More on sending messages

[drwex]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/inside-the-investigation-of-the-boston-marathon-bombing/2013/04/20/19d8c322-a8ff-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_story.html

The Post story is the first I've seen that puts together the struggle over when and how the bombing suspects were identified - how both social media and face recognition technology failed - and how the choice to release the official images was a message with multiple targets.

ETA: http://www.popehat.com/2013/04/20/security-theater-martial-law-and-a-tale-that-trumps-every-cop-and-donut-joke-youve-ever-heard/

Popehat blog has a fairly biting commentary on the lockdown, including pointing out that the second suspect was found after the lockdown was lifted and people were allowed to go outside and look around.

Comments

[drwex]

I accept that your experience is different from those repeated to me. I'm glad you had a better experience.

I think the question of societal failure is orthogonal to the question of whether this was an overreaction. But perhaps not. I could argue it either way.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

After a horrific bombing perpetrated by two vile criminals, an outcry against the over-reach and tacticalization of police and federal law enforcement seemed fully reasonable ... to militia organizations 18 years ago. And they were called paranoid fear mongers.

I definitely think this an issue of (more than mere) semantics - where you and popehat use the term "martial law" I would use "police state", and they are two very different things, even in how they walk and talk, whether it looks like a duck or an angry goose.


These trivial differences, as I have seen some call them, between my definition of martial law and that of a police state, are very important differences to me, as someone involved in military llaw enforcement.

The MPs I do planning and operations orders for, CANNOT, except in very limited, hard to exist, exigent circumstances, be involved in law enforcement on a civilian populace, as they are all federal soldiers.

The National Guard is a very different legal story, and from what I have heard, were used only as outer security for the impacted areas, not for actual arrests (apprehensions in military terms) or searches.

Additionally, yes, suspect #2 was found AFTER the SIP order was lifted ... however, how likely was he to have attempted to walk around during the SIP?

[drwex]

You seem to be very focused on a term, rather than on what I see as the content of the column. That's your right, of course, but it's not something I feel is worth extensive argument unless we're in agreement on what I think are the fundamental questions.

As to the question of whether the suspect moved around during the SIP that's trivially true. He didn't teleport to that hiding place - he walked there during the SIP. It was widely reported that the suspect "escaped on foot" during the SIP. It's unclear to me what your point is in raising this question.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

The question of societal failure is totally beside the point. The question I'm looking at is "Could the ass at popehat have come up with anything tackier or more callous then that line about Detroit?"

I hope the answer's no, but I suspect not.