mulberryshoots

I don’t know about you, but living here in the Boston area, it seems that the police and Federal authorities are tooting their horns too much while taking credit for the capture of the two brothers suspected of the Marathon bombings.

Yes, they did post the photos and asked for the public’s help in identifying who the two suspects might be. How-some-ever, (I don’t use this made up word often but it seems to be appropriate here) it turns out that they had a file on the older brother from a visit carried out by the FBI in 2010. How embarrassing is THAT? And, yes, publishing the photos got the brothers panicked, it seems, so that they decided they needed to get away. Why did they stick around in the first place? to plant more bombs–which it seems they had on hand?

Then, the powers-that-be shut down the city on Friday because they lost track of the second brother after a “firefight” in which the older brother was injured and later died. An estimated $330 M dollars of lost commerce later at five o’clock on Friday, we were then told that it’s now “safe to come out” even though the police and the FBI didn’t seem to have a clue where the missing suspect might be. Contradictory and confusing.

But of course, as we all know now, had the Watertown fellow (David Henneberry) not been allowed outside, he wouldn’t have noticed that the tarpaulin on his boat was loose. That he had the courage and the foresight to go and get a ladder to look inside was a testament to the level of help he provided to the police. This guy is the true hero and not the ten thousand policemen hanging around all day on Friday. Never mind that Brian Williams, the NBC newscaster spoke with contempt that boats were allowed in suburban areas. Without a boat to hide in, who knows who else might have gotten hurt by the wounded and desperate nineteen-year-old trying to find refuge in that neighborhood?

So, the police didn’t find him, although that didn’t stop them from riddling this guy’s boat (reportedly costing $50K new) and showing off with a helicopter with thermo-energy registering equipment. Are you kidding us? There were about twenty shots fired. By WHOM? Kelly Tuthill, a reporter for WCVB uttered the most memorable line of the whole siege when she said in real time, “This isn’t BAGHDAD! This is WATERTOWN!” when asked if she was close enough to hear the gunshots. She and Sean Kelly did a fabulous job of staking out the last altercation which finally brought the suspect to law enforcement officers.

It sure seems like LUCK had as much to do with the suspenseful denouement of the marathon bombing as anything else. President Obama was right when he acknowledged all the law enforcement groups working well as a team together, but he added, “That’s what they’re SUPPOSED TO DO!”

Now, the FBI has some explaining to do regarding who interviewed the older brother in 2010 and what happened after that. Now, the Justice Department has a chance to embroil us into ever evolving complexity about reading Miranda rights, treating the suspect as a terrorist and where to try him, if it comes to that.

Meanwhile, the relatives, the parents of these two brothers are protesting their innocence and that they have been framed. Most of the time in these kinds of bombing incidents, the families are ashamed and embarrassed and HORRIFIED that anyone in their family could kill and maim so many people. Not so here. What’s up with that?

So, let’s not be fooled by the self-congratulatory bombast that is being aired on TV. Even Wolf Blitzer, who is not necessarily my most favorite commentator looked visibly non-plussed as he was listening to the Police Chief of Watertown go on and on about how the police captured the suspect.

Without Mr. Henneberry, (who has had a spontaneous Facebook site set up to raise funds to buy him a new boat,) the suspect could have died and not been discovered for weeks or somehow eluded capture.

Let’s look at the few grains of wheat among the piles of chaff that are being set out as fodder for the American public. We can figure things out for ourselves. Or at least, we should.

Postscript: Today, Tuesday the 23rd of April, we just saw David Henneberry being interviewed on our local TV station. When asked about how he felt about people wanting to raise money to replace his riddled boat, he said, that it was just a boat, when people had lost their lives and their legs. He said any money raised should go to those people to help them. And that besides, he has a canoe in the garage. What a great guy!–modest, humble and alert! Thank you!

A few more grains of wheat postscript: It’s now Thursday, 25 April, 2013 and the following admissions have come to light:
1. The boat WAS within the Watertown police blockade perimeter, only 4-5 blocks from where the car with pools of blood was abandoned.
2. The suspect did NOT have a gun inside the boat although Ed Davis, the Boston Chief of Police said so earlier, justifying the hail of bullets fired at the boat prior to capture.
3. The suspect was not read his Miranda rights before his confession, so it can’t be used in court against him.
4. The publicly appointed legal counsel to the suspect have to take an enforced 3 week without pay furlough due to Sequester legislation.