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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the police in Boston are taking a lot of credit...

101 replies

PuffPants · 20/04/2013 18:27

...for catching that bomber, when actually a bloke poking around in his garden found him. Tanks, helicopters, every police officer in the Western Hemisphere cruising the streets (a small suburb) and they don't think to look in a boat?

OP posts:
tinyshinyanddon · 20/04/2013 19:48

I'm there too puffpants and have been for 12 years. Couldn't disagree with you more. I am very proud of what the citizens and police in my adopted city achieved. We are BostonStrong (although I could do without the "USA USA USA......" chanting.

MissAnnersley · 20/04/2013 19:49

No I am not too young, very far from it.

However I have never lived in a city where everyone has been confined to their home by the police.

cocolepew · 20/04/2013 20:09

If I had noticed the tarp on my boat had been moved, I would have phoned the police. Not get a ladder, climb up, see blood and then lift the tarp up and have a look inside tbh.

KatyTheCleaningLady · 20/04/2013 20:10

Were they forced to stay inside, or strongly urged to?

MissAnnersley · 20/04/2013 20:14

I don't know if they could be forced? Am not sure though.

LadyBeagleEyes · 20/04/2013 20:20

I did wonder why the guy followed the bloodstains and looked in the boat.
It wouldn't have been my first reaction with an armed terrorist on the loose.

MrsDeVere · 20/04/2013 20:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

flippinada · 20/04/2013 20:34

When I saw this news story I must admit one of my first thoughts was to wonder why on earth he went and looked in the boat!

Then again unless you are faced with that situation, who can say?

There have been quite a few bombings in mainland UK, we've never shut down a city or part of a city because of it.

That said, we're in a different age now..24 hour rolling news, the internet...

GreenEggsAndNichts · 20/04/2013 20:39

They had an active fugitive who was considered armed and dangerous. I don't think they had the city locked down until after that was established (the firefight at MIT). Locking the city down was something I'm sure they knew they could get public support on (everyone mourning/ in shock from the bombings) and it meant they wouldn't have civilians out and about for the fugitive to be able to blend in with on the streets. I think we have no way of knowing what the outcome would have been had they not had the public support to lock the city down (I suspect it wasn't required by law for people to stay home, though I could be mistaken).

As with most if not all ends to criminal chases, a member of the public alerted the police. We just happen to know the exact details of this particular situation.

I'm not going anywhere with this. I don't feel critical of the police in this situation. It might have seemed OTT from the outside, but in reality, they had two men who knew they were identified for a high profile crime and unafraid of killing people. If I were in Boston I'd have been glad it was taken as seriously as it was.

finickypinickity · 20/04/2013 20:39

I dont understand why there was all of that gun fire when the bloke in the boat was arrested if the old bloke had already approached the boat and peaked in with no response from the alleged terroristConfused

The boat doesnt look very damaged so what were the police firing at. Hmm

Sparklingbrook · 20/04/2013 20:41

The DM are reporting that the suspect is clinging to life now. Apparently a lot of blood was lost inside the boat.

flippinada · 20/04/2013 20:43

Yes, all of that makes sense GreenEggs.

KitchenandJumble · 20/04/2013 20:44

BTW, this sort of thing has never happened in the US before either (an entire huge metropolitan area essentially shut down while the police search for one man). It was very much uncharted territory. I'm relieved it ended as well as it did.

flippinada · 20/04/2013 20:46

finicky contradictary report here from the Guardian

OhYouBadBadKitten · 20/04/2013 20:49

Locking down the city was extreme. He isn't the first armed and dangerous suspect to be loose in a US city and he won't be the last. Are they now going to subject an entire city to extreme terror every time there's a dangerous suspect out and about? And the whole jubilation thing and the mob baying for blood...... sometimes the way we are going really scares me.

LadyBeagleEyes · 20/04/2013 20:49

re the bloke going out to look in the boat.
It just screams B movie to me, you know, when your'e shouting at the screen, 'Don't be so bloody stupid the baddie...is... in... the... boat!
Luckily Bruce Willis the police came in the nick of time, just like in the movies.
Seriously though, I wonder how a 19 year old boy got into such a situation. He's only just over year younger than my ds. Sad

kim147 · 20/04/2013 20:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LadyBeagleEyes · 20/04/2013 20:49

younger older

Snazzynewyear · 20/04/2013 20:55

There isn't a finite supply of credit we can award here. So I'm happy to give the boat owner credit for looking and reporting, but I'm bloody glad I didn't have to do the job the Boston PD have been doing these past few days and I think they deserve all the credit they can get.

flippinada · 20/04/2013 20:57

Yes LBE

I'm actually amazed they caught him alive.

I expect though he'll soon wish he killed himself while he had the chance.

GreenEggsAndNichts · 20/04/2013 21:04

Snazzy 'finite supply of credit' perfect way of putting it. :)

SconeRhymesWithGone · 20/04/2013 21:11

And the whole jubilation thing and the mob baying for blood...... sometimes the way we are going really scares me.

I watched the whole thing unfold in real time on TV. (I am in the US, a long way from Boston, but in the same time zone). I saw no "baying for blood." There was jubilation because the community's ordeal was over. Then it became about showing appreciation to law enforcement, who were all loudly applauded as they left the area. As to the "USA, USA" that may seem a bit odd, but I think it was partly due to the fact that the law enforcement men and women were from many jurisdictions, federal, state and local.

As to the lockdown, that was essentially the populace complying with requests from officials. I see it as a manifestation of Boston's real sense of community.

CaffeDoppio · 20/04/2013 21:22

What would this OP have read if they hadn't locked down and the "alleged" terrorist had been able to take, say, a whole family hostage? I expect it would have read 'AIBU to think the Boston Police should have locked the entire city down and then this fugitive wouldn't have been able to take that whole family with him when he detonated his suicide vest'.
Ah well.

MrsDeVere · 20/04/2013 21:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsTerryPratchett · 20/04/2013 21:59

Harrods bomb - 6 dead. Warrington -2. 7/7 - 52 dead. Brighton bomb - 5. Belfast - I shudder to think.

We don't close whole areas down but we have our share of bombs. I do think the Police reaction was huge. Possibly because they have so little terrorism compared to us. Possibly because 9/11 was such a shock. Possibly because their attitude to terrorism is different.

I talked to DH about this last might and commented that the whole point of terrorism is to scare, disrupt and inconvenience as many people as possible with the least initial act. Costing Boston $1 billion, closing down whole areas, stopping public transport and flights. That's a massive effect for 3 tragically dead people.

It's not that I don't feel for the victims and their families, I do. It's just that I think one of the points of this kind of act (both the terrorists and the government) is to try to make us lose our critical faculties.