Posted by Shyam Moondra
On April 15, 2013, it was a bright sunny morning when the 117th running of the 16-mile long Boston Marathon began in good spirits with 27,000 runners from 96 countries participating. This world’s oldest marathon takes place every year on Patriots’ Day (a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord as part of the American Revolutionary War). At around 2:40 pm, when the first batch of runners started to arrive at the finish line on Boylston Street, a loud explosion took place causing thick plume of smoke. A few seconds later, a couple of blocks down the road, another explosion took place. Instantly, it became apparent that it was a coordinated terrorist attack. A day of fun quickly turned deadly and thousands of spectators started to run away in panic. When it was all over, three people were dead and more than 280 injured, many of them seriously with amputated limbs. Among the dead were Martin Richard, 8 (his picture holding a sign that said “No more hurting people. Peace” became a worldwide sensation); Krystle Campbell, 29; and a student from China, Lingzi Lu, 23. It was a senseless murder of three promising youngsters whose dreams were cowardly cut short.
On April 18th, the FBI released the pictures of the two suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26) and his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (19), both Chechen-born immigrants. These pictures were taken by the surveillance cameras around the terror sites. As soon as the pictures were made public, tips from the people of Boston started to pour in and the suspects realized that the police would be knocking on their door shortly. So they took off with a cache of explosive devices, hand-made grenades, and guns in a carjacked Mercedes-Benz SUV. The owner of the carjacked car somehow managed to escape and alerted the police that the carjackers admitted to him that they were the marathon bombers. After a dramatic chase and shootout, which involved loud explosions, the elder suspect was dead and the younger suspect sped away and disappeared in dark. In the shootout, Officer Sean Collier (26) was also shot dead and another officer, Richard Donohue, Jr. (33), was seriously injured. This was followed by an unprecedented lock down of Boston and house-to-house search. The younger suspect, who ran away on foot, was ultimately found hiding in a boat parked in the backyard of a private home in Watertown, a suburb of Boston. As a side story, a Brown University student, Sunil Tripathi (22), whose picture vaguely resembled the picture of one of the suspects, was wrongly identified by someone on Tweeter as the younger suspect - that tweet quickly went viral on social media. Tripathi got extremely distressed and disappeared on April 16th; his body was found floating in the Providence River on April 23rd.
The younger suspect, Dzhokhar, became a U.S. citizen only last year and took the oath to protect the constitution of the U.S.; the elder suspect, Tamerlan, also applied for the citizenship but his application was rejected because of the 2011 FBI investigation done based on a tip from Russia that he could be an Islamic extremist. Both brothers, who lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were born in war-torn Islamic region of Russia. Why did they do this? Their uncle said simply: "they did it because they were losers.”
From this tragedy, several points emerge:
• The suspect brothers came to the U.S. with their parents, who requested political asylum because they wanted to get away from their war-torn homeland in Russia. They wanted to come to America for freedom and to live in peace. The U.S. was generous to only let them in but also provide financial assistance to the whole family, including the two suspects, through a variety of welfare programs. In fact, the elder suspect was receiving welfare assistance as recently as last year. It’s astounding how the suspects ungratefully cut the very hands that were extended to help them. It’s abundantly clear that there is no other country in the world that is so generous and that values humanity so much. America, the country of immigrants, is one of the the few countries where immigrants can come, work hard, and achieve big things for themselves and for their adopted country. The fact that they were Muslims (and the World Trade Center attackers were also Muslims) and yet the U.S. gave them political asylum so they could live in peace is a testament to the incredible American generosity and desire to help those who need help. This reflects profoundly positively on America’s moral fabric and character. A big win for the U.S.A.!
• Another shining star in this tragic episode is the law enforcement establishment. It’s amazing to see how well various local, state, and federal agencies worked together and apprehended the suspects so quickly. The overall performance of first responders, police, hospital staff, FBI, ATF, and others was incredibly efficient and effective, almost to the point of perfection. Within two days of the attack, the law enforcement identified the suspects and within five days they captured the suspects, dead or alive.
• The people of Boston also exhibited tremendous courage and discipline during and after the attacks. The help of Bostonians was paramount throughout this sad incident. The tip from the owner of the carjacked car was instrumental in putting the police on a hot trail of the suspects. The tip from the owner of the boat, where the younger suspect hid, led the police to capture him. The people sent smart phone pictures and videos to the police that helped investigators identify the suspects so quickly.
• The social media proved to be a positive force when Arab Spring broke out in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Without Twitter or Facebook, it would have been impossible to mobilize the popular uprising against dictatorships and fuel the quest for democracy. In case of Tripathi, however, the uncontrollable mega force of social media proved to be fatal. The question to be pondered is how to check the uncheckable digital revolution that often is used as a platform to spread false rumors (e.g., recently, a false tweet on AP website led to flash crash of the market that wiped out billions of dollars of market cap in just a few seconds) or impinge on privacy rights.
The iconic singer, Neil Diamond, flew to Boston on Saturday, April 20th to personally appear at the first Red Sox ballgame after the terrorist attack and show his support for Bostonians. The spectators were not only surprised but genuinely thrilled to see him sing Red Sox’ signature song “Sweet Caroline.” Diamond, a New York native, wore a Red Sox cap and as he left the field, the fans chanted "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" That said it all!
