Boston marathon.

[Chopper the ex Copper]

To be fair, speaking as an impartial expert on the subject, the "bomb" that I seen on the video from boston was tiny. people should be thankful it wasn't a decent size. the blast radius was pathetic,. a grenade would have caused more damage.

looked more like an IED rather than an actual bomb, to me.

lives are lives and it sucks, but really, more people are killed in compton daily than in boston then.

While I agree the device(s) were relatively small it'd be one helluva beefy grenade on steroids to pop like that.

 

[Russell]

Boston is shocking, but we seem to fall over ourselves to express how shocked we are by these high-profile, out-of-the-ordinary events while tolerating events orders of magnitude worse that just happen to take place constantly.

I don't live in a war zone, I've never been in a country that has had a civil war (not whilst I was there anyway). I'm a closetted, white, middle class bloke who runs a bit and attends events like the Boston marathon. Over the next few months I've got 10K races, half marathons and full marathons on my calendar. As such, when I see pictures of dead and injured people by the finish line of a race, I can see how easily it could have been my wife and daughter supporting me if we had happened to be there, that's why I find it shocking... I can identify with it.

Hyocritical? Possibly, but thats how we're wired.

I wonder what the "meh, people die everyday" crowd would be saying if this had been a bike race? IED in the transition area of Mountain Mayhem anyone? (that's food for thought, not a plan).

My hypocritical thoughts are with all those who have been injured and the families of those who died.

 

[MikeD]

the "meh, people die everyday" crowd

I don't think anyone here thinks that.

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

I was photographing the Brighton Marathon the day before, if that bomb had gone off there, at that time in the same location in relation to the finish line, It would have got me.

 

[Neil]

the "meh, people die everyday" crowd

I don't think anyone here thinks that.

No - I wouldn't go as far as meh. Of course I have sympathy - and many will no doubt empathise, they can either see themself, or it's a "there but for the grace of <deity>" type scenario.

All the same, though, I get the point - there's countless other innocents killed in similar terrorist type scenarios, probably almost a daily occurrences, that we don't wring our hands over. Perhaps that's the point and the wake-up call - rather than just being concerned about the tragedy that's happened at the Boston marathon, perhaps we should - by that same token - be just as concerned about the other incidents.

Problem is, out of sight, and all that... and I know people will say in some regions, countries, it's a lot more prevalent, and nothing like the same degree of shock - well that may be true, in terms of people unconnected - but all the same, it's no less tragic or inescapable (largely) for the innocents that get taken by those incidents.

 

[gibbleking]

seems hes been nicked according to yahoo..

 

[sylus]

I know someone citizen arrested a person who looked suspicious..it was an arab gentleman in what i would describe as shiek gear..turns out he was indeed middle eastern and his suspicious behaviour was he was alight and running away from the explosion after watching his friends run in the marathon..his friends were also like him... a student a local university

such is the paranoia built up by the us government about arabs/muslims that many americans when they hear terrorist they think muslim/arab...conveniently forgetting the likes of timothy mcviegh

I hope they catch the people who have done this..just the right people

 

[highlandsflyer]

This is the thing I hate the most about the 24/7 news society we now have. They just won't wait for developments, they find it necessary to continually speculate.

I am tired of the entire world being condensed into a few minutes of news whilst the media frenzy continues over one or two events.

There is no balance.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

seems hes been nicked according to yahoo..

Not according to the FBI, who've just given the media an almighty rollicking for rampant speculation.

 

[highlandsflyer]

We should remember how often suspects turn out to be wrongly fingered.