Explosions Rock the Boston Marathon

[Trieste]

Hard to follow but it sounded like they said they have one person in custody, one person down at gunpoint, and possibly a third one still at large in the vehicle. *scowl*

[Ephiral]

Third suspect and vehicle located, at gunpoint (possibly at Mt. Auburn & Bigelow?), is complying.

EDIT: Okay, they're referring to him as the "second suspect". Guy on the ground appears to have been a witness. Aaaand... they have the vehicle, but not the second suspect. Not sure who surrendered it.

[gaggedLouise]

The two guys in the FBI pics look vaguely Levantine to me, but that could mean any kind of family background from Egyptian to Kurdish, and of course it doesn't indicate they could not perfectly well be born and raised in the US.

[Ephiral]

Police still sweeping for second suspect and undetonated explosives. Vehicle has NOT been approached and cleared yet. Mt. Auburn hospital just reported bomb threat.

EDIT: Just got the details on the hospital incident. Male placed a suspicious device in a trench nearby. Probably the missing second suspect. They're trying to get some officers cleared to investigate.

[ShadowFox89]

 Dear god... what the hell is wrong with this country....

[gaggedLouise]

Not to mention that all but three of the senators who kept down the proposal for stricter gun control have been recipients of dough from the gun lobby. Some of them for many years (surprise!)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/pro-gun-groups-donated-senators

[ShadowFox89]

 The NRA loves lining the pockets of politicians. You could say that American politicians are like rusted cars with fresh paint jobs. They look clean on the outside, but are junk on the inside.

And that's all I'll say about that.

[meikle]

Dear god... what the hell is wrong with this country....

It's big.

Honestly, I think that's most of it.  We're huge, we've got more than a quarter billion people.  In this modern era, we've got the internet, we've got a population who have video recording devices on hand all the time, easy and fits into their pocket.  Things that used to be kept quiet aren't kept quiet anymore; we've got more people ever, which is more broken people to do terrible things.

[Ephiral]

Latest report on police scanners confirms that at least one Watertown suspect is connected to the Marathon bombing.
EDIT: BBC is claiming that the suspect in custody is one of the Marathon suspects. The guy on the loose is the one I mentioned above.
EDIT AGAIN: Looks like they've got him pinned down to at least a rough area. They're falling back to a perimeter, doing a quick exterior sweep, then waiting for daylight.

[ShadowFox89]

 Let's give it a day or two....

Though I find it ironic that Pelosi is claiming that "it's not like an episode of NCIS" and it turns out to be very much like an episode of NCIS...

[Oniya]

Can we just turn Abby loose on them already?

[Avis habilis]

As of this morning: perpetrated by two brothers from Chechnya, one shot dead after a car chase from Cambridge to Watertown, the other on the lam. Boston completely shut down. All transit halted. Nobody on the streets. Dead man had more explosives on him. They threw bombs at the cops.

[Chris Brady]

You guys have my prayers from Canada.  This is horrible to have to go through...

*Sends internet hugs to EVERYBODY!*

[Hellis]

According to Reddit, they found a rocket in the basement. Someone climing to be the suspect on the loose posted online, threatnign to kill "all".

[DarklingAlice]

The NRA loves lining the pockets of politicians. You could say that American politicians are like rusted cars with fresh paint jobs. They look clean on the outside, but are junk on the inside.

And that's all I'll say about that.

Which could be relevant to things like school shootings. But I doubt that even the NRA tries to extend 2nd ammendment rights to cover DIY bombs, poisons, and other terror devices.

[Hellis]

Online Boasting was hoax/troll acc.

[Ephiral]

I am... kinda disturbed by the official version of events here. There are several details that appear to have been omitted or just don't match up.

-While there were homemade bombs involved, it was grenades being pitched from the vehicle. Which, by the way, was repeatedly reported as a state police SUV.
-Suspect #1 was wounded, but was at hospital and alive at least three hours after his capture. He most certainly did not die in the shootout, as I'm seing reported.
-Also no mention of the two officers wounded in Watertown?
-Rocket? In the basement of where? This didn't come up at all on police radio last night, though they did find a large homemade bomb in a residence in the shootout area.

And just what the hell happened with suspect #2? Last I heard, they had airtight perimiters around him and the truck - which was several blocks away from him. This would've been about 04:15 Eastern; I went to bed because they were pulling back and waiting for daylight.

[bubby]

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/04/19/boston_marathon_explosions_show_us_the_evidence_says_toronto_aunt_of_bombing_suspects.html

[Aislinn]

Can we just turn Abby loose on them already?

Yus!!!

Love Abby so much....

I found this on facebook...and thought it was apt.

[Deamonbane]

The question I keep asking myself is... if this had happened in any other part of the world, would it have gotten this much press coverage?

[ShadowFox89]

 Probably not, but the US has never been a typical country.

We're the freaks of the world.

[Aislinn]

I think we can safely assume that it wouldn't. Things like this happen all over the world all the time...

I don't know if its because generally things like this don't happen -here- or because of the media machine we have here.

[Oniya]

The question I keep asking myself is... if this had happened in any other part of the world, would it have gotten this much press coverage?

If it had been a less news-heavy venue (a major sporting event in a major city), would there have been incentive for the bomber to do it?

[Deamonbane]

I mean... yeah, shit like that happens everywhere all the time, but does that somehow make it somehow more horrible because it happened in the States? I mean... 2 deaths and over 130 wounded isn't something to sneeze at, obviously, but honestly I have seen more deaths in a traffic accident... so should they start classifying drunk driving as an act of terror?

[Oniya]

I mean... yeah, shit like that happens everywhere all the time, but does that somehow make it somehow more horrible because it happened in the States? I mean... 2 deaths and over 130 wounded isn't something to sneeze at, obviously, but honestly I have seen more deaths in a traffic accident... so should they start classifying drunk driving as an act of terror?

More deaths, maybe, but hardly that number of wounded.  Not to mention, the drunk driver doesn't make a deliberate selection of a place/time with a large number of potential casualties to have that crash.  I think if this happened at a World Cup soccer match in Brazil, we'd be getting just as much coverage.