada

April 19th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^

Don't hate us for our NHL talent,  our cultural contibutions (have you had the poutine at Zingerman's?) or our ingenuity (Affleck's movie...that's us who actually pulled that off). 

We gave you Yzerman, Pamela Anderson, John Candy, Wayne Gretzky...but also Tom Green (you can keep him).

Close the borders and nobody's drinking in Windsor at 19 either.

Food for thought.

justingoblue

April 19th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^

Points return in a month.

To make this easier on people, any post demanding or requesting a specific political or policy solution is going to lose points in addition to claims about specific officials and the usually obvious stuff ("Obama sux", "Obama's teh best", ect.). Abstract discussion only, and even then tread lightly.

joeyb

April 19th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^

They have a suspect in custody. He had a body vest on and something in his hand/pocket. This is a different guy than the one they are looking for. It sounds like they have this area pretty well sealed and they are continuing to check out houses.

TheThief

April 19th, 2013 at 11:52 AM ^

That interview with their uncle was pretty amazing.

Everyone keeps asking why they didn't leave. Obviously, these guys are pretty twisted and beyond thinking rationally about anything. Hopefully no one else is injured, these guys seem literally hell bent on destruction. 

I hope they can take the younger one in peacefully, maybe we can get a window into why they did this, so that authorities can understand better how to deal with people like this in the future. It has been so long since I have felt safe, I miss that feeling.

LSAClassOf2000

April 19th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^

ABC News ran an interesting piece on some things that the father of the suspects said - (HERE)

I guess they spoke with Anzor Tsarnaev at his home in Makhachkala in Russia, and he said that he would encourage his son to surrender peacefully (and, according to one quote, he would like him to return to Russia), but warned that "all hell would break loose" if he were to be killed, as he claimed that this would be proof that "some organization" was after him, more or less. 

There are also some pieces of interviews with people who knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from his time in high school. 

 

Dagger

April 19th, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^

I live in Watertown.  The police presence has been great, but this whole thing has been a bit surreal.

I'm looking forward to when he's caught so we can all breathe a little easier.