On Monday, April 15, the Boston Marathon had been underway for several hours when two bombs went off within minutes of each other near the finish line. Crowds standing along the route waiting to cheer on their loved ones due to run past were torn by a deadly hail of shrapnel, including what would later be identified as nails and ball bearings that had been packed into home-made devices constructed of pressure cookers and batteries taken from toys. Three people were killed outright: a Boston University graduate student named Lingzi Lu, Krystle Cambell, 29, and 8-year-old Martin Richard. Martin's mother and sister were among at least 180 others present who were wounded. Dozens of spectators lost at least one limb, and the sidewalks underneath them were stained red with running blood.
A search for suspects began immediately, with appeals for video and stills from anyone who had been in the vicinity of the blasts. Mainstream media and writers in the Leftist blogosphere insinuated or explicitly placed blame on right-wing groups, citing April dates of infamy including Tax Day, Hitler's birthday, and the anniversaries of the Branch Davidian siege and the retributive Oklahoma City bombing. (For some reason, probably ignorance of American history, the obvious start of the Revolutionary War on April 19 was not included.) Security camera footage from nearby department stores and street corners was pored over, but it wasn't until he regained consciousness on the 17th that double-amputee Jeff Bauman identified the suspects from his hospital bed at Boston Medical. Eight words gave police the break they needed.
"Bag. Saw the guy, looked right at me."Bauman's clues led law enforcement to two men, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsaraev, brothers originally from Chechnya, Russia. Dzhokhar had been naturalized on September 11, 2012. The FBI had been asked by a "foreign government" (believed to be Russia) to investigate Tamerlan, who had gone to Chechnya for months during 2010, presumably to make contact with and receive training from terrorist groups. Despite the red flags associated with Tamerlan and his activities, the FBI and other Federal agencies permitted him to stay in the United States.
While on the run and still unknown by the public, Dzhokhar tweeted part of a Jay-Z song to his followers.
Ain't no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
At 11PM that same night, he had an odd exchange with user @MelloChamp:
@mellochamp and they what "god hates dead people?" Or victims of tragedies? Lol those people are cooked
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
April 16, as people affected by the bombs were waking up in hospitals or trying to cope with the deaths of loved ones, Dzhokhar twittered about illicit things.
@therealabdul_ #heavy I've been looking for those, there is a shortage on the black market if you wanna make a quick buck, nuff said..
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
A picture of a man cradling what appears to be a dead woman lying on a sidewalk is posted to Twitter by @ImRealTed.
@imrealted fake story
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 16, 2013
This Tweet was favorited by Dzhokhar, who would soon be known as "Suspect in the white ball-cap" or later, "Suspect number two" :
The sad part about the events in Boston today, is that some bs Hollywood director is gonna try n make a movie n profit from tragic evens smh
— 2Explicit (@ballholic34) April 16, 2013
In the early morning hours, the events of the past few days were not weighing heavily on this young psychopath.
I'm a stress free kind of guy
— Jahar (@J_tsar) April 17, 2013
At about 10:30 PM on Thursday, local police are concerned that the trail is growing cold. Suddenly, shots are fired at MIT. The suspects have carjacked a Mercedes with a "Coexist" bumper sticker on it, later releasing the owner after taking her money. At 12:45AM there is a shootout and Tamerlan is incapacitated. While police are handcuffing Tamerlan as he lay on the ground, Dzhokhar gets behind the wheel of the getaway car to escape and barrels toward the police. They dive out of the way, and watch as Dzhokhar runs over his brother, killing him and dragging his body underneath the car for some distance.
Much later, after his apprehension and questioning (which yields no more information after he is suddenly Mirandized), it is learned that he texted friends to request that they help themselves to anything in his room, at which time the friends take a backpack and a laptop with the intent of protecting Dzhokhar. None of them report anything to the FBI or police. One of them, seeing Dzhokhar's image on the newscasts, texts to him "LOL".
There is a segment of the US population which is in this country without supervision and intends, at best, to do no good, and at worst, to do harm. They are young, they are radicalized, and they are sociopaths. There is absolutely ZERO chance that the local and national administrations in place have any interest in solving this problem, and even if they did, they have no idea whatsoever how to do it.
Today is May 2, the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Ladin. We are less, not more safe from acts of terror on US soil because our elected officials have the personal security THEY need for safety, and your safety is not as important to most of them as passing feel-good-do-nothing legislation. The hard questions are not asked, much less answered, and tough choices will never be made by those elected to lead. The issue is not the issue. The agenda must be advanced.
God help us.
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