Like just about every news junkie, I watched hours and hours of cable news on Friday, while simultaneously on Twitter with my iPad in my lap. You would think that with all that news consumption, I would have a great blog post in me. But no. The events in Boston seem too random to make a broad political conclusion or to point to a clear cut policy remedy.
Of course, that isn't stopping people from trying to jam their pet projects into this square peg event. The pro-gun people think that terrorists would be scared off, if we were all packing weapons. The anti-immigration people think that this is an excellent opportunity to keep immigrants out. Even Dr. Ruth was on Twiter advising us to take advantage of the lockdown by "locking down" with our partners. As a policy entrepreneur, every event is an opportunity to talk about your policy.
Some pundits are talking about the use of Miranda warnings with terrorists, and the pros and cons of shutting down a city to catch a baddie. Interesting discussions, but not game-changers.
There was some amusing wingnut discussions this weekend. One guy on my Facebook page is sure that the lockdown is the first stage of a fascist state. They are softening us up for the future police state. Say good-bye to your freedoms and your guns, folks!
So, all this is very disappointing for the blogger. I'm going to have to write about Reese Witherspoon's arrest or something.
Apt. 11d 
“Of course, that isn’t stopping people from trying to jam their pet projects into this square peg event. The pro-gun people think that terrorists would be scared off, if we were all packing weapons.”
Or, they might point out that for the really ambitious murderer who cares about achieving numbers rather than being certain of killing particular individuals, guns just aren’t enough. To get the really high body counts and maximum harm, the aspiring murderer turns to explosives.
Making explosives is intellectually harder than picking up a gun (note how many would-be pipe bombers have been dismal failures), but the materials are readily available and there are lots of helpful how-tos on the internet. I personally know probably at least a dozen people who could make quite a good bomb if they were so inclined. It’s their lack of interest that keeps us safe, not lack of access to materials. The materials are all around us.
“The anti-immigration people think that this is an excellent opportunity to keep immigrants out.”
I was talking to a faculty family Friday night and the dad was pointing out what an amazingly good school they had gone to in the US. They (especially the younger one, who had come early enough in life not to be impeded by his English) had opportunities that the average American can only dream of. So my primary reaction to this is to be struck by the sheer stinking ingratitude of it.
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I was very surprised to learn that a pressure cooker can be such an effective bomb component. It totally makes sense (there’s an exploding pressure cooker in “The Egg and I” chapter on the horrors of canning a large garden), but it was weird to discover how dangerous a piece of kitchen equipment it is.
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What I never understand is why people as rich as Reese Witherspoon are always driving themselves and getting arrested. Why don’t they just hire a car and driver? Is this an LA thing, that driving when you’ve had a few is part of the pleasure of going out?
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” To get the really high body counts and maximum harm, the aspiring murderer turns to explosives.”
Actually, I was thinking how foolish that choice was (from a maximum death standpoint), since two guys with assault rifles could have caused a lot more death, and acquiring the rifles as well as the training would have both been fairly easy & legal. The death toll for Aurora, Gifford, Newtown, Cafe Racer were all higher (and the Cafe Racer guy got away to kill elsewhere). Presumably the bombs & guns could have been combined, too.
The pipe bomb seems to have caused more destruction and injury, though, and they seemed to have had plans for more (including getting away, which they probably wouldn’t have been able to do if they were wielding assault rifles).
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Yes, create a thread on Reese so I can post my thoughts there. 🙂
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“Presumably the bombs & guns could have been combined, too.”
That was the Columbine killers’ plan.
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NPR had some interesting commentary this morning. The expert (can’t remember the name) said that these guys came from an area of extreme violence and trauma. The entire area had PTSD. They brought that trauma with them to the US. The oldest guy didn’t fit into American culture, but also no longer fit into the old world. He was between cultures and didn’t have the supports that would have helped him deal with the PTSD properly. He took parts of his culture, which in addition to many wonderful qualities also included the notion of revenge, and then used it in an unhealthy way.
If this discussion can turn towards the question of how we can help new immigrants who have run from horrific situations and how we nuture young men with anger issues, then perhaps we can find something positive in this situation.
Really? Want an Reese Witherspoon post? OK. Happy to please.
But then back to book writing. Wrote 10,000 words last week.
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There are definitely sociopaths who are born, but there are also sociopaths who are made, trained to become sociopaths by their environments.
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A sociopath can be made like a pressure cooker bomb. One part traumatic childhood, one part culture-less, one part standard angry, young man.
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I hate, absolutely hate, armchair, monday morning psychology/psychiatry. And I hate it any more if it stinks of making any policy decision (say, on immigration, or mental health care, or “supports”).
I do find the wellspring of sympathy that you describe for the younger boy (say, compared to the utter lack of sympathy for Lanza) interesting. Does it boil down to something as trivial as the “crazy” looking photo released of Lanza v normal looking photos of Tsarnaev? Is it what people said about the two? Is it that Tsarnaev still has a mom, and one far enough away to defend him mindlessly? My kiddo heard Tsarnaev’s mother and thought she was crazy. I tried to explain how a mother might feel, especially if she was far enough away to be in denial, but he didn’t see it.
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Amy P, a pressure cooker isn’t normally that dangerous. The home cook doesn’t try to produce shrapnel. Modern pressure cookers have safety valves which make kitchen explosions very unlikely. The bombers must have disabled those valves.
This must be a huge headache for pressure cooker manufacturers. Hey! I just bopped over to Amazon.com, and they’re ALL marked down. NOW’S THE TIME TO BUY! (Not joking.)
Bj, I think bombs spread more fear. The death toll would have been much higher, had it not happened in Boston. The city was pretty much shut down for the Marathon anyways–it was a holiday, and anyone with any sense will avoid Boston during the Marathon (or any large public event.) The tent for exhausted runners was staffed by area medical personnel, including many emergency room doctors and nurses, who triage people every day. It’s 9 minutes from Copley Place to MGH, (and other hospitals in that area), according to Google Maps–without ambulance transport. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/us/physical-legacy-of-bomb-blasts-could-be-cruel-for-boston-marathon-victims.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
There’s the mystery of why they returned to Watertown. The younger bomber apparently returned to the UMass Dartmouth campus in the interim. They could have left the city. I assume they were sent back, in an attempt to cause a Mumbai-style event. However, they made a pit stop at a gas station, their carjacked driver escaped, the city shut down, and they were stopped.
Most new immigrants have no problem adjusting. I assume NPR’s expert wasn’t treating the bombers for any psychological condition. Had he been, he would have been bound by confidentiality. I’m certain he enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame, though.
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I do find the wellspring of sympathy that you describe for the younger boy (say, compared to the utter lack of sympathy for Lanza) interesting.
I think it’s the combination of the appealing picture, the nice things his friends have been saying about him, and the ‘little brother’ aspect. Everyone knows families where the older siblings can really powerfully manipulate the younger siblings, and with the rest of it you can end up thinking that the younger boy might have been a decent kid who got hauled into something out of control without wanting to be there.
This doesn’t excuse him — he still seems to have been actively responsible for killing people — but I can follow the desire to think sympathetically about him.
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There’s armchair psychiatry, but then there’s also an important need to understand that our actions as a society can profoundly affect a person’s psychology. PTSD is a real thing, and social/peer group/family influences can be powerful. If our goal is to stop these incidents from happening, then we need to understand why and how they happen.
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They themselves did not come from an area of extreme violence and trauma. They came from Kyrgyzstan which has had only one event that can be categorized as extreme in violent in their lifetime. That is the 2010 Revolution and the subsequent Osh events. I was in Bishkek during this time, but the Tsarnaev brothers were not.
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I hope we do find out if they were acting alone or as part of a bigger plan.
J. Otto — interesting addition of actual information to the debate about what their lives might have been like (i.e. we have no reason to believe that their cultural/political world was particularly PTSD inducing).
Did they immigrate as refugees?
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cranberry said:
“Amy P, a pressure cooker isn’t normally that dangerous. The home cook doesn’t try to produce shrapnel. Modern pressure cookers have safety valves which make kitchen explosions very unlikely. The bombers must have disabled those valves.”
That’s nice to know–I was reading a thread recently where a lot of people seemed to have harrowing pressure cooker stories. I bet there are a lot of the old kind in people’s attics, basements and garages. Heck, based on your stories of hoarder relatives, I bet your family has at least one.
“Bj, I think bombs spread more fear. The death toll would have been much higher, had it not happened in Boston.”
True and true. Outside the US, bombs have been very popular–the IRA, the Basques, the Chechens, the PLO, IEDs in Afghanistan, etc.
The number of very serious but non-fatal injuries in Boston was way greater than a shooter could hope for. Also, a bomber doesn’t need to be on site when the explosion occurs. With spree shooters, the episode generally ends with the perpetrator being quickly killed or captured (the DC snipers were unusual in being shooters with a relatively long reign of terror). Because they went with a bomb, the Boston bombers had a real option of escaping prosecution or continuing with a bombing spree.
J. Otto Pohl said:
“They themselves did not come from an area of extreme violence and trauma. They came from Kyrgyzstan which has had only one event that can be categorized as extreme in violent in their lifetime.”
Thank you–that is a very good point.
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I don’t know. Evidently the family left Chechnya to go to Daghestan and then Kyrgyzstan and finally the US. The father has since returned to Daghestan. The news media is so bad on this story I can not tell if they were given refugee status or not. I am pretty sure, however, that regardless of how they were admitted to the US that life in Kyrgyzstan was not generally violent and traumatic. I lived there for three years and I just purchased a plane ticket to go back there for two months to see my family as I have every summer since 2010.
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“I hope we do find out if they were acting alone or as part of a bigger plan.”
I lean toward acting alone, but inspired or encouraged by more organized groups (just as Major Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter, was pen pals with Anwar al-Awlaki). Presumably, there will be a long internet trail.
The major Chechen terrorist attacks have been much more orchestrated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis
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Amy P, my grandmother used a pressure cooker. She used it for everything, even peas. Why, I have no idea. It’s not like peas or beans take a long time to cook. (On the other hand, my kids are “texture eaters,” and I wonder if the tendancy’s inherited. Perhaps she preferred her veggies really, really mushy. )
I know my mother got rid of that pressure cooker as soon as she could. The family on the other side of the family is not noted for culinary risk-taking. So no, the family managed to collect lots of junk over the years, but no pressure cookers. Moldy books and incomplete sets of china, yes.
Cook’s Illustrated recently wrote a review of modern pressure cookers: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=41600. They are energy-efficient, as cooking time is sped up, and much of the time you’re cooking on a low flame.
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“The number of very serious but non-fatal injuries in Boston was way greater than a shooter could hope for.”
Yes, ’cause high impact bullets kill rather than maiming.
Reading the newspaper reports tends to conflate the seriousness of injuries. Dead v not-dead is very clear, but how serious an injury is is difficult to parse out from the reports. Gifford sustained a life-changing injury (as did those who lost limbs in boston); some will recover fully after life-changing recovery periods. Others are dead.
“Also, a bomber doesn’t need to be on site when the explosion occurs. ”
Yes, this is definitely a difference.
But, I do also wonder about whether the use of the bomb is an indication that the operation has wider ties to terrorism, because I think one of the differences about planning terrorist acts in other countries are that assault rifles are much harder to get than here. In the US, individuals like these brothers would have no problem building huge arsenals of guns. In other countries where terrorism is prevalent, building such an arsenal requires special contacts (either with non-government militias, like the Taliban or with organized crime — there’s an Indian actor who is now being sentenced for such involvement with gun acquisition during the Mumbai terrorist attacks).
The Americans (Lanza, Holmes, Lougner) knew exactly how easy it is to get significant weaponry in the US. Intersting, actually, in finding those names, I saw pictures of the three and a picture of Tsarnaev. Very noticeably how visibly “crazy” the other three look, compared to Tsarnaev, who looks like a baby-faced teenager.
Terrorists are going for maximum impact (not necessarily maximum death). But I have wondered for a long time about the focus on bombs (materials for which we regulate) as opposed to guns (which we don’t regulate). I always worry about suggesting particular scenarios, too, though, ’cause although they seem obvious to me, I wonder if they’d be obvious to everyone (especially from somewhere other than the US).
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We’re within driving distance of West, Texas, site of the big fertilizer plant explosion, so I’ve got explosives on the mind this week.
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Yes, though there are regulations on buying fertilizer in quantities sufficient to cause an explosion. Were those post Oklahoma regulations?
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“But I have wondered for a long time about the focus on bombs (materials for which we regulate) as opposed to guns (which we don’t regulate).”
“Don’t regulate” is putting it too strongly. You can’t just walk into a store and buy a gun, no questions asked.
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I think foreigners also mis-estimate the quality of our medical care for maiming injuries.
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“You can’t just walk into a store and buy a gun, no questions asked.”
What questions do you get asked?
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Fascinating chatter on buying fertilizer in bulk. Seems like farmers, legitimate ones, want to do this because fertilizer prices are volatile. And, “farmers” (of the hydroponic/medicinal use variety) also want to buy bulk fertilizer.
Storing fertilizer is dangerous, though.
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There’s a background check, if you go to an actual gun store.
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But, at a gun show? Any questions there?
Also, it looks like the ATF does get a report if you buy multiple weapons within a few days (though it was unclear if that information is shared with terrorist watchers).
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Were they licensed to own guns? I haven’t seen that reported. As one brother had been arrested for assault on his girlfriend, I’d be surprised.
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“Were they licensed to own guns? I haven’t seen that reported. As one brother had been arrested for assault on his girlfriend, I’d be surprised.”
Exactly.
Another interesting development is that the elder Tsarnaev is starting to look like a very likely suspect in a 2011 triple murder by stabbing.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/boston-bomb-suspect-eyed-connection-2011-triple-murder/story?id=19015628#.UXWSbaI3tMl
The victims (one of whom was a close associate of Tamerlan) were left sprinkled with pot and thousands of dollars were left at the scene, so it wasn’t just a drug deal gone bad.
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What does it mean to be “licensed to own guns”?
According to the news reports, the elder Tsarnaev was only arrested for domestic violence, not convicted, and thus would have passed the NICs (federal background check, which in turn is only necessary if he bought from a licensed dealer). I believe there would be no bar for the younger Tsarnaev (though he is only 19, maybe there are age restrictions?). And, Massachusetts might have stricter laws.
Also, didn’t they have guns? According to the carjacking story?
It’s interesting that Tamarlin Tsarnaev’s citizenship application was held up.
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Sean Collier was shot (MIT police officer), so, yes, they had guns.
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You need a license to own or carry guns in Massachusetts. http://www.mass.gov/eopss/firearms-reg-and-laws/frb/firearms-forms-and-applications.html
Your local police department issues the license–or doesn’t. They have the authority to refuse to issue a license. That police department would have had the arrest on record. I believe you must be 21.
Having guns in one’s possession does not mean one possesses the legal authority to possess firearms. These aren’t law-abiding guys.
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Ahh, Massachusetts.
In WA, there is no license to purchase a rifle (only the NIC check), though there is a license to carry a concealed pistol.
The concealed pistol license in WA is a “must issue” license, though. The mentally ill Ian Stawicki who killed five people on a shooting spree in Seattle had a concealed weapon license, even though his family had raised concerns and he had several assault charges against him (both dismissed before they lead to convictions). You do have to be 21.
And, no reporting whatsoever for private gun transfers, of any kind (in WA).
We’ve gone into this discussion before — because gun laws are very different in the NE states compared to the other states, and between the restrictive v expansive gun ownership states. And, WA, with it’s liberal bent politically is permissive about gun ownership.
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From reading through the Immigration Professor list server and seeing what people have put together there, it seems as if the family came to the US (from Kyrgyzstan, where they had lived for some time) as tourists and applied for refugee status, which they were granted. The younger son got citizenship last year, while Tamerlane (I wonder if his name is really Timor- that would be more common, and a not unusual Chechen name) was held but by a “hit” on the FBI background check, probably caused by this domestic violence arrest, but maybe not. Such things do not mean that the person isn’t eligible for citizenship, and he almost certainly wasn’t deportable, but can take a long time to clear up, even when there’s no problem at all. The mother and father moved back to Dagestan not long ago when the father became ill and wanted to return to his home. The boys stayed.
Some of this may turn out to be off in detail, but it’s what seems to be the case to immigration professionals from what can be gathered.
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The Russian version is Timur, right? I know people have made great hay of the name recently, but it’s a totally normal name.
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Yes- “Timur”- just a misspelling on my part. “Tamerlane” is the Persian version (and the more common version in the European world) of the name of the great Turkic warrior/leader, but Timur would be a not at all unusual name for a Chechen (I knew several with the name) or, I suppose, people in other central-Asian countries. I don’t suppose it makes any difference at all, but I’d be curious to know if this guy’s name was “really” Timur.
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It’s pretty normal in various cultures to name kids after a conqueror associated with the country. Attila is a totally normal Hungarian name, Chingiz (Genghis) is a totally normal Soviet Central Asian name, and for a while, 100% of the Macedonians I knew were named Alexander or Alexandra (I only knew two and they said it was a super common name in their culture).
So, naming the kid “Timur” was not at all as pointed as naming him “Hitler.” It was a normal thing to do.
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