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Monday, April 22, 2013

Boston Events



I've been reluctant to chime in about the events in Boston -until now. First of all, my heart goes out to all those who suffered and are suffering. Boston is the closest really big city to me and I've connections to the city.

There was a lot of security in Boston before the bombing: Lot's of police, dogs, the whole security dance and shuffle. In spite of that the bombs went off. False flag operation, some have said. How else could the bombers have gone on undiscovered?

It's not all that hard to imagine. People give more credit to the Police State than it deserves. Security apparatus does Okay when it has a specific threat for a specific time and place. Resources are concentrated, men are on alert. When the command is to “guard the City” there's only so much they can do. The threat is too diffuse. Now imagine that instead of bombs going off at the marathon they went off inside a couple of Boston's tunnels. People would be screaming about all the city's resources spent on the race, leaving the rest of the city unprotected. The vast majority of the time, nobody's doing anything serious. Cops and security go through the motions.

After the bombs, a good chunk of the greater Boston area was essentially under martial law. All the big guns came in. All the high tech toys were on displace: facial recognition scanners, armored vehicles, militarized police, actual military, and even helicopters with thermal imagery. It reminded me of that that old joke: there we were, two against a thousand, the toughest pair we ever fought.

Yes, just two guys brought a major city to a complete halt. With that kind of security effectiveness, how many people would it take to shut down the whole country? Two hundred? Obviously governments cannot afford to respond to every threat the way they responded in Boston.

Then in a shootout, one manages to drive right through the roadblocks and disappear for a time. They only found him because some guy went to check on his beloved boat.

Those who expect the world to be completely safe will be disappointed. It's can't be done. Life and reality doesn't work that way. It also shows that America is long long way from becoming the total police state they think it is. Tyrants don't have the resources to pull it off.

Police are not our best protection. A civil society is. It's a lot easier to add a few more people in uniform than to figure out how to make society better but it's our day to day tolerance and goodness that keeps us functioning. Without that, there's not enough cops in the world to make up the lack.



-Sixbears

6 comments:

  1. And to think if they hadn't robbed that 7-11, we may still be looking for those individuals today. I wondered what spurred that decision - sudden I-CEE craving ? If those two had picked a place to stay inside and not come out for a couple of weeks, who knows what the outcome would have been?

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  2. For us a bombing like this is a rare event here, the news has a daily bombing in Iraq.Unfortunantly this may be the start of radicals doing this more here.Just something to think on if this pair had a hidey hole for even a month to stay in would we have found them?Is now with these events the time to disarm good citizens?People that are armed in a group always keep a civil tounge.

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    1. The terrorists had no problems getting guns, even though MA has strick gun laws. Imagine that.

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  3. Your thoughts and article are excellent (as usual) as you hit at the heart of the matter - do we live in a police state and is indicative of long-term operational capacity of the PTB? All the fear-mongering amongst the other bloggers leave you balancing the whole issue nicely - i.e. we are a long way from the capacity envisioned by the fear-mongers. The ability to lock down one city (something that has been well within the capacity of our Gov't for well over a century if not more)? Check. The ability to lock down every city indefinitely? Hardly.

    I lived in the DC beltway area during the Malvo sniper shootings. The ability of only a few to paralyze a city with hundreds of thousands is nothing new. Jack Hinson showed what one man could do during the Civil War. No amount of security will ever prevent that and it would take an extraordinary amount of resources to maintain such a prolonged state in even one city, much less several.

    Lesson learned: If in a metro area and something radical happens, be ready. Be ready to take care of yourself and be ready to switch ends like a scalded cat getting out. Or be ready to hole up a minute.

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    1. Thank you Briar Rabbit.

      Even in a situation such as this, it boils down to bug out early or prepare to shelter in place.

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