Explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon

[Teleku]

I wouldn't be so sure about the "government target" business. Eric Rudolph (anti-abortion lone-wolf nutbag) targeted the Olympics Plaza with a similar device with eerily similar results (in number of fatalities/injured).

Just from memory, there's been a couple of low rent skinheads who've had bombing plots in Boston in the last couple of years, one was some bridge and the other was the bronze of the Mass 54th.

I think I remember that:





 

[Soulflame]

You have to watch those mooninites carefully!

On a more related note, the bombings yesterday struck me as very similar to the foiled bombing attempt of the Spokane MLK parade in 2011.

[Arthur_Parker]

Bin bombs are sadly a fairly easy way to target civilians in the west.  

Not that it matters but I'd guess it's an amateur (though skilled as both bombs worked), a professional would have made both go off together, or had the 2nd along the evacuation route from the 1st.  My thoughts are with those who's lives have been permanently changed, I'm pretty sure they will catch the guy fairly soon.

[Numtini]

Shutting down the city over the Moonites and a month later doing a controlled detonation on a traffic counter doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the BPD bomb squad.

[Khaldun]

Reading this thread is a perfect documentation of why not to pay attention to 90% of the information that becomes available in the 24-hour cycle following an incident like this. As if we didn't have plenty of documentation to that effect already. I think 21st Century good citizenship has to involve every single person becoming a good steward of information. Don't link to sources that are known for unreliability unless it's in a for-the-lulz thread--that 24-hour period is when we need all the information to be high reliability, because it's when emotions are high and opinions are malleable.

[Surlyboi]

And hence, all the shit information out there. There's a decent number of bad actors with an agenda to push and that's the best time to do it.

That said, NYC is remarkably low-key for such a nice day today and it's obvious it's because people are avoiding crowded spaces.

[Hammond]

That is a good point Khaldun. As things become more and more connected and instant "news" becomes more pervasive the situation will only get worse.

The Boston globes big picture linked above is heart wrenching and disturbing. I have always been impressed with them and the photo series they do.

[HaemishM]

Just my two cents.

Fuck the NY Post so hard their mothers bleed. Piece of shit hatemongering cunt lickspittles. Why can't the crazies ever target them?

The 8-year old fatality. Mike and Mike were reporting today that he had just come out of the stands to hug his father who had finished the race, then walked back to the stands to return to his family. He's dead. His sister lost a leg. His mother was seriously wounded. I'm kind of choking up just thinking about that.

And then there's the rage thinking about what kind of subhuman waste of vaguely human DNA would want to perpetrate that on anybody's family, whether in Khandahar or South Central, Boston or Johannesburg. What makes you think you and your ideas or aggrandizement is so important you'd want to do that to a goddamn 8-year old beaming with pride at the dad who had just accomplished something and who now has to bury one kid and tell another how to live without a fucking leg?

Sometimes, we just don't deserve this life.

[tazelbain]

I don't see what the problem is fast unreliable info (should have learned to filter by now) is or what the alternative is?

[HaemishM]

I don't see what the problem is fast unreliable info (should have learned to filter by now) is or what the alternative is?

Journalists doing journalism?

[Ghambit]

I wouldn't be so sure about the "government target" business. Eric Rudolph (anti-abortion lone-wolf nutbag) targeted the Olympics Plaza with a similar device with eerily similar results (in number of fatalities/injured).

Just from memory, there's been a couple of low rent skinheads who've had bombing plots in Boston in the last couple of years, one was some bridge and the other was the bronze of the Mass 54th.

If you run the stats on Revere (the town of the apartment the FBI raided last night) you'll see it's predominantly middle-class white, with Hispanics being next most represented.  Ran a Google search and the most skinhead activity I could find there was them attending an Oi Band concert by "Cocksparrers."  I've been through there once by car and despite it being on the beach it's not the most picturesque place for sure.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/21986273/large-police-presence-in-revere-connected-to-boston-bombing

New news:  evidently victims/family of NewTown were in the VIP section across from the 1st blast.    Could you imagine??  Losing your kid in a mass school shooting only to attend the Marathon (in your honor) and then get almost blown to smithereens.  And if this ends up some gun-toting, freedom of arms, white-supremacy thing then... just wow.  If that shit happened to me I'd turn into The Punisher; not joking.

Of course we'd just solve it by making it easier to get guns and weapons.  

[tazelbain]

The 8-year old fatality. Mike and Mike were reporting today that he had just come out of the stands to hug his father who had finished the race, then walked back to the stands to return to his family. He's dead. His sister lost a leg. His mother was seriously wounded. I'm kind of choking up just thinking about that.

Makes me think of that little girl who was born on 9/11 who died in Gabby Gifford shooting.

I don't see what the problem is fast unreliable info (should have learned to filter by now) is or what the alternative is?

Journalists doing journalism?

So how are going to force every mouth-breather with internet connection to be responsible journalist?

[Brogarn]

Right wing "extremists" and tea partiers being blamed in this thread. What complete bullshit. If we stopped for 5 seconds and listened to each other instead of making mustache twirling villainous characterizations of those who have opposing views to our own maybe we'd get something fucking done in this country.

In the meantime, I hope they find whatever psychopath, sociopath, whomever that did this shit and quick. I'm sick to my stomach thinking of just how fucking awful this is. The thought of that 8 year old kid and his sister... their family... Fuck. But the last thing I'm doing is blaming my political opposites. I may disagree with them, but I don't jump to the conclusion that they're such dickwads that they'd blow up innocent bystanders just to make some political point.

[Rishathra]

I think you need to read this thread a little more closely if that's what you took away from it.

[Ghambit]

Right wing "extremists" and tea partiers being blamed in this thread. What complete bullshit. If we stopped for 5 seconds and listened to each other instead of making mustache twirling villainous characterizations of those who have opposing views to our own maybe we'd get something fucking done in this country.

In the meantime, I hope they find whatever psychopath, sociopath, whomever that did this shit and quick. I'm sick to my stomach thinking of just how fucking awful this is. The thought of that 8 year old kid and his sister... their family... Fuck. But the last thing I'm doing is blaming my political opposites. I may disagree with them, but I don't jump to the conclusion that they're such dickwads that they'd blow up innocent bystanders just to make some political point.

Every political opposite, no matter your view, has blown up innocent bystanders just to make their point.
Also, as for extremists, your govt. has been put on alert since 2008 for domestic terrorism, to the point of disbursing "what to do's" to the public.  Not saying you're wrong but we've been way past just "listening to eachother' for a while.

[Rasix]

Right wing "extremists" and tea partiers being blamed in this thread. What complete bullshit. If we stopped for 5 seconds and listened to each other instead of making mustache twirling villainous characterizations of those who have opposing views to our own maybe we'd get something fucking done in this country.

In the meantime, I hope they find whatever psychopath, sociopath, whomever that did this shit and quick. I'm sick to my stomach thinking of just how fucking awful this is. The thought of that 8 year old kid and his sister... their family... Fuck. But the last thing I'm doing is blaming my political opposites. I may disagree with them, but I don't jump to the conclusion that they're such dickwads that they'd blow up innocent bystanders just to make some political point.

[Shannow]

Gonna find some joy in this thread, not shit it up.

I am a Bruins fan, I hate the Montreal Canadiens. Not so much anymore

Ben Revere had 'Pray for Boston' on his glove... When he made this catch

To the doctors who went straight from running the marathon to their hospitals to work on the wounded.

Carlos Arrendondo.

Front page of the Chicago Tribune Sports section.

[angry.bob]

Come on guys, be fair. The Tea Party was mentioned a few times and I am directly saying it was a right wing extremist / Tea Party guy. Not as an organized group, but an individual who's a big fan. Mostly because this is the sort of shit that those people have been making veiled or outright threats about doing for years. Also, except for the failed WTC attempt and the successful WTC attempt every reported bombing has been done by that sort. Even guys reported on the local news who got caught making pipe bombs just to make them. This isn't some arab/muslim plot, the thing is all wrong for that. If it was, it would have been a lot cruder, a much bigger explosion, and with lots more people outright dead. A a home made bouncing betty or even a real bouncing betty that's been modded to only bounce knee high screams right wing weapon fetishist.

[MahrinSkel]

Right wing "extremists" and tea partiers being blamed in this thread. What complete bullshit. If we stopped for 5 seconds and listened to each other instead of making mustache twirling villainous characterizations of those who have opposing views to our own maybe we'd get something fucking done in this country.

I'm probably one of the most pre-disposed to blaming the right wing, and even I am not doing it in this thread.  I'm speculating on the possibilities , and in a profile analysis you have to put RWE at the top of the list, with lone psycho second (actual crazy people can use bombs as a way to commit suicide with a splash), Islamic terrorists a distant third.

You can pretty much discard the ELF/ALF, as *nothing* about the profile fits them, and that's the only left-wing terrorists going in the US these days.

Right now, the profile is all we've got, the target and the method.  So we can't draw any firm conclusions, especially since the best information (analysis of bomb remnants and all the threat assessments in the FBI files) is not public information.

--Dave

[Ironwood]

Well, 4 pages before a politics move looms, that's not bad I guess.

I really have nothing of substance to say about this right now.  Sister in law was due there this Friday.  She says she's still going.  I think that's a bit mental.

[ghost]

Nobody has any clue who did it yet.  Why speculate?

[Ingmar]

This seems a decent enough list of shit-we-actually-know to distract us from the bomb composition sperging:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/boston-marathon-things-we-know/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[angry.bob]

Sister in law was due there this Friday.  She says she's still going.  I think that's a bit mental.

It's probably the safest it gets in Boston right now. Tons of cops about, plus the whole thing about lightning not striking twice. Unless you're saying that just coming to the states is mental, in which case I agree. Go someplace nice. Fucking Boston? Eh, I guess it's as close to a historical city as we've got. Hmmmm, who was that developer from the UK who's apartment was built onto part of the city wall and was 300 years older than our country? Anyone remember?

[Numtini]

Nobody has any clue who did it yet.  Why speculate?

Because we're human.

And yeah, Boston's fine other than probably traffic and stuff like that being a PITA.

[Tmon]

I really have nothing of substance to say about this right now.  Sister in law was due there this Friday.  She says she's still going.  I think that's a bit mental.

I remember friends telling me to cancel my trip to Scotland back in 07 because of that idiot who tried to blow himself up at the Glasgow airport.   While I wouldn't rush to plan a trip to some of the more active parts of the world, it would take more than what is most likely a one off event in a fairly sane country to make me cancel.

[Ironwood]

Sister in law was due there this Friday.  She says she's still going.  I think that's a bit mental.

It's probably the safest it gets in Boston right now. Tons of cops about, plus the whole thing about lightning not striking twice. Unless you're saying that just coming to the states is mental, in which case I agree. Go someplace nice. Fucking Boston? Eh, I guess it's as close to a historical city as we've got. Hmmmm, who was that developer from the UK who's apartment was built onto part of the city wall and was 300 years older than our country? Anyone remember?

She's Canadian, so it's not such a big hop.  Also, it's not a fear for her life (please God, get her off this planet) more the fact that it's probably going to be a bit disrupted.

[Ironwood]

I really have nothing of substance to say about this right now.  Sister in law was due there this Friday.  She says she's still going.  I think that's a bit mental.

I remember friends telling me to cancel my trip to Scotland back in 07 because of that idiot who tried to blow himself up at the Glasgow airport.   While I wouldn't rush to plan a trip to some of the more active parts of the world, it would take more than what is most likely a one off event in a fairly sane country to make me cancel.

AHhahahah.  No-one should have cancelled anything cause of that idiot.  Smeaton dunted him and that was the end of it.

[01101010]

So how are going to force every mouth-breather with internet connection to be responsible journalist?

That's not it. You need to train journalists not to take the twitter feeds from the mouth-breathers as story facts. You should know what you are getting into when you troll the internet, but things are different when you focus on what the established news outlets - or at least they should be. Sadly, it is now about the best selling headline rather than what happened based on the facts.

[Paelos]

Can we start a new thread when they actually learn who did it so I can check back? Or maybe change the title. The rest of this thread past the information on the first page is the usual trash speculation.

Thanks.

[Arthur_Parker]

How do you think journalists got stories before the internet?  The only thing that's changed is that people are now smart enough to know the first things they hear might be crap.

[01101010]

How do you think journalists got stories before the internet?  The only thing that's changed is that people are now smart enough to know the first things they hear might be crap.

Obviously the journalists haven't caught on. Or maybe that's just the NYPost people.

And yes, journalists went out and interviewed people and got a bunch of tape and notes from what lots of people said - not the 'let's take the most outrageous tweet we can find and run with it.'

[Ingmar]

The Post is in the business of drumming up outrage, anything they did was deliberate and can't be lumped in with journalists not "learning" anything. They've learned too well.

[Soulflame]

I found it somewhat bizarre this happened the same day as the Boston attacks:  Oregon men injured in homemade explosives detonation.

Guy makes homemade explosives, they detonate, contacts relative who rushes him and another man to the hospital.  Police investigate his property, and find he's made more explosives.

[Ghambit]

CNN reports (on the ticker) the Saudi man was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that house in Revere was his.  So essentially, expect a racial-profiling suit after the dust settles.    This is of course assuming that report holds up.  Reports seem to come in and then get refuted an hour later even from respectable sources.

As for the bomb, they've also said one of them was essentially an improvised APM.  Explosive laden pressure cooker (literally) full of nails, BB's, etc.  Though, whomever made the report might not even know anything about a Bouncing Betty, so it's possible they just got the two confused and we're still looking at a simple Army Surplus device.

[Numtini]

Bunch of outlets are now reporting the detonator appears to be a timer, not remote. That pushes it more towards domestic I'd guess.