Musing on The Boston Tragedies

Thursday night to Friday morning, a friend messaged me, asking if I'd seen that there had been a shooting at MIT. He provided me with a Reddit link and a link to a police scanner. I followed Channel 5 for Boston news as well to get up to date on what was happening and spent the night listening to the manhunt.

Heather is following the news in Boston.

I posted on my personal Facebook page and Twitter about what was going on as I listened to the police chatter (without revealing any locations, mainly trying to share what was going on).

"When I heard the police talking about the civilian traffic, I felt the interwebs had failed, lol."

Meanwhile, others were at work joining mob mentality and posting their bigotry or concocting conspiracy theories. Anyone who knows me well should know that these are abhorrent to me. I'm not going to get into my feelings on them in general, but specific to this situation. This will largely be a collection of things I've posted on Facebook from microblogging to a full on blog post.

This was intense to watch in the middle of the night:

As was this (to get a feel for it, turn off the lights and make it full screen).

I posted this wisdom from a friend:

"The first MIT police officer, who was killed, that set off this whole chain of events, probably caught these guys trying to plant more bombs. They had bombs with them in the car that they threw out at the police, and detonated.

If that MIT Cop hadn't been there, bombs probably would've gone off during school today."

I shared this later.

I asked people to think of him today as a hero. Of course, this was before everything was shut down, but it still stands. 

I slept through the morning and woke up to find that the second suspect was still at large, so I pulled up a uStream of a police scanner and listened. It was when they had just discovered the boat, so I had an intense 'morning' (it was evening, but it was when I first woke up), huddled over my coffee and listening through my headphones while refreshing Reddit, checking the live newsfeed and Twitter feeds while chatting with the friend from last night.

(he missed the actual capture while taking a potty break--tough luck, buddy)

Some bits I posted in my FB thread:

6:45pm They have the boat guy surrounded and I want to know what's going to happen 
6:46pm FUCKING RADIO SILENCE. There's fire on the boat... wonder if he's going to
             blow the whole thing...
6:50pm omg this is tense
6:51pm they tossed a flashbang, subject isn't moving , K9 units on standby
7:42pm SUSPECT IN CUSTODY
7:42pm Calling for a medic
7:42pm (my mom): He's alive? Awesome!
7:43pm (back to me): well, EMS will be pissed if they're being called in for a body; that's
             not their job
7:44pm I will, too, because this dude's been bleeding for hours... been waiting for them
             to move. I wonder if the negotiator facilitated the move...
7:44pm another ED found?
7:46pm I'm commenting as they speak. News has to confirm before repeating.
7:48pm (friend): What are you following online?
7:48pm (back to me): Reddit, Twitter, live feed from Channel 5, police scanners
7:49pm (my mom): Ah. Okay. Wil Wheaton just tweeted about it too.
7:54pm (my mom): Taking him to Mt. Auburn Hospital
7:56pm It's all congratulations and "good job"s on the radio right now
8:06pm They even congratulated Dispatch, making them laugh XD
8:06pm "Just a reminder: try and keep it relatively professional." ←lol
8:08pm  Everyone is celebrating in the streets, even police are honking horns, etc.
8:17pm Ambulance just went by. People are applauding.

8:55PM EST "APP TO ALL BOSTON POLICE - WE HAVE OUR SECOND SUSPECT OF THE BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING IN CUSTODY - REPEAT - THE SECOND SUSPECT IS IN CUSTODY."

I listened as the officer radioed in that they had the suspect in custody and as they called for an ambulance. I'm glad they caught him alive, and await the story (as he's in the hospital as I am writing this, though it may have been released by the time I post, since I tend to prefer not to post in the middle of the night).

screenshot I took of the ambulance picture, you can see the O2 mask for starters

I watched the videos of the people applauding in the streets, then the statements. Then I looked through my FB feed and... People's comments led me to post:

Ugh, I am not looking forward to the aftermath--calls for violence and hate--from tonight. My thoughts are with the families of the dead and those who were injured during these events. I will not be engaging in any mob mentality. — feeling different.And the conspiracy theorists--that's just as bad.

Then this comment, which is what led me to turn this into a blog post:

Sure, sometimes real conspiracies happen, but not every big news story (and the equal rights that we've been fighting for for, oh, nigh on fucking 50+ years) is a goddamned diversionary tactic!

Those people are real and really dead. Boston has been in a state of terror for days. This isn't some fucking game and the gov't didn't stage it. People go crazy all the goddamned time.

"Not only is it stupid, and short-sighted, and crazy, but it also makes the actual tragedy of what's going on, seem meaningless." --same friend as I quoted earlier

*sigh* A bag was laid down next to an 8 year-old boy, who was blown to pieces. These were real people and every time someone starts yelling about religion, conspiracies, etc., they become minimized. What happened to them becomes unimportant.

Even if it is a conspiracy (unlikely), that does not diminish what happened. I suppose it's easy for people who weren't up all night listening to the police being run ragged, being shot at, having bombs thrown at them, having to shoot to kill--you think that doesn't affect them? You think, "Oh, they're heroes" but it destroys a part of them when they have to pull that gun and use it.

For some, it's not as big a deal as long as it's a confirmed "bad guy," but others never recover. Look up post-shooting trauma. It's such a romantic notion, heroism. I'll tell you that the romance disappears when you delve into the aftermath. The officers on duty the last few nights--many of them are going to need counseling. Some of them, it will have to be long term. And most of those--they aren't going to get it. Some because they think they don't deserve it, some because they don't think it will help... other reasons, I'm sure.

This was a tragedy, a nightmare. Regardless of why it happened, that doesn't cease to be true. Don't dishonor the people who suffered through this with conspiracies and dismissal.

This is the stuff that was going through my head while it was happening:

• what the people in their homes must feel
• what the police were going through (and the psychology behind it)
• wondering what the fuck possesses someone to do something like this (and the fact that he's only 19--one of the thoughts I had last night was that he knew he was dead already, and was running, so I put in a comment: "I don't know. I don't know what makes someone decide at 19 or 20 years old that they will slaughter as many people as possible and die. I can't comprehend it. I have friends that age--they worry about relationships and school and their future. *sigh*")
•  Egg McMuffins (and with the SWAT guy coming out right next to an ad for McDonald's, there was a joke about SWAT your hunger with... in our chat last night), etc. 

Yes, that's right, humor, too. I have to research a lot of dark shit for my books (and since Pet has terrorists in it, all of this just threw me right back into all the research I did), but also because once upon a time, I wanted to be a forensic psychologist, and with a continued interest in that, I still study (informally, and in a few weeks, formally as well) psychology with focuses on child and infant psychology and serial killers. Nice diversity, huh? Well, if you don't have a dark sense of humor, you aren't going to mentally survive that stuff, let me tell you. 

I also totally posted "I wonder if this was going through his head while he was hiding." (that link will take you to the song "On a Boat," which is NSFW--the Navy version, mind).

I'm going to leave you now with one last relevant image and my thoughts with the men and women who were involved in the Boston tragedies this last week.

After I posted this, the same friend from above (who called himself the costar of this post, ha!) sent me this picture (that can't be shared enough) with the message in the caption:

"Context: My friend who lives in Watertown (right between where the shootings happened last night and the location of the arrest of the second bomber) has a 16 month old son. Since they were on lock down this awesome cop went to the store to get them some milk. Very cool."

And this...

Officer Collier's escort home