Jesus Christ. Updates here, reddit threads are usually a pretty fast source for stuff like this. Domestic terrorism?
It's tax day in the US. Of course there's no evidence or anything yet, but I'm assuming it's going to be a disgruntled white male(s) with anti-government tendencies. Could just be that the Boston Marathon and tax day are coincidences, but I doubt it. I'm guessing it will be a domestic terrorist, but who knows. They may never find the person and no one may admit to it. Never a time when there wasn't more cameras around, and the place was swept with bomb dogs and scanners before people showed up, so assuming it was bombs in trash cans, they were dropped while it was underway. Which leads me to believe they have to have it on camera somewhere. But who knows.Domestic terrorism?
Besides my initial reaction to this, which was "oh shit, that's terrible, do I know anybody in Boston and if so are they alright?" my second response was to consider this question. If no one admits to it or posts any sort of rationale, it ain't terrorism. Although it's been usurped for obvious reasons in the past decade, the term "terrorism" ought only be used in reference to violent acts perpetrated against person or property with the express intent of making a broader political statement against a particular governmental entity while at the same time undermining that entity's ability to govern effectively. Ultimately, what defines terrorism is not the target of the attack, but the target audience of the attack, and the express message pinned to the attack. Such an attack can result in loss of life, but doesn't have to. And not every attack that results in widespread death or bodily harm necessarily counts as terrorism. Thus you can have acts, like those of the Earth Liberation Front in the late '90's, that don't hurt or kill anybody but are still considered terrorist acts; likewise, you can have something like last year's shootings in Aurora that kill several and injure several more, but won't be considered terrorism by anybody not hoping to distort the term for political purposes. In regards to today's tragedy: until somebody owns up, the best we can say is that it's maybe incidental terrorism. That is to say, without any indicators pointing us towards explicit political statement, the immediate act ought to be considered nothing more than shitty-minded criminal mayhem. Secondarily, however, the act undermines our feeling of security within zones generally considered safe; it undermines our faith in the ability of the local government to keep its citizens safe. And the longer the perpetrator goes unidentified, it undermines our faith in the federal government's ability to successfully identify and prosecute the perpetrator or perpetrators. Hence, "incidental" rather than "explicit" terrorism: no immediate statement claiming political intent, but an as of yet unintended political reverberation. I suspect that, after careful initial political triangulation, we'll hear intimations toward- if not an explicit spelling out of- terrorist intent on the governmental side of things. While it would clearly be in the Administration's best political interest to play it off as criminal activity, I suspect the federal government is going to want the investigative and prosecutorial tools afforded to terrorist activity. Ergo, if they can establish an early link to terrorist intent, they can avoid a lot of the investigative snares that tangle up criminal investigations, and then if and when they catch the perpetrator they can prosecute accordingly while avoiding potential claims that they at any point acted counter to due process and all that. Above all of this navel-gazing, though: regardless of what else it was, today's incident was horrible. I can't figure out how anybody could do something like this. Imagining those in the crowd as it happened, I can't think of anything other than how fundamentally offensive to one's very state of being something like this must be. To go out expecting nothing more than a day of leisure with a group of friends or loved ones, and in a heartbeat have to be subjected to such confusion, horror and pain... goddamn. Hope everybody in this community, and theirs, are safe and emotionally okay. EDIT: Nailed it
I hear you, but given the reports of the kinds of injuries sustained by the bomb, it seems like the intent may have been to wound more than to kill. The bombs went off low and many people will likely have limbs amputated by the blast or have to have limbs amputated. On Boston's NPR they're saying that at least one of the people dead is very likely a child. As I mentioned in this thread, Boston is known for not being great on the security front, particularly at Logan airport and the various riots that have happened over the last decade among other incidents. A lot of my friends are in Boston and as far as I know, none of them are physically hurt, but I can tell you that terrorism or not, people are terrified.
No doubt, that was why I added the "incidental terrorism" part. Even if it wasn't a terrorist act, it still terrorizes as a consequence. Who knows what the offender's purpose was at this point. Could have been that he (gonna go ahead and assume that it was a "he") wanted to hurt rather than kill. Could have just as easily been that he was just kind of an incompetent criminal. Can't remember where, but I recall somebody trying to stash some pipe bombs in trashcans during an MLK day parade a few years ago. Had they gone off, not many people would have been hurt, but the guy's stated intent was to kill. My feeling is that some people just want to cause as much damage and grief as possible, and they're not too concerned with the specifics.
lol, oh Alex Jones, my favourite source of conspiracy theories. It wouldn't be a tragedy without him claiming it as a false flag attack on American liberties.
The conspiracy forums all over are already calling it a false flag operation. I find it funny, that a group such as conspiracy theorists, who pride themselves on being more "open minded" and "smarter" than everyone who isn't a conspiracy theorist, are already claiming to know exactly what's happened and why... yet there's no evidence, there's no suspects, the types of devices aren't known, and we literally know NOTHING about this yet other than two bombs went off. But sure, "we're so open minded that it can be only this one thing. Despite any research, facts, or evidence, we just know. It's clearly the government!" I don't like to call people crazy and stupid, but when their community is this knee-jerky, it's just ridiculous and stupid. Hell, when earthquakes happen now, they knee-jerk to the "IT'S ANOTHER HAARP ATTACK!" Accidents, natural disasters, and attacks don't happen in their world, everything is a false flag. Must be nice to have it all figured out...