April 15 Boston Marathon Bombing: The Errors of the US Police System - Case Study Example

 On April 15, 2013, Americans witnessed one of the most shocking incidents in their country’s history. Two bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon that resulted to three deaths and more than 200 injuries. The two bombs were safely planted near the finish line, 600 feet apart on the northern side of Boylston Street. The first bomb went off at around 2:50 PM, 12 seconds later the second bomb also exploded. The medical tent that was meant to treat runners was converted to an emergency facility to treat the victims. However, three succumbed to the injuries while scores of people were maimed and injured. The Boston Police together with other investigators began a manhunt for the suspects behind the attack. Video footages and photographs were solicited from the public to assist in the investigations. Reports reveal the bombs were homemade. They comprised pressure cookers filled with ball bearings, nails and explosive substances. The Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed the photos of the men who were considered prime suspects plus a photo showing one of them planting a bomb at the place where it went off. Hours later, there was a fatal shooting of a campus police and an armed robbery of a vehicle in Cambridge. (Ray, 2013) The police concluded that there was a connection between the two crimes and so, they pursued the stolen vehicle. At Watertown, the police marooned the criminal and a fierce shootout began. The criminal was eventually wounded and his identity revealed as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects connected with the bombings. He succumbed to the multiple gunshot wounds. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, his younger brother successfully fled the scene. The police began the manhunt from house to house and this resulted to a curfew; no one was allowed to leave his/her houses and all businesses had to be closed down. However, the curfew was removed at around 6:00 PM, few hours later Dzhokhar was located and arrested. He had been hiding in a boat in a backyard. He is still awaiting trial and could face up to a death penalty when found guilty. The story may have ended well, but there are errors that the Boston Police did that really questions the ability of the law enforcers to protect their citizens. First of all, during their yard to yard search for Dzhokhar, they did not look into the boat which was in their vicinity. A boat with a cover on top should have raised suspicion and would have been the first place to search when they entered the yard, but somehow a group of trained men in uniform wielding very dangerous weapons did not seem to think that something may be hiding in there and were it for the courage of an old man the suspect would not have been caught. Failure to look into the boat shows carelessness on their part. Furthermore, they opened rounds in a neighborhood causing severe damages to the residents’ houses. Even though no deaths or injuries were reported, but it was sheer lack that innocent victims were not hurt. An interview carried out by The Boston Globe in the neighborhood revealed that most people are still living in horror after the incident which occurred more than six months ago. Olga Ciuc and her husband Dumitru are unable to sleep in their bedroom after their house had been smeared by countless bullets. They are not the only ones, Lori and her family had to shift from their house due to fear of another shooting incident. (Abel, 2013) What is shocking is that the police opened fire as soon as they reached the backyard after they had been tipped by the boat’s owner. There was no retaliation from the young man nor did he shoot first. In fact, he did not have any gun at all, but the police decided to shoot first. This is a wrong of handling the situation. The main point is the police are not allowed to shoot unless a criminal attacks them first. Dzhokhar did not attack anyone; he was just lying down scared. He may have committed the atrocious bombings earlier on, but at this point he was so harmless to the extent that he did not attack the old man when he first came to the boat. (Friedersdorf, 2013) Going by these facts, opening fire first showed cowardice among the police. The best action would have been to order the boy to throw away any weapon he had and come out with his hand raised. None of this happened; if it did the witnesses would have said it in the report. Furthermore, opening rounds aimlessly in a residential estate was unacceptable. Women and children could have been killed or wounded. The aftermath of this action is that people are still living in fear and horror several months after the incident had occurred. The work of the police is to protect lives and not to endanger them. There is also the issue of the lockdown. Most people and critics believe that the curfew resulted in more fear and hysteria among the people. The lockdown does not represent any form of security, but rather shows a militarized type of situation where the police are in control of and the people have to obey all their commands. It is true that the lockdown took away the civil liberties of the Boston residents and replaced it with an authoritarian system only present in dictatorial governments. Moreover, it was not effective and it was after the lockdown had been called off that Dzhokhar was arrested. (Giroux, 2013) The lockdown policy is not the right method to fight acts of terrorism. First of all, it puts many lives in danger. A very sick person that needs immediate medical attention may die because all medical facilities have been closed. Secondly, shutting down the all town may actually work in favor of the criminals. They will be aware of everything that the police will be doing and they will act to counter that. But, if everything continued normally, then the police would be unpredictable and this would make the criminals more and more unsettled. Denying people the right to move about would only lead to resentment of the police force and most people would not cooperate. The lockdown mirrors the notion of a police state where constitutional rights, freedoms and privileges of the people are directly controlled by the police. Most terrorist attacks do not occur over night, they are carefully planned for months or even years before the attack occurs. This is where the authorities especially the FBI went wrong. A year earlier before the attacks, Tamerlan was involved in so many suspicious activities that should have made the authorities to monitor all his moves. There have been speculations that Tamerlan took a six months hiatus to Dagestan, where he met with Muslim extremists. The Russian intelligence confirmed this, but the American intelligence brushed them aside and claimed there were no concrete evidences to support that. Russians also discovered electronic communication between the bomber and a Russian extremist William Plotnikov in Canada. This information was also brushed aside by the FBI. According to the Russian intelligence, Mahmoud Mansour Nidal recruited Tamerlan in Dagestan. Media sources in the area also support this claim. However, American experts still refuted this claim and asserted that if Tamerlan had indeed gone to Dagestan, he could not have returned to American without interrogation from the Russians. Then, there is the controversial issue of Todashev. The FBI claim that he was on the verge of admitting that Tamerlan was his accomplice in a triple homicide that occurred in 2011 at Waltham, before he was gunned down. During the murder investigations, investigators found that there was no sign of forced entry and the $5000 found in the apartment showed that it was not a robbery either. They concluded that the murderers and the victims knew each other. Mess, one of the victims was Tamerlan’s best friend. The irony of the matter is that Tamerlan was never interrogated and the case was never solved until the day he died. Putting all these factors into perspective, it seems that Tamerlan was a dangerous person and the American intelligence had a clue of this. Failure to question Tamerlan during the Waltham homicides was the biggest mistake the authorities made. He could have been found guilty and the Boston bombings would not have occurred. What is sickening is that the investigators had substantial evidence to prove that a close friend carried out the atrocities, but still refused to interrogate one of the victims’ best friend. That is very unprofessional. Even if he could not be found guilty and walked away, the authorities would have known the type of person he was and would have kept a close eye on him. Russian intelligence had also tipped the American authorities of Tamerlan’s suspicious trips to Dagestan. Though it was foolishness on the Russian’s part not to interrogate him, the American intelligence should not have ignored their warnings. They should have kept a close watch over the man and even tapped his phone and computer if need be. They could have uncovered so much. For instance, the communication between him and Plotnikov could have been intercepted. Reports by the FBI reveal that the two brothers learnt how to make bombs from an Al Qaeda website. Had their internet connections been intercepted, then the intelligence would have known their intentions. Every American is entitled to all rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. However, the rights may be taken if it is proven that a person is a threat to humanity. Tamerlan acted suspiciously in many ways that it was quite clear that he was planning something heinous. The intelligence would have intercepted his phone and PC connections and monitored all his movements, even if it violates all his rights as a citizen. He was already a killer, but due to police’s incompetence, he lived a free life and this led to the Boston catastrophe. The whole incident, stemming from Tamerlan’s trips to Dagestan, to the triple homicide of his friends up to the Boston’s bombings is dotted with so many errors to the extent that Americans are not confident enough with their police system. These errors have to be avoided in future, to reduce chances of Americans meeting their untimely deaths. References 1. Abel, David (Oct. 16, 2013). Boat owner seeks to clarify record on Tsarnaev capture. Retrieved from http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/10/15/six-months-later-man-who-found-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-his-boat-tries-move/fMSWzruQfE2EUNYXjXKOZP/story.html 2. Bergen, Peter & Rowland, Jennifer (Apr. 8, 2014). Four things we learned about the Boston bombing. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/opinion/bergen-boston-bombing-five-things/. 3. Friedersdorf, Conor (Oct. 17, 2013). The Alarming Mistakes Police Made after the Boston Bombing. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/the-alarming-mistakes-police-made-after-the-boston-bombing/280635/. 4. Giroux, Henry (May 6, 2013). Lockdown, USA: Lessons from the Boston Marathon Manhunt. Retrieved from http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16175-lockdown-usa-lessons-from-the-boston-marathon-manhunt. 5. Ray, Michael (May 8, 2013). Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1924021/Boston-Marathon-bombing-of-2013 Read More