Random Notes from the Police State by Will Pitt

[sinkingfeeling]

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15895-random-notes-from-the-police-state

Contrary to a number of addle-brained pontifications offered by people who have never set foot in the 617 area code, we were not "cowering in our homes," and Boston was not transformed into a "police state," and it was not "martial law." The governor asked us to stay inside - there was a bomber on the loose who made his own bombs, several of which were thrown out the window of a car during a miles-long shoot-out, so maybe there was also unexploded ordnance in the streets between where the brothers started running and where they stopped, and maybe the surviving brother had more such explosives with him, along with the gun he used to shoot at police in a well-recorded battle - and so we did.

How is it a police state if all the Dunkin' Donuts were open? Fascists need caffeine, too?

Or maybe it was voluntary, a city-wide community action. We're pretty good at that here in Boston. We get huge snowstorms every winter, and our public officials always ask us to remain indoors and not to drive so they can clean it up. When the blizzard hit in February, our public officials asked us to stay inside and off the roads. They were the exact same public officials who asked us to stay inside on Friday...and gloriosky! It worked!

Boston law enforcement did their best in a terrible, dangerous and deranged situation. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is alive and in custody (memo to Los Angeles PD), and has a good lawyer actively representing his interests (for those of you who can't be bothered to understand what Miranda is and what Miranda isn't). We who live here went along with the stay-in order willingly, as it was the same one we get when two feet of snow falls, and it worked as it always does. This community works together for each other, and Friday night - after word went out that the guy had been captured alive - will stand tall in Boston's long history among the greatest party nights of all time, because we were celebrating ourselves.

[LuvNewcastle]

1. Considering how many cops were there, that was like

the Dunkin' Donuts version of Black Friday.

[CountAllVotes]

2. As usual a good read by a good writer

Will Pitt is indeed a talented writer and I agree with what he has written.

Thanks again Will Pitt!

[hedgehog]

3. Funny how no one is worried about the police state down in West, Texas.....

Officials have opened what is known as Zone 2, a four-block area close to the plant, on Sunday. The area closest to the plant remains closed. Residents in the least damaged homes were allowed back Saturday night, with a curfew in place.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/22/17860110-with-homes-shattered-students-return-to-school-in-west-texas?lite

[RussBLib]

4. I'll bet you...

...there was some serious fuckin' goin' on in Boston last Friday night!! Wish I'd been there!

[freshwest]

6. +1,000. Thanks for bringing it here. Will Pitt, TruthOut, some sanity and respect.

Powerful article, expresses all that anyone could say about Boston and how it pulls itself together.

[Cha]

7. Great account of the reality of the situation. Bostonians

weren't whining. You know, the ones who were actually there and involved in the potentially lethal situation.

to Boston Strong!

[sheshe2]

17. Boston Strong!!!!!!!!!

Oh wait I have to get out of my cowering position to stand up and cheer.

To our BPD and all that assisted, we are all strong, Cha!

To Boston!

[Cha]

19. I believe it!

you all are healing the best way, she!

[calimary]

20. Totally! "Boston Strong" - I LIKE that!

Sending you love (and my boys on Monday April 29th) from California! Anyone interested in seeing them, PM me.

[SlipperySlope]

8. Voluntary?

This doesn't look voluntary to me.

For those who would say it was voluntary, I ask at exactly what point were the people in that house free to say "get out of my house" to the police?

[Raven]

9. Do you have any factual information about

people who felt forced by the cops to let them search?

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

14. Here's another video... "Each time a swat team would RESCUE a family at the point of a gun"

Knock, Knock...

"Who's there?"

"The 4th Reich. Welcome to the New World Order!"

[sinkingfeeling]

23. Nice propaganda piece from policestateusa.

[sheshe2]

15. Read what watertown has to say...............................

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022744672

[geek tragedy]

22. Do you live in Boston, or are you just some guy posting Youtube videos? nt

[Scruffy Rumbler]

10. I wonder if there will be a boom of "shelter in place babies" next winter?

Oh, and thanks for the good read, Will. Boston handled this awful situation wonderfully, from the police to the public.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

11. Boston bombing: FBI backlash 'risks turning US into surveillance state'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/23/boston-bombing-fbi-backlash-surveillance

This issue is worthy of more than a collection of pithy paragraphs belittling legitimate concerns.

But if that is what floats your boat, have at it.

[ms liberty]

12. Your concern is noted. n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

13. Boston is just another brick in the wall.

Warrantless spying, 30,000 Drones in the skies over US cities, cameras at every intersection, Event Data Recorder spies factory-installed in your car, roving license plate scanners, email/text harvesters, evidenceless/juryless execution of American citizens, imprisioning whistleblowers/letting the Too Big To Jail's go scot free, torture, private prisons, and BRAND NEW! cameras and microphones factory-installed into your TV set.

Boston is just another brick in the wall.

[Eleanors38]

16. I agree with this. It's one thing for the state to require folks to hole-up...

and quite another to recommend the obvious. I can't fault Boston, Massachusetts, or the U.S. for its actions in bringing these 2 suspects to heel. Maybe there is better evidence elsewhere of an impending police state, but I don't see it here.

[calimary]

21. Well put!

I don't see it in this case, either. They had a horrific job to do with two murderous renegades with homemade bombs forcryingoutloud! Just finding them - in the photographs as well as on the city streets - mindblowing what a task that would be! I don't see any police state stuff in this. I see law enforcement protecting the people during a crisis of life-threatening magnitude. They run TOWARD trouble, the way firefighters run TOWARD the inferno. While the rest of us are instructed to run to safety. And there were no civilian casualties in bringing the perps in. And only one of them was killed. The other's condition was upgraded from serious to fair today and he's lived to hear his Miranda rights.

Great point by Will, too - these were the very same precautions the greater Boston area heard just a couple of months ago. Anyone remember Storm Nemo? My kid's band had to withdraw from the last three nights of their tour because their little tour buggy couldn't make it to New England through all the snow and wind and blizzards. Awful. Boston was shut down then, too.

[sheshe2]

18. Thanks Will!

Well said!

[Marrah_G]

24. Applause!

[truth2power]

25. Interesting. The response to this article is quite different here than over at Smirking Chimp...

Not everyone agreed over there, and some good points made.

[graham4anything]

26. Beautiful and important article. Conspiracy theories have got to stop.

And the damn thing is- the killer got treated in the same hospital as the vicitms they attempted to kill. And the doctors treated him like any other patient.

And the most beautiful thing was the people standing and cheering when it was over for the police, firemen, EMS, law enforcement for a job well done.

Bravo!