Home Pop Culture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev caught. Using terror to quell terror.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev caught. Using terror to quell terror.

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon Bombing suspect who managed to have the city of Boston on lockdown alert not once this week but twice was last night apprehended by authorities after a manhunt that had not only the city cautiously waiting but that of the world.

Found cowering inside his own pool of blood under a tarpaulin at the bottom of a resident’s boat, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture finally bought an end to the terror that this seemingly quaint and charming city could never imagined itself subjected to at the beginning of this week before Monday afternoon’s bomb blast that left 3 dead, 170 injured, 20 critically and a nation anxiously reeling in anxiety in the face of new terrorist acts.

The pandemonium once again then went into overdrive Thursday afternoon after authorities released images of what it believed to be chief suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing which led to an avalanche of social media forums hypothesizing if these two were actually the culprits who had brought the city of Boston to its knees.

It was not long however that the brothers gave away their hand after a hold up at a 7-Eleven then led to a shoot out on MIT campus that saw one grounds police officer shot dead, a car jacking and a subsequent explosive car chase between the brothers and authorities. It is reported in the exchange of fire that followed up to 200 rounds of ammunition followed. Eventually the elder brother, 26 year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev (he would go on to die of his wounds in custody) was apprehended whilst 19 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev managed to escape the scene armed to the tethers with ammunitions and explosives, once again forcing the city in an eerie nervous state of mind as it contemplated the suspect’s next move.

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev

Yet it was not to be as one resident, David Hanneberry of 67 Franklin St in the Boston suburb of Watertown took to taking a moment out (only after a city imposed curfew was relaxed) and having a cigarette in their backyard when they came across the unhinged tarpaulin of his stationed boat. Checking to see what was wrong, it was only then that he came across the visage of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev curled-up inside covered in blood.

From there David Hanneberry immediately returned inside and called authorities who then dispatched a helicopter which used thermal imaging to confirm there was a person inside the boat.

Within minutes police, ATF, SWAT and K-9 units had descended upon 67 Franklin Street and engaged Tsarnaev in a vicious gun battle – over 40 shots rang out in the quiet suburban neighborhood.

By now at last apprehended and covered in his own blood and in serious disrepair the young assailant was thus rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev  was shot twice by law enforcement in the terrific gun battle which raged until his capture at approximately 8.45 p.m.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

What followed next could hardly betray the degree of relief and the deep strain the city had experienced as thousands of police officers and local residents then began to loudly applaud and cheer as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was led away.
In the first time in 5 days the residents of Boston could once again go about their tasks of business without the impending fear that they risked being caught in the crossfire of a merciless energy besotten with the intention of harm and terror.

Tweeted a relieved Boston police commissioner Ed Davis who by now was feeling the pressure not just from locals but the media as well to find the assailant: ‘It’s a proud day to be a Boston police officer. Thank you all.’

Tweeted the Boston Police Department itself: ‘CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won.’

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev

And in some ways justice had won, after all wasn’t that was at stake? Yet some might wonder if justice was really served as three individuals lost their lives, many critically injured and in the days after the attack the careless naming of potential subjects at the hands of authorities and media outlets in some way served to sully the intent of the cause as issues of minority profiling once again came into play.

One could even also wonder if the suspects themselves were necessarily offered a measure of civil jurisprudence as the releasing of their images to the media in many ways served to make them instant assailants, this before authorities could necessarily show that they had a case against them. In the end the violent clash that followed later that evening after the release of their images only served to convince many that indeed they were indeed the assailants the public sought, but at what cost to life, safety and civil harmony?

Since last night’s capture, a senior Justice Department official told ABC News that federal law enforcement officials are invoking the public safety exception to the Miranda rights.

That means that the suspect will be questioned immediately without having his rights read to him. Something that perhaps ought to have the public at large somewhat concerned if ultimately the idea of justice is why it fought so vigilantly to bring the perceived wrong doers to justice.

Perhaps even more disparagingly Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have since gone on to call for Tsarnaev to be held as an enemy combatant. All this without due process which shows that the suspect was indeed the culprit behind Monday’s bombing. Or could this all be an overzealous attempt to placate an anxious saturated public who courtesy of the media have been sufficiently riled up since Monday’s events?

Offered President Barack Obama ominously:

‘In this day of instant reporting, tweets, and blogs, there is a temptation to latch onto any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions, but when a tragedy like this happens, with the public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it important to do this right.’

But is this really all right and what risks are we willing to entertain if we now do away without the rights of those who we call suspects? Is this what we really mean by justice, no matter the real likelihood that the suspect in the end is the culprit or part of a wider collective responsible for Monday’s atrocious acts?

Reflected alternetorg: The city where the American Revolution began its fight against governmental overreach surrendered to the most outsized and disproportionate display of paramilitary policing in America in decades. One must ask if the manhunt that shut down an entire city to catch one 19-year-old on the run—who was found hiding and cowering in a backyard—did more to terrorize Bostonians than the attack on the Boston marathon itself.

For now the city of Boston and by extension most of America can once again bask in the notion that it is once again safe even if the reality may well be that it has willfully swapped one notion of safety and justice for a far more nebulous and strained version of safety and justice. Then again at least we all got the amazing car chase and hero’s welcome that we were all waiting for and then some…

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Above image via UK’s dailymail.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. PS. You know what else troubles me? The emphasis on this when 30,000 people die each year from gun violence. That’s a tough one too because when we arm the populace, we arm the bad guys. I love the Second Ammendment but our government has waaaay better means of “getting us” if they come after it’s citizens and a million guns ain’t going to do it. Just ask the people of Venezuela who are having their country stolen piece by piece by the Cubans. They are armed to the hilts; you can’t go to the movies without a gun, and all that has gotten them is the highest murder rate in the world.

    These are dangerous times.

  2. Thought provoking piece. It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback but this was a difficult situation and I am personally glad the Boston Police and FBI did everything they could. Had they note, we might have worried about when these guys would strike again–and they would have.

    The Miranda Right’s thing was concerning to me, until I understood more about the objective. It sounds as though they have a lot of indisputable evidence on this guy:

    – his alleged confession to the man whose car they hijacked
    – the corroboration of one of the victims, Jeff Bauman, who described seeing the older brother right before the explosion
    – the shootout/bomb exchange the night before
    – the explosives in the chest bomb worn by the older brother
    – the younger brother’s wounds, which resulted from police fire the night before
    – returning fire to police yesterday evening
    – and most damningly, thousands of images that place him at the scene and dropping off a bomb

    Tactically speaking, giving a suspect their Miranda rights protects them from self incrimination but it’s a double edge sword, as law enforcement needs it in order to submit evidence they may get from an interrogation.

    In this case, both men were effectively caught cold handed on several occasions. They don’t need any more evidence against the younger brother; what they need is information about who put him up to this. In other words, by not giving him his Miranda rights and not giving him access to a lawyer, they hope to gain an advantage in getting him to talk about the looser network. It’s a morally questionable approach, for sure. It goes against the spirit of Miranda, but I believe it rightfully prioritizes the lives of potential victims against further attacks. There are decisions we take when defending the homeland that fall outside morality; war, as an example, is inherently evil, yet we had not qualms killing whomever at war. I think we need to view this in the same manner.

    This is not a typical crime; this is war on the homeland by a foreign terrorist. That he lived him x number of years is not comforting to me in the least. That he became a citizen is also insignificant to me and I am a naturalized citizen. I think the minute he decided to bomb civilians, her revoked his American citizenship and revealed himself to be what he is: an enemy combatant in a an American baseball cap.

    I am only glad I am not put in the position of having to decide between following the law of the land to a letter vs. potentially allowing other fatalities from people essentially at war with us. I see John Mc’Cain’s point—which means hell hath frozen over, but that’s a post for another day. 🙂

    I don’t meant to be trite with our rights, and I absolutely get your points. Guantanamo Bay gives me heartburn every time I think about it. However, we live in dangerous times. I don’t know better means. These guys will use our freedoms against us. They are not of us, they are not one of us; they mean us harm and they mean to kill us.

    Interestingly–I have surprised myself by feeling empathetic towards the young suspect. I believe he needs to pay for what he did, spend the rest of his days in captivity so I am not talking about leniency but it saddens me that a young man, 19 years of age, has thrown his life away and taken many others with him. He had so many wonderful choices open to him and destruction is what he chose. At 26, the older brother knew better but at 19, he is still a kid. It’s a tragedy, but then again, so is war and that is what this is…..

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