An End to the Boston Drama and Your Tax Dollars at Work

Very pleased to see that the Boston Marathon bombing drama has been brought to a close without further loss of life.  One thing that had to strike you as you watched this scene unfold was the tremendous amount of resources a place like Massachusetts -- God Save It! as some are wont to say --was able to bring to bear on behalf of the public safety.  This professionalism and expertise was courtesy of the all too frequently scorned public employees, who, according to our right wing brethren, don't have "real" jobs.  (I am guessing that few of those who take that view have ever faced a moment of danger in their professional lives.)

I was also pleased to see illustrated how police work should differ from the kind of thing that the military does.  This sad episode was brought to a conclusion with patient and precise work, not sheer deadly force.  It was very impressive work.

It will be interesting to see what kind of insight into the crime we can achieve from the young perpetrator.  I suspect that he will have a very, very long time behind bars to contemplate the enormity of his incredibly vile acts.   

Comments

[nancy]

One big heavy sigh of relief.

And yes indeed. This professionalism and expertise was courtesy of the all too frequently scorned public employees, who, according to our right wing brethren, don't have "real" jobs. (I am guessing that few of those who take that view have ever faced a moment of danger in their professional lives.)

Amen.

[low-tech cyclist]

I second that huge sigh of relief.

And those 'unreal' jobs, even during more normal times, are jobs that we all count on being done and done well, to hold our society together and keep it working as it should.

And in the case of police work and firefighting, danger comes with the job. A policeman at MIT is dead, and a MBTA policeman is in critical condition, because they were doing their jobs last night. And on Wednesday, in West, Texas, some of the firefighters who raced to the scene to fight the blaze got killed by the subsequent explosion.

Nobody should be tearing down our police, our teachers, our firefighters, as a class. Nobody has the standing to. There may be some who don't live up to the ideals of their profession, and it's fair to criticize those persons. But to tear them down as a group? None of us have that right. They are there for us every day. We depend on them.

[janinsanfran]

I want to give a shout out here to WBUR's coverage of this awful day in their city. They even gave time (and took hostility for it) to a kid and a reporter who had known "Suspect #2" in high school. They honestly conveyed the flavor of the Boston area as a set of small towns (something I lived, once upon a time.) I got plugged into their live feed early today and was glued in.

So glad this phase is over.

[T.R. Donoghue]

Good night fr Irish catholic public sector union workers

[Crissa]

I'm glad the boat didn't burn down, but I'm slightly worried at the tendency to use these flash bangs and incendiary gas tools that have a fair chance of killing innocents and destroying evidence.

Aside from that, they did a great job.

[Linkmeister]

Remember all the shots John Kerry took back in 2004 because he said fighting terrorism ought to be a law enforcement function, not a military one?

Funny, that.

[low-tech cyclist]

The military's great when you know who your enemies are and have a pretty good idea of where to find them. For a war between nations, in particular, there's nothing like a good military.

But that just isn't what the world's about, anymore.

[low-tech cyclist]

This Onion headline cracked me up: Study: Majority Of Americans Not Informed Enough To Stereotype Chechens

[oddjob]

Remember all the shots John Kerry took back in 2004 because he said fighting terrorism ought to be a law enforcement function, not a military one?

Funny, that.

Tell it to Lindsey Graham....

:(

[big bad wolf]

all too true oddjob. i noticed last night in the globe coverage that the official line was reported as being that the bomber could be questioned for 48 hours without being read his rights (that's what the story said, and i assume some official, i am not saying it was so). immediately made me put on my defense attorney.civli liberties hat. that's just plain wrong. we can convict him, punish him, even hate him. but treat him legally as he should be treated.

[kathy a.]

agreed, bbw. but it may be a moot point; the guy seems to be pretty badly hurt.

[Eric Wilde]

Don't mess around in New England.

I'm not worried that those god botherers who want to defile our Constitution will get very far outside their backward Bible Belt regions. F'n Boston will kick their sanctimonious rear ends back to where they belong.

[kathy a.]

benen on the brilliant idea to consider suspect # 2 an "enemy combatant" (even though he is a citizen) and deny him counsel. what a couple of buffoons.

it would be darned convenient to deny counsel and deny miranda warnings in every criminal case, wouldn't it? i'm sure these fellas can come up with other crimes they really really hate. the urge to take that shortcut to justice is exactly why we need the constitutional protections. all of us need those protections.

[Linkmeister]

I wrote this elsewhere when I first heard Graham's whiny complaint:

The really aggravating thing is that Lindsey Graham is not only a US Senator, albeit from that bizarre place called South Carolina, but he's a lawyer and JAG officer in the SC National Guard. If he doesn't trust the law but would rather use extra-judicial action to deal with this perpetrator, then Graham should be disbarred.

[oddjob]

I feel the same. I felt the same about Scott Brown who endorses torture and also is a lawyer and JAG officer in the National Guard.

[nancy]

Graham -- ideally also dis-elected.

[oddjob]

Obama Justice Dept. is attempting to weaken Miranda protocol.

[oddjob]

GOP senators are trying to enshrine Bush Administration's repudiation of the Constitution.

[Sir Charles]

This is fucking ridiculous. We have a system of justice for all occasions; not for just when it seems convenient.

I also don't understand why the Obama Administration would want to jeopardize the case against this kid by failing to Mirandize him. There is simply no need for this.

Miranda is not going to be an impediment to conviction here, just as it rarely is. My guess is the kid will talk, but even if he doesn't, it's his constitutional right -- not some minor loophole to be avoided.

[oddjob]

I think it's connected to his drone policy.

Ever since the Bush administration decided to create a new (to me at least) class of bad guys named "enemy combatants" Pandora's Box has been open.

[Sir Charles]

Interestingly, a friend of mine has talked to Graham on multiple occasions in Afghanistan and he tells me that Graham is actually a pretty sophisticated lawyer, which makes the whole enemy combatant thing even more appalling.

[oddjob]

Meanwhile that fertilizer manufacturing plant in Texas that blew up last week was in violation of the law.

Who could have guessed?

[oddjob]

A pretty sophisticated lawyer? You mean like as in how John Yoo is a pretty sophisticated lawyer?

How can you be a pretty sophisticated lawyer and have such contempt for the rule of law?

[Sir Charles]

I believe that what my friend --who went to law school with me and practiced for several years before joining the foreign service -- meant that Graham was capable of articulating and understanding all manner of issues as they related to the legal status of the prisoners of the "war on terror." But that he just doesn't give a shit when he is advocating policy.

Yes, in fact, much like John Yoo.

[beckya57]

I think people like Graham say a lot of loud things because they're terrified of being Tea Partied from their right. SC is a truly insane place these days. I'm not excusing him at all, mind you, just saying I think that may explain some of the disconnect between what he knows and what he says for public consumption.

OJ, did you see the pathetic fine the owners of that plant had paid? I think it was about $2500. Much cheaper to pay that and move along then change the safety violations; I'm sure they considered it just a cost of doing business. I was at a psychiatric NP conference yesterday (running it actually, I'm exhausted) and one of the presenters was talking about underfunded/staffed the FDA is and how behind they are in researching (legal)drug problems. The war on the public sector has been quite successful, TYVM. Like Sir C and the rest of you, I was impressed with the job the Boston authorities did, but I'm sure the GOP will be back to trashing public servants in a week or 2 at the most. Frankly, between this stuff and the failure of gun control legislation I've just had it this week.

[oddjob]

It's no wonder the wingnuts worry about government jackbooted thugs taking away their weapons when they themselves also advocate governmental jackbooted thuggery.

And no, I didn't see what the fine was.

To the extent that underfunding the FDA makes it difficult or impossible for them to enforce food safety regs. it is the creation of a clear and present danger to the nation's food supply.

[kathy a.]

what about workplace safety? this place had tons of explosives, for dog's sake, and no inspections for about ever. meaning the first responders were walking into an enormous explosion. less regulation needed, my ass.

[kathy a.]

also, the federal public defenders step up, insisting on being appointed to represent whozits as soon as possible because "there are 'serious issues regarding possible interrogation.'"

federal public defenders nationwide are under intense financial pressure because of the sequester. this is more or less the most hated person in the US today. but they are stepping up anyway, because that needs to happen, and that is what they do.

[oddjob]

Thank you for that link, kathy a!

[low-tech cyclist]

John McCain and Lindsay Graham should move to the sort of country where rights can be denied on the whim of the government.

"Under the Law of War we can hold this suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or the appointment of counsel," McCain and Graham said.

So if a crime is sufficently dastardly, McCain and Graham are saying we can call it an act of war, no matter that it was committed by an American citizen and is not part of any existing war.

I really hate to invoke slippery slopes, but it's hard to see a bright line where this would ever stop. Crimes 'worthy' of being declared acts of war would inevitably get more prosaic over time.

And while I understand and share our leaders' desire to ensure that we locate and disarm any of their explosives that may still be out there, it seems to me that invoking the public safety exception to Miranda is unnecessary and stupid.

Just give the kid immunity for any information he gives about any additional bombs or explosive materials he and his brother had, and create a special unit, separate from the rest of the investigation, to take that testimony.

They're going to have enough on him to lock him up for the rest of his life as it is; they can protect the public while doing things the right way.

And what Charlie Pierce said:

And now there should be a trial. And not just a trial, but the greatest, fairest trial in the history of trials. The defendant should get the best possible legal assistance money can buy. The "public safety exception" to Miranda should be allowed to expire. He should get the best jury we can empanel and, if we have to move the trial to Guam on account of pre-trial publicity, then godspeed. And then he should be tried and, if convicted, in the greatest, fairest trial in history, he should get shipped off forever to federal prison, never to be heard from again.

[kathy a.]

l-tc -- hate to see mccain and graham showing parts of their anatomy that none of us want to see, but their comments from the planet bizarro do not a "legal controversy" actually make. should this guy survive, he will get a civilian trial.

[nancy]

Wandering off into open thread: Damn straight . Krugman. Jobless trap. Filing the *unemployed* as the unemployables. Where does this land us? Our current version of debtors prison. Hate this much. Corporate and business discrimination with no recourse. And endless. Dickensian.

[kathy a.]

yeah. my daughter does not count, because she graduated college 16 months ago and has never gotten a job. she is invisible. she hears that every time she applies for anything -- there is a lot of competition for anything, these days, and mostly the prospective employers do not even bother saying "no thank you, good luck." she does not even count as one of the unemployed, because she was not previously employed long enough and with pay.

[Crissa]

There's also the thing that they took him into custody unconscious or semi-conscious, so they probably wouldn't have read him his rights at that point.

The 48-hrs thing is BS. Especially since the courts ruled they still have the right to remain silent whether or not they've been Mirandized.

[low-tech cyclist]

Stupid things from stupid people department:

GWB: "There's no need to defend myself. I did what I did and ultimately history will judge."

Dear George: history's already judged you and your crew. It's a pity The Hague can't do the same.

And the only thing I have to say about Maureen Dowd is, why does this woman still have a column in the New York Times?

[paula]

Civilian court it is, which makes me happy. Let the howling begin.

[Eric Wilde]

Dear George: history's already judged you and your crew. It's a pity The Hague can't do the same.

Is this actually true? Is there some way Georgie and his cohorts could really be brought to justice for their crimes, regardless how politically difficult it may be.

[oddjob]

I could be mistaken, but I think there are provisions in US law to prosecute authorizing torture. The relevant treaty was signed by Reagan and endorsed by the Senate (during the Clinton administration IIRC), so that treaty is a part of US law. I don't know if the provisions involving the Hague are necessarily a part of US law.

[kathy a.]

oh -- i was confused for a minute, oddjob, but i think you are talking about the United Nations Convention Against Torture (signed 1988, ratified 1994). treaties like this are part of US law, but this is not an entirely straightforward part of the law, domestically.

the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court are both located in the hague. i'm personally a little murky on jurisdiction and enforcement mechanisms for alleged international injustices. and there seems to be a problem with the US withdrawing from the ICC.

treaties (like the Convention Against Torture) seem to me -- somebody correct me if i'm wrong -- to mostly carry the weight of international opinion on certain matters, and not so much operate as enforceable laws.

[kathy a.]

paula -- there was a zero % chance of this defendant being considered an "enemy combatant." why this has been pitched in the news as some kind of controversy is another sign of the apocalypse: zombie journalists.

[Eric Wilde]

there was a zero % chance of this defendant being considered an "enemy combatant."

Sadly, I wasn't convinced that the chance really was 0%. Such is my opinion of our POTUS. I'm glad he's being treated as a domestic criminal now, though.

[nancy]

Zombie journalists. Plus a whole bunch of these folks seem to love repeating the phrase "enemy combatant". Rolls off the tongue and sounds commanding and aggressive. And like they know what they're talking about.

Also, Graham's weirdness appears to be acting up more lately. Not sure McCain is compos mentis.

[oddjob]

McCain 2.0 has been of suspect mental status at least since embracing Shrub & Co.'s ideas about torture even though he himself was on the receiving end of those, including to the extent of suffering permanent partial loss of range of motion in one arm. McCain 2.0 may have been of suspect status before then.

At least McCain 1.0 seemed as though his "maverick" status was grounded at least partly in the sort of reality Goldwater wouldn't leave, but that was before Shrub beat McCain 1.0 so soundly in the 2000 primaries.

[oddjob]

Good news in the South Carolina First Congressional District.

Fingers crossed! :)

In other political news: both Dem. candidates for the vacant MA seat in the Senate lead the GOP candidates by double-digit margins, but support all around for all the candidates is soft.

[kathy a.]

oh, seriously? sanford is not winning that district. ok, i haven't lived there since 1988, but the charleston area is not really like the rest of the state. (not universally, anyway.) seriously, sneakng out of his wife's house at the beach, and he thinks nobody will notice he was there? i could mention all kinds of other stupid, but it is not necessary amongst this company. and elizabeth colbert-busch has lots going for her.

[kathy a.]

** ex-wife's house at the beach. not wife. ex. trust me, the neighbors all knew, even if the police hadn't been called.

[nancy]

Is this miserable deadly brothers saga about to become even more awful? Not from National Enquirer but TPM , which vets pretty carefully afaik. Unsolved throat-slitting murders, 2011.

[kathy a.]

step away from the rumors. go have a nice glass of wine. wait until things shake out.

i'm sorry, but "police are looking into a possible connection" is not actually reliable evidence of anything -- only that the police are looking into every possible unsolved thing since there are now some potential suspects handy.

[nancy]

step away from the rumors.

kathy, I know that. Of course. But TPM. Jehebus. They are not exactly the 'let's get there first' media outlet. Or maybe you think they are.

[oddjob]

SC-1 is more than Charleston. It's the coastline from just south of Charleston north to the NC border and as it nears the border the district boundary swings quite a bit inland. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to learn the district was gerrymandered to dilute the clout of Charleston's voters.

[oddjob]

i'm sorry, but "police are looking into a possible connection" is not actually reliable evidence of anything

Haven't read the TPM piece, but that was also reported in today's Boston Globe. I just finished reading that particular article maybe 15 mins. ago.

[Sir Charles]

My first reaction to the Waltham (home of Brandeis) murders is that it is a convenient way to try and clear a cold case.

It did not sound like a similar type of crime.

[oddjob]

I understand why it seems that way, Sir C., but according to today's Globe article it was the family members of the murder victims who requested the police reconsider the possibility that Tamerlan Tsarnaev played a major role in the killings.

(I hope the link works. The Boston Globe's articles are sometimes behind a paywall and sometimes not.)

[kathy a.]

nope, the link doesn't work.

well, i can understand family members of victims wanting to see if there is any connection. but that doesn't mean there is one. the method is completely different from any of the recent crimes. also, the 2011 case is thought to be linked to drugs, possibly because those bodies were sprinkled with marijuana. does that sound even remotely similar?

this only came up because one of the 2011 victims knew one of the boston bomb guys. you know how we randomly meet people who know somebody we know? i'm thinking this is probably one of those things.

[oddjob]

Here's one relevant quote from the article: "...The Globe reported Saturday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev knew Mess [one of the three victims] well, once introducing him to the owner of the gym where they both worked out as his “best friend.” But another friend of Mess said Tsarnaev did not attend Mess’s funeral...."