The "Good":
"$1m proposed for some victims of Boston bombings" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, May 03, 2013
The attorney overseeing the $28 million fund to benefit victims of the Boston Marathon bombings plans to unveil a tentative proposal Monday for distributing the money, including payments of “well over $1 million” to each of the families of people who died in the blasts and those who lost more than one limb.
Kenneth Feinberg, who was asked to distribute the money collected by The One Fund Boston Inc., said about a dozen victims who lost a single limb would probably receive amounts approaching $1 million under his preliminary proposal. He plans to unveil that proposal in advance of meetings with victims and other members of the community at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square on Monday and Tuesday.
People who suffered other physical injuries would receive smaller amounts, depending on how long they stayed in the hospital, under the draft proposal.
Feinberg said he believes that all the families of those who were killed should receive the same amount of money, regardless of their economic circumstances or financial need.
“It will make it much faster, much easier, much cleaner — no less controversial,” he told the Globe on Thursday. He said families can do whatever they want with the money. “This is a gift.”
Feinberg is not proposing compensation for businesses damaged or temporarily shut down because of the explosions and subsequent manhunt for the bombers, he said — nor for individuals whose only injuries are psychological.
“There is probably not enough money,” Feinberg said. “If you spread it too thin, the money you give out isn’t going to be meaningful.”
This is a looting operation preying on peoples' compassion, just like Haiti and the rest!!
Three people died in the blasts and more than 260 were injured, including at least two who lost both their legs. In addition, an MIT police officer was later killed by the suspected bombers and an MBTA police officer was wounded in the manhunt. The MIT officer’s family and the MBTA officer will also be eligible for payments.
That's the boiled-down bulls*** background paragraph and conventional myth narrative right there.
The One Fund, which was created by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Deval Patrick with strong support from local business leaders after the April 15 explosions, has raised more than $28.4 million, including nearly $17.6 million in corporate donations and tens of thousands of donations from individuals. Feinberg has pledged to disburse the money by June 30.
This shakedown is making me sick. All based on a staged and scripted production. It was drills, folks.
To simplify the process, Feinberg said he does not plan to consider victims’ actual expenses or economic losses from the bombing.
Nor will he reduce any awards for victims who already expect to receive disability or life insurance payments or have independently raised money from donors.
Many victims have raised money on their own. Dozens of families have collectively raised roughly $3.9 million on two crowdfunding sites alone, GoFundMe and GiveForward. For instance, Jeff Bauman, a Chelmsford resident who lost both his legs, has raised more than $740,000 — an unusually large wave of generosity compared with most other fund-raising efforts on the Internet.
Not to be insensitive or callous, but this was the guy who was shown being wheeled around and had his prosthetics fall off. Besides that fact that there is no dripping blood and such from the guy as he is being wheeled away. Of course, at this point all the discrepancies are down the old ma$$ media memory hole.
“We’re used to seeing ‘large’ campaigns exceed $100,000, but having a couple campaigns raise over $700,000 each is exceptional even by our own standards,” said Brad Damphousse, chief executive of GoFundMe of San Diego. Donations to the funds are not tax deductible because they are going to individuals, rather than an established charity.
City officials said contributions to the One Fund Boston should be tax deductible retroactively once the Internal Revenue Service approves the organization as a 501(c)3 charity, though it’s unclear when the IRS will rule.
Now we see why they are being such good corporate suckers, 'er, citizens.
Feinberg plans to hear comments on the draft proposal from victims and other members of the community at the two town hall meetings scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. Tuesday.
He noted he could still make changes based on the feedback he receives.
But no matter how he decides to split the money, Feinberg’s decisions are sure to spark debate. Many people loudly complained about the formulas Feinberg used for past funds to distribute money to benefit victims of everything from the fund for Sept. 11 victims set up by Congress to one funded by BP to benefit victims of the massive Gulf oil spill in 2010.
It's the Ken the cover-up specialist!
“Anybody who does anything like this and expects thanks, gratitude, appreciation, acknowledgment — forget it,” said Feinberg, who has shepherded numerous disaster funds since a judge appointed him in 1984 to distribute money to veterans exposed to Agent Orange; he’s handling the Boston fund pro bono. “This is thankless.”
Yeah, you are such a trooper to perform this service.
Based on his past experience managing funds, Feinberg expects all the eligible victims to apply. Victims are expected to be able to apply for the funds between May 15 and June 15.
Feinberg, who grew up in Brockton and has long maintained ties to Massachusetts, expects to surrender his role when he disburses the money. But he and city officials said the charity may remain in operation, as checks continue to pour into the fund’s coffers. The money could be used to support programs to help the local community, but the precise mission is still being defined.
“It will live on to continue to bring people together from the tragedy and it will live on for other unforeseen events,” said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce.
Though dwarfed by the donations following the Sept. 11 attacks, the One Fund has already eclipsed the fund-raising in some more recent tragedies that had higher death tolls, including the shootings in Newtown, Conn., where 26 children and school officials died, and the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting, where a dozen people were killed.
Two other false flag operations that were not what they appeared to be.
See:
Sandy Hook Hoax?
Pittsfield Spitball
Aurora Borebullshit
As a general rule, the more the agenda-pushing paper refers to an event the more likely it is to be a complete hoax or false flag black operation.
The governor could not be reached late Thursday. But last week, he expressed gratitude to donors for the rush of money raised.
“This overwhelming support has meant so much to all who are in the process of healing,” Patrick said in a statement.
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I noticed the Globe cropped the photo of the guy who was wheeled all over the place in a wheelchair and has his prosthetics put back on by a cop after they fell off. Crisis actors at work being passed off as real time and time again. What are we too think of anything they say?
"Transparency lacking in bombing victims’ funds; Tough to be sure how much gets through" by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, May 07, 2013
The practice of selling an item and earmarking a portion for charity is known as cause marketing, and its effectiveness is a source of disagreement in the business world. Representatives of several companies engaged in cause marketing after the Marathon bombings said it is a simple yet powerful way for corporations and their customers to work together to aid victims.
It really is a corporate paper.
But research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in 2011 concluded that cause marketing reduces total giving because “consumers think of their purchase as a charitable act and decrease subsequent charitable acts.”
“Consumers may even think of the firm’s donation as theirs, since it is facilitated by their act,” wrote Aradhna Krishna, the study’s author and a marketing professor at the University of Michigan.
As an alternative to cause marketing, some companies are asking employees to solicit donations for the One Fund in the form of small amounts of money voluntarily tacked on to purchases at checkout counters — with all of the extra payments going to charity. CVS already has collected more than $570,000 this way, mostly in $1 and $3 increments.
I resent being asked such things at the checkout, and always say "not today thanks."
Related: Looking Over That Job Application
The collection method is easy and transparent, said Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman — “maybe that’s why it’s been so successful.”
Guilt is good. Guilt work$.
*************
Transparency is a critical element of fund-raising efforts, and consumer advocates, including Attorney General Martha Coakley, urge consumers to ask lots of questions about where their money is going and how much ends up at the charity before they make purchases or contributions....
You can certainly trust Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Yankee Candle, and Kenny Chesney.
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Also see:
Severity of loss to decide bombing compensation
Amputees: More than bombing victims
Props, too.
Who should get reward in bombing case? No answers yet
The Bad:
"First plan was to attack Boston on July 4, officials say" by Brian MacQuarrie, Maria Sacchetti and David Filipov | Globe Staff, May 03, 2013
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, told federal investigators that he and his brother initially planned to detonate explosives at Boston’s vaunted July Fourth celebration on the Charles River Esplanade, according to two officials briefed on the interrogation.
Was this before or after the "interrogation?"
When the brothers built the bombs faster than they had anticipated, they drove around Boston and Cambridge sometime before Patriots Day casing police stations, with an alternative plan to launch an attack on law enforcement officers, one of the officials said.
“They surveyed these police stations, multiple stations in Boston and one in Cambridge,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “They built the bombs so fast that they decided to move the whole plan up.”
The fresh details from the FBI’s interrogation of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev further underscores the notion of an oddly haphazard plot, one that ultimately focused on the home stretch and finish line of the Boston Marathon, the city’s most iconic sporting event.
In other developments Thursday....
In Boston on Thursday afternoon, the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar’s brother, was released from the state medical examiner’s office to an uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, and Tamerlan’s two sisters, according to a human rights activist in Russia who is helping the family....
Kheda Saratova, the human rights activist, said, “The family is afraid that if Tamerlan is buried before they get all the answers, many secrets will be buried with him, and this will make it harder for Dzhokhar to defend himself in court.”
So they turn the body over to the uncle who is connected to the CIA?
*************************
Television helicopters followed the hearse they believed was carrying Tsarnaev’s body to the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home and Cremation Services in North Attleborough.
About 30 people gathered across the street from the funeral home about 9:30 p.m. and expressed shock at the arrival of the corpse.
Some onlookers were wrapped in American flags and carried signs.
“I think it’s just atrocious what they’re doing here,” said Garrett Plath, a 20-year-old town resident who held a sign that said, “Justice Is Served Boston Strong.”
State Representative Elizabeth Poirier, a North Attleborough Republican, said police told her they were waiting to hear from a lawyer for the Tsarnaev family on Friday.
“I understand suspect number one is here,” she said. “And I’m very amazed at that.”
Three police cruisers were parked in front of the entrance to the funeral home, and an officer told a reporter that media members were not permitted to approach the building.
Those gathered outside were for the most part orderly, though someone shouted at one point, “Burn his [expletive] body!”
I'm so proud of Boston Sheeple being so Boston Strong! Yeaaaaaaaahhhh!
Funeral home managers did not respond to calls for comment on Thursday....
A photo released by authorities when Tazhayakov was arrested Wednesday shows an array of fireworks that allegedly were found in Tsarnaev’s backpack.
If they were found in his backpack then which FBI instigator gave him the bombs (if they even had bombs, which I don't think they did)?
The fireworks have been cut up, and some emptied of explosives, but pyrotechnic and chemistry experts said it would have been difficult to cannibalize them for their black powder.
“They’re clearly consumer fireworks,” said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. “You’re not going to get a lot of powder.”
Federal limits on the amount of explosives in fireworks would have made extracting black powder for the Marathon bombs extremely tedious, time-consuming, and inefficient, Heckman said.
In other words, another bulls*** story put out by the government and mouthpiece media is just that: bulls***.
However, black powder from the fireworks could have been used as “a fuse or a starter device rather than the actual explosive device,” according to David Coker, a Boston University chemistry professor. The bombers detonated pressure cookers filled with shrapnel.
In one scenario, Coker said, “you would seal up the pressure cooker, and you probably have wires coming in to ignite that black powder.” Then, he said, the powder would burn “at a high enough temperature to ignite the other, more serious explosive device. It could have easily been a stick of dynamite or something like that.”
The fireworks shown in the photo — the remnants of a “fountain” fireworks, and a 96-shot device for a small aerial display — would have held no more than 200 grams of chemical explosives each, much of which would have been used for color effects, according to Bill Weimer, executive vice president of Phantom Fireworks.
A third device shown in the photo, a stack of several Roman candles, would have been limited to 20 grams each, Heckman said.
By contrast, Weimer said he has been told that the pressure-cooker bombs allegedly used by the Tsarnaevs could have held up to 20 pounds each of black powder and shrapnel.
“For somebody to sit and take these consumer fireworks apart and keep the color composition separate would be incredibly difficult,” Heckman said.
In addition, she said, removing black powder — another word for gunpowder — is dangerous. “You never want to take a firework apart. If they were using sharp metal or knives to cut them open, that could create a spark which could then ignite,” Heckman said.
But hey, the narrative is out there and why not just go with that?
Weimer has said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev purchased two 24-shell mortar kits from the Phantom Fireworks store in Seabrook, N.H., in February.
How would they know that when he paid in cash?
Oh, right, the FBI "found" a receipt.
The Tsarnaevs would have had to procure much more firepower for their bombs, Weimer said. Combining the black powder from the mortar kits with the three types of fireworks shown in the photo would not have been enough, Weimer said.
“They had to accumulate powder from elsewhere, from additional fireworks, or buying black powder directly,” Weimer said.
Although fireworks cannot be sold to private citizens in Massachusetts, federal law allows the purchase of up to 50 pounds of black powder for personal use, such as firing an antique rifle.
Neither of the Tsarnaevs had been issued a Firearms Identification Card, which Massachusetts residents need to buy black powder in the state.
However, they could have bought the explosive in New Hampshire, where Tamerlan purchased the mortar kits.
As an alternative, they could have produced their own gunpowder. “It’s pretty easy to make,” Coker said.
Really?
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"Tsarnaev’s body moved to Worcester funeral home" by Lauren Dezenski, Milton J. Valencia and John R. Ellement | Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, May 03, 2013
The owner of the Worcester funeral home where the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is now being held said he was not making a statement about the alleged crimes of Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar.
“I’m not honoring a terrorist. I’m just burying a body,” Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, told the Telegram & Gazette today.
Stefan was quoted by the newspaper as saying that he believes that everyone should be treated with dignity after their death. He said he is prepared to face protests.
“Don’t do it? OK, what do you suggest I do? What would you do?” Stefan told the Telegram.
According to Stefan, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, arrived at the Worcester funeral home Thursday to work with Stefan on funeral plans that have not been finalized, in part, because no cemetery has so far said it was willing to accept the remains of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
According to the Telegram, Stefan has a long history of political activism in his neighborhood and has also long provided funeral services for the homeless or the drug-involved who have no family to pay for, or arrange, burials.
The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev was first released by the state medical examiner’s office to his relatives Thursday night and then taken to the Dyer-Lake funeral home in North Attleborough, where a small group of protesters gathered.
This morning, Dyer-Lake said in a statement that they no longer had Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body, but did not say where the remains were being sent....
The Globe reported today Tsarni and Tamerlan’s two sisters obtained Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s remains from the medical examiner’s office after his wife waived her right to claim her husband’s remains.
According to Kheda Saratova, a human rights activist working with the family in Russia, the Tsarnaev family does not intend to bury Tamerlan until they find an independent coroner to issue a cause of death, the Globe reported. The Tsarnaevs have remained dubious of reports that police were taking Tamerlan into custody when Dzhokhar reportedly ran him over.
They actually had Tamerlan in custody after he was stripped.
They actually had Tamerlan in custody after he was stripped.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is facing federal charges that could lead to the death penalty, is being held at a federal prison hospital in Ayer.
Meaning he's in military custody.
Meaning he's in military custody.
Three men charged with obstructing the investigation — Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19-year-old Kazakh nationals, and Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge — are being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Middleton. Their attorneys have said they are not guilty of any crimes.
The medical examiner's office has not released the cause of death for Tamerlan Tsarnaev. A death certificate could be released as early as today.
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Citing privacy laws, the university would not confirm a New York Times report that Tsarnaev had failed seven classes over three semesters in 2012 and 2013.
UMass Dartmouth a shaken campus
UMass Dartmouth seeks an exception to release Tsarnaev records
About those college kids:
"Student visa system gets scathing review" by Maria Sacchetti | Globe Staff, May 04, 2013
Homeland Security officials have redoubled their efforts to check foreign students’ visas at airports and border crossings since a Kazakh student charged with destroying evidence in the Boston Marathon bombings used an invalid visa to reenter the United States in January.
Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend of suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, passed through a security checkpoint at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport 16 days after the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth notified federal officials that his low grades had invalidated his student visa.
“How do you get back into this country without a visa?” Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said by phone Friday. “Is our system working or isn’t it?”
If you are working for US intelligence, Chuck!
Now I am not saying these kids were. What it looks like to me is they were caught up in the web near these patsies, and now the government has tools to put pressure on them to sign the statements put before them.
Federal investigators arrested Tazhayakov and his roommate, Dias Kadyrbayev, both 19-year-old students from Kazakhstan, for alleged immigration violations five days after the deadly attacks, intensifying concerns that Homeland Security is failing to properly monitor the 850,000 foreign students and their US schools at a time when student visas are soaring.
That's so they can take the job that was supposed to be yours, 'murkn.
After the bombings, officials issued an order “effective immediately’’ telling agents to verify that every foreign student coming into the United States has a valid visa, by checking their paper records against a computer database of foreign students. Officials are also making sure that Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency that screens arrivals at airports and borders, has updated information on foreign students.
All this whirling around because of a false flag that framed a couple of patsies.
Homeland Security said Wednesday the system was fixed but on Friday they clarified that they were still working on it....
Nothing like a government that KNEE-JERKS LIES, huh?
Federal officials cautioned Friday that the Kazakh men had no criminal records or other red flags that would have triggered an immigration investigation until federal investigators discovered that the men were college buddies of Tsarnaev. But officials acknowledged they did not know that Tazhayakov’s visa was invalid when he passed through the customs checkpoints on Jan. 20.
Tazhayakov’s lawyer said Tazhayakov was also unaware that his visa was invalid at the time.
About 10,000 US schools and colleges are accredited to accept foreign students, according to the Government Accountability Office, and colleges and universities are increasingly recruiting abroad in part because foreign students tend to pay higher tuition rates.
Oh, it's ALL ABOUT the MONEY even when it comes to ejerkashun, 'eh?
Last year the United States issued 486,900 new F1 visas, the type the Kazakh students had, which typically are valid for the course of their studies. That is more than double the number issued in 2002, according to the State Department.
Last year the Government Accountability Office raised concerns that US officials were not working effectively enough with criminal investigators and others to detect fraud or monitor schools in the program.
“We know that they’re not monitoring them,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter limits on immigration. “They only go after overstays if there’s an obvious national security or public safety concern with a student who has overstayed. Everybody else is not bothered.”
To obtain a student visa, foreigners must first gain acceptance into an approved American school, from an elementary school to a university. Then students must apply for the visa, pay government fees, and submit to an interview and background check, including fingerprints, at a US embassy or consulate.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a Homeland Security agency, is in charge of monitoring the Student and Exchange Visitor Program in cooperation with school and university officials, who help monitor students’ academic status and other matters through a database known as Sevis.
Another f***ing database.
UMass Dartmouth, a 9,000-student campus that was evacuated after the bombings, said Friday that they were in full compliance with the student visa program....
Federal immigration agents arrested Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov for immigration violations after the investigation into the April 15 bombings, and they have since been charged in US District Court with helping cover up evidence from the deadly attacks by taking Tsarnaev’s backpack and empty fireworks from his room and tossing them in a trash bin.
Their lawyers have said the men had no idea Tsarnaev was a suspect in the bombings, though federal investigators say they tried to hide some of the friend’s belongings after realizing he was involved in the bombings. The two Kazakh men, and a Cambridge man who is charged with making false statements in the investigation, are in federal custody....
A federal immigration prosecutor disputed Tazhayakov’s immigration lawyer Linda A. Cristello’s assertion in court, but the issue is unlikely to be resolved soon because the Kazakh men’s immigration cases have been postponed pending the outcome of the criminal charges....
Let go and deport home. Just sign here.
Grassley, the top Republican on the committee considering legislation that would overhaul the nation’s immigration system, said he hoped the Kazakh men’s immigration violations would not derail the bill. But he said Homeland Security should explain what happened so they can address any issues in the legislation.
“We need to be deliberate in this process,” said Grassley, who this week urged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain the Kazakh men’s cases. “We can’t afford to screw up again, particularly in the age of terrorism.”
Yeah, that's a real bummer about this whole agenda-pushing event. It's delayed and possibly destroyed immigration reform.
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Related:
Immigration Bill Stumbling Before Finish Line
What the Immigration Bill i$ Really About
Maybe not since they were headed that way anyway.
"Cambridge won’t bury Marathon bombing suspect; Fears an uproar at cemetery; uncle insists city was Tsarnaev’s home" by Wesley Lowery | Globe Staff, May 06, 2013
Cambridge officials on Sunday said they would not allow the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev to be buried in the city’s cemetery, the latest chapter in a complicated saga to determine who is responsible for burying the body of the accused Boston Marathon bomber.
I'm about done with it.
I'm about done with it.
Ruslan Tsarni, Tsarnaev’s uncle, on Sunday said he believed his nephew should be buried in Cambridge, despite calls from protesters to send his body overseas.
“He lived in America. He grew up here and for the last 10 years he decided to be in Cambridge, therefore any contemplation that the body should be taken to a home country. . . . his home country is Cambridge, Mass.,” Tsarni said. “Tamerlan Tsarnaev has no other place to be buried.’’
This is the CIA s*** who has custody of the body?
This is the CIA s*** who has custody of the body?
************************
Three others have been arrested in the investigation of the Marathon bombings, accused of helping Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after the fact. One of them, Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, is scheduled for a detention hearing Monday in US District Court in Boston.
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"Cambridge man held in bomb case seeks release; Advocates say charges against him are ‘refutable’" by Maria Sacchetti | Globe Staff, May 04, 2013
Advocates for a 19-year-old Cambridge man charged with lying to federal investigators after the Boston Marathon bombings are calling on a federal judge to release him from jail Monday, saying he had “nothing to do” with the deadly attack.
In court documents filed Saturday, his lawyers and supporters said Robel Phillipos is a conscientious and civic-minded young man and that the authorities’ allegations that he gave conflicting accounts to them is “refutable.” He has a detention hearing Monday in US District Court in Boston.
“This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation,” lawyers Derege B. Demissie and Susan B. Church of Cambridge said in court documents.
“The weight of the federal government under such circumstances can have a devastatingly crushing effect on the ability of an adolescent to withstand the enormous pressure and respond rationally.”
**************
To support the request for bail, lawyers filed multiple affidavits from friends and relatives of Phillipos, including a Wellesley College art professor, the owner of a limousine business, and a Harvard Kennedy School program administrator.
In the affidavits, supporters described Phillipos as a considerate, thoughtful and friendly young man, the son of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia.
Phillipos is bilingual in Amharic and English and proud of his Ethiopian heritage, they said, but he was born and raised in Massachusetts and well-integrated into American life. He attended school, played in soccer and basketball leagues, and idolized Lakers star Kobe Bryant. He loves American history and literature.
He is the only son of Genet Bekele, a domestic violence specialist who moved to Massachusetts in 1981 and raised him while working two jobs. She earned three college degrees: an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern University, and a master’s degree in social work from Boston University.
She became a naturalized US citizen in 1996 and has helped many other immigrants and refugees adjust to the United States.
In an affidavit on behalf of her son, Bekele said she was deeply involved in his life despite her work schedule. She said she attended all teacher conferences, chaperoned field trips, and made sure he did his homework every night.
In return, she said, her son helped her. He washed dishes, did the laundry, and went grocery shopping....
Too bad he got caught up with the wrong crowd.
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"Father of bomb suspect’s friend battles to free son, clear name; Says Tazhayakov didn’t cover up for Tsarnaev" by Maria Sacchetti and Leon Neyfakh | Globe Staff, May 08, 2013
"Cambridge man held in bomb case seeks release; Advocates say charges against him are ‘refutable’" by Maria Sacchetti | Globe Staff, May 04, 2013
Advocates for a 19-year-old Cambridge man charged with lying to federal investigators after the Boston Marathon bombings are calling on a federal judge to release him from jail Monday, saying he had “nothing to do” with the deadly attack.
In court documents filed Saturday, his lawyers and supporters said Robel Phillipos is a conscientious and civic-minded young man and that the authorities’ allegations that he gave conflicting accounts to them is “refutable.” He has a detention hearing Monday in US District Court in Boston.
“This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation,” lawyers Derege B. Demissie and Susan B. Church of Cambridge said in court documents.
“The weight of the federal government under such circumstances can have a devastatingly crushing effect on the ability of an adolescent to withstand the enormous pressure and respond rationally.”
**************
To support the request for bail, lawyers filed multiple affidavits from friends and relatives of Phillipos, including a Wellesley College art professor, the owner of a limousine business, and a Harvard Kennedy School program administrator.
In the affidavits, supporters described Phillipos as a considerate, thoughtful and friendly young man, the son of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia.
Phillipos is bilingual in Amharic and English and proud of his Ethiopian heritage, they said, but he was born and raised in Massachusetts and well-integrated into American life. He attended school, played in soccer and basketball leagues, and idolized Lakers star Kobe Bryant. He loves American history and literature.
He is the only son of Genet Bekele, a domestic violence specialist who moved to Massachusetts in 1981 and raised him while working two jobs. She earned three college degrees: an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern University, and a master’s degree in social work from Boston University.
She became a naturalized US citizen in 1996 and has helped many other immigrants and refugees adjust to the United States.
In an affidavit on behalf of her son, Bekele said she was deeply involved in his life despite her work schedule. She said she attended all teacher conferences, chaperoned field trips, and made sure he did his homework every night.
In return, she said, her son helped her. He washed dishes, did the laundry, and went grocery shopping....
Too bad he got caught up with the wrong crowd.
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"Father of bomb suspect’s friend battles to free son, clear name; Says Tazhayakov didn’t cover up for Tsarnaev" by Maria Sacchetti and Leon Neyfakh | Globe Staff, May 08, 2013
Amir Ismagulov is waging a one-man campaign to get his son out of jail. He proclaimed his son’s innocence on television, supported him in the courthouse gallery, and visited him in Essex County jail.
In a wide-ranging interview this week, the prominent businessman and city councilor in the oil-rich nation of Kazakhstan expressed shock over the bombings. Ismagulov said his son had dreamed of studying in America and “would never hurt” this country....
He said he believes his son. “In a Kazakh family, the son never lies to the father,” he said....
Ismagulov said the terror investigation has been overwhelming. Ismagulov said the FBI showed up at the New Bedford apartment on April 19 armed and wearing masks. Lasers zeroed in on the bodies of Tazhayakov, Kadyrbayev, and Kadyrbayev’s girlfriend, “like a movie.”
I think that is exactly what we are reading, folks. A script from the very start, just like 9/11.
I think that is exactly what we are reading, folks. A script from the very start, just like 9/11.
Authorities searched the apartment and opened boxes, focusing on one container they feared was a bomb. Instead, Tazhayakov’s father said it held a pet lizard.
He said he hoped to “to bring my child out of jail.”
“I don’t care about business, anything. When my son is in jail I cannot sleep peacefully in Kazakhstan,” he said.
Yesterday, Ismagulov laid flowers at the Boston Marathon memorial to remember the victims.
“The people who live here are so nice and good-natured, all of them,” he said. “We knew that America is a very democratic country. . . . How could it be possible for this to happen here, for ordinary, innocent people to die?”
Government false flags and inside jobs. We've seen so many the last 20 years or son it's getting old.
Government false flags and inside jobs. We've seen so many the last 20 years or son it's getting old.
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"Witnesses suggest friendly fire felled MBTA officer" by Sean P. Murphy and Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, May 07, 2013
Eyewitness accounts strongly suggest that MBTA Transit Police Officer Richard H. Donohue Jr. was shot and nearly killed by a fellow officer in Watertown April 19 during the hail of gunfire unleashed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the suspected terrorist made a getaway in a carjacked sport utility vehicle.
Donohue went down in the early-morning darkness during an extraordinary gunfight in which at least a dozen police officers from four departments exchanged up to 300 rounds of gunfire with Dzhokhar’s older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The Tsarnaevs also allegedly set off explosives, including a pressure cooker bomb similar to the ones used in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Jane Dyson, who lives 140 feet from where Donohue was shot on Dexter Avenue, said she saw the police officer collapse and fall to the ground near the end of the gunfight as 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sped away. She said the officer appeared to be a victim of “friendly fire.”
************************
Two witnesses support Dyson’s account....
None of the witnesses faulted police. “I don’t second-guess the actions the police took to stop these terrorists,” Dyson said in an interview. “The police did a great job.”
Yes, don't you dare question the police.
Dyson said she had offered to make a statement to police....
But no matter what the investigation concludes, it will not take away from the bravery of officers who put their lives on the line, a State Police spokesman said.
“Considering the chaos on those dark streets, where a pair of homicidal terrorists were firing shots and throwing bombs at police, the fact that friendly-fire incidents may have occurred detracts nothing, not one bit, from the valor and heroism of the officers and troopers who caught up to them that night,” David Procopio said.
Just worship the police state no matter what.
Nationally, about two police officers per year are killed by friendly fire, excluding training exercises, according to data collected by the FBI. The 22 friendly-fire deaths nationally over the last decade include cases in which officers mistook a fellow officer not wearing a uniform for the suspect.
The Watertown shootout was highly unusual in that officers from as many as six agencies converged on the suspects in the middle of the night, with officers having little time to coordinate efforts. It is still unclear exactly how many of the officers fired their guns, though it was at least a dozen from four agencies.
“It’s arguably a wartime situation,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington nonprofit that conducts research on law enforcement. “Police agencies are not generally prepared for the kind of wartime situation that these officers encountered.”
Really? They sure have all the equipment and teams.
Also see: MBTA Cop Caught in the Fog of War
Whatever.
***************************
In 10 minutes, police officers fired what may be an unprecedented number of rounds in a single police incident in recent state history. They apparently wounded both suspects, but also sprayed the neighborhood. Shots fired in the battle left at least a dozen nearby houses pockmarked with dozens of bullet holes, including a second-floor bedroom where two children slept....
But ALL THAT is LOST in the HEROIC BRAVERY, blah, blah, blah.
In a third potential friendly-fire incident, a state trooper fired at an unmarked Boston police SUV, en route to the scene, the Globe reported April 22. No one was hurt when the trooper, apparently thinking the SUV was the one stolen by the Tsarnaevs, fired multiple rounds at the vehicle, blowing out the back window....
Hey, that is what happens when you pull a Tippet and get the Boston cops all jacked up.
Last week, the Globe interviewed three neighbors who witnessed the climactic moment in the confrontation, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drove between two groups of police officers amid police gunfire.
By that time, Tamerlan had run out of bullets, hurling his handgun at a Watertown police officer before being subdued and handcuffed. There is little evidence that Dzhokhar ever had a gun. Police recovered one weapon at the scene and none on Dzhokhar when he was arrested the next evening.
And yet the cops unloaded into that boat where he was "found."
Dzhokhar, bleeding from wounds, was in such a hurry to leave the scene that he ran over his brother with the stolen SUV, contributing to his death, said police and witnesses....
Except he didn't. Witnesses and video showed the cops doing that.
Rob Mullen, who watched from a second-floor window of his house on Laurel Street, said, “Every cop out there just unloaded everything he had on the SUV.”
**********************************
The gunfire left some residents shaken. Tigran Tadevosyan said his two young children were asleep in a second-floor bedroom on Laurel Street when a bullet penetrated the wall. “We were very lucky no one was badly hurt,” he said.
Yeah, the Boston cops were lucky there was no collateral damage.
Another resident, Emily McAlpin, said there were at least seven bullet holes in her house, plus one in her fence. One penetrated the living room and smashed the television. “You feel so violated,” she said.
Procopio said the friendly-fire investigation “will take a good amount of time,” because of the existence of “a great deal of physical and ballistics evidence,” as well as the need to interview numerous witnesses and participants.
“It is a complex investigation being conducted very methodically,” Procopio said.
Pffft! The bullet is lodged in the guy's thigh!
--more--"
"Tremblay: The paranoid style in N.H. politics?" May 03, 2013
"Witnesses suggest friendly fire felled MBTA officer" by Sean P. Murphy and Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, May 07, 2013
Eyewitness accounts strongly suggest that MBTA Transit Police Officer Richard H. Donohue Jr. was shot and nearly killed by a fellow officer in Watertown April 19 during the hail of gunfire unleashed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the suspected terrorist made a getaway in a carjacked sport utility vehicle.
Donohue went down in the early-morning darkness during an extraordinary gunfight in which at least a dozen police officers from four departments exchanged up to 300 rounds of gunfire with Dzhokhar’s older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The Tsarnaevs also allegedly set off explosives, including a pressure cooker bomb similar to the ones used in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Jane Dyson, who lives 140 feet from where Donohue was shot on Dexter Avenue, said she saw the police officer collapse and fall to the ground near the end of the gunfight as 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sped away. She said the officer appeared to be a victim of “friendly fire.”
************************
Two witnesses support Dyson’s account....
None of the witnesses faulted police. “I don’t second-guess the actions the police took to stop these terrorists,” Dyson said in an interview. “The police did a great job.”
Yes, don't you dare question the police.
Dyson said she had offered to make a statement to police....
But no matter what the investigation concludes, it will not take away from the bravery of officers who put their lives on the line, a State Police spokesman said.
“Considering the chaos on those dark streets, where a pair of homicidal terrorists were firing shots and throwing bombs at police, the fact that friendly-fire incidents may have occurred detracts nothing, not one bit, from the valor and heroism of the officers and troopers who caught up to them that night,” David Procopio said.
Just worship the police state no matter what.
Nationally, about two police officers per year are killed by friendly fire, excluding training exercises, according to data collected by the FBI. The 22 friendly-fire deaths nationally over the last decade include cases in which officers mistook a fellow officer not wearing a uniform for the suspect.
The Watertown shootout was highly unusual in that officers from as many as six agencies converged on the suspects in the middle of the night, with officers having little time to coordinate efforts. It is still unclear exactly how many of the officers fired their guns, though it was at least a dozen from four agencies.
“It’s arguably a wartime situation,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington nonprofit that conducts research on law enforcement. “Police agencies are not generally prepared for the kind of wartime situation that these officers encountered.”
Really? They sure have all the equipment and teams.
Also see: MBTA Cop Caught in the Fog of War
Whatever.
***************************
In 10 minutes, police officers fired what may be an unprecedented number of rounds in a single police incident in recent state history. They apparently wounded both suspects, but also sprayed the neighborhood. Shots fired in the battle left at least a dozen nearby houses pockmarked with dozens of bullet holes, including a second-floor bedroom where two children slept....
But ALL THAT is LOST in the HEROIC BRAVERY, blah, blah, blah.
In a third potential friendly-fire incident, a state trooper fired at an unmarked Boston police SUV, en route to the scene, the Globe reported April 22. No one was hurt when the trooper, apparently thinking the SUV was the one stolen by the Tsarnaevs, fired multiple rounds at the vehicle, blowing out the back window....
Hey, that is what happens when you pull a Tippet and get the Boston cops all jacked up.
Last week, the Globe interviewed three neighbors who witnessed the climactic moment in the confrontation, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drove between two groups of police officers amid police gunfire.
By that time, Tamerlan had run out of bullets, hurling his handgun at a Watertown police officer before being subdued and handcuffed. There is little evidence that Dzhokhar ever had a gun. Police recovered one weapon at the scene and none on Dzhokhar when he was arrested the next evening.
And yet the cops unloaded into that boat where he was "found."
Dzhokhar, bleeding from wounds, was in such a hurry to leave the scene that he ran over his brother with the stolen SUV, contributing to his death, said police and witnesses....
Except he didn't. Witnesses and video showed the cops doing that.
Rob Mullen, who watched from a second-floor window of his house on Laurel Street, said, “Every cop out there just unloaded everything he had on the SUV.”
**********************************
The gunfire left some residents shaken. Tigran Tadevosyan said his two young children were asleep in a second-floor bedroom on Laurel Street when a bullet penetrated the wall. “We were very lucky no one was badly hurt,” he said.
Yeah, the Boston cops were lucky there was no collateral damage.
Another resident, Emily McAlpin, said there were at least seven bullet holes in her house, plus one in her fence. One penetrated the living room and smashed the television. “You feel so violated,” she said.
Procopio said the friendly-fire investigation “will take a good amount of time,” because of the existence of “a great deal of physical and ballistics evidence,” as well as the need to interview numerous witnesses and participants.
“It is a complex investigation being conducted very methodically,” Procopio said.
Pffft! The bullet is lodged in the guy's thigh!
--more--"
The Ugly:
"Tremblay: The paranoid style in N.H. politics?" May 03, 2013
Stella Tremblay, the New Hampshire state legislator who sparked outrage when she claimed the Boston Marathon bombings were actually perpetrated by the federal government, belongs to a long and embarrassing tradition. “American politics has often been an arena for angry minds,” historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in 1964, describing the “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” that has always lurked on the fringes of both left and right.
So do lying s*** jewspapers that lead us into wars.
When Hofstadter wrote those words, he had the John Birch Society in mind. The group’s modern-day descendants have migrated to the Web, finding a home on sites like Infowars — or, in Tremblay’s case, with the talk radio host Glenn Beck.
The fact that Infowars is flogged by my agenda-pushing intelligence operation exposes it as a controlled-opposition front.
After Tremblay’s comments, the New Hampshire GOP strongly disavowed her, and a local newspaper called for her resignation. However, Tremblay has refused to quit, or even apologize. Tremblay has insisted she has the right to say whatever she wants — which is true, of course, and also completely beside the point. Some statements just aren’t appropriate for public servants.
Like the truth, right, Globe?
The paranoid fringe, Hofstadter observed, may view itself as a lonely “avant-garde who is capable of perceiving the conspiracy.” But working politicians, he argued, have a duty to keep a toehold in reality. That’s something Tremblay apparently refuses to do. She can keep peddling her idiotic theories if she wants — but shouldn’t do so from elected office.
Obviously the Globe and its Jewish paymasters are nervous as hell to spend time and print on this. THEY KNOW NO ONE BELIEVES THEM ANYMORE!
--more--"
As for peddling idiotic theories, I think global warming is at the top of the list, followed by Iraq war lies, the Syrian war lies, the economic lies, and on and on and on. But don't believe me, readers. Go on believing in that lying piece of agenda-pushing shit called an AmeriKan newspaper.
"Bombing suspect’s body to undergo 2d autopsy; Belief that pair were framed gains traction in Russia" by Wesley Lowery, David Filipov and Lisa Wangsness | Globe Staff, May 05, 2013
WORCESTER — An independent autopsy on the body of Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was scheduled to be performed Sunday, a step requested by Tsarnaev’s parents, who believe their sons were framed by the US government. Preposterous as it may sound to Bostonians, that view is catching fire on the ground with some in Russia.
It doesn't sound preposterous at all. What is preposterous is the AmeriKan media calling such a thing preposterous.
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
What is preposterous is that you would ever believe an AmeriKan newspaper regarding anything.
The Tsarnaevs say the autopsy results could undermine the US officials’ account of Tamerlan’s death by showing that he was not run over by his brother, Dzhokhar. That, the parents believe, would throw into question law enforcement officials’ entire account of the case.
It's already in question, this is why the CIA uncle has custody of the body, and why the mother was designated a terrorist.
In a telephone interview last week, the suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, dismissed the charges that his sons plotted to set off the bombs as “a complete fabrication.”
Which it is.
His contention is picking up popular support in Russia, particularly in the semiautonomous region of Chechnya and other restive territories in southern Russia, where the Tsarnaevs have relatives and roots.
Because the REST of the WORLD KNOWS what WE DO! The only ones that don't are the self-delusional propaganda-chuckers of the Amerikan media and their out-of-touch government feeders.
The GAME is OVER, guys, and an EVEN BIGGER BANG isn't going to change things.
Posters with Dzhokhar’s picture have appeared on walls in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and a fund-raising drive for the family has sprung up. Many members of the Russian-language social media site VKontakte have replaced their profile pictures with a photo of Dzhokhar with the words, “Totally Innocent.”
Thousands of miles away, what remains uncertain is where the final resting place of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body will be....
Russians who believe American law enforcement officials are lying cite a 30-second section of grainy video that has gone viral. The voices are unclear, and the origin of the clip is not apparent. In it, two voices seem to be saying, “We give up” and “We didn’t do anything,” followed by repeated gunshots. The Tsarnaev family argues that the video depicts Dzhokhar and Tamerlan trying to surrender to police.
Gee, my propaganda-shoveling, agenda-pushing media pooh-poohs the video so it must be true.
Yuri M. Zhukov, a fellow with the National Security Studies Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, said “innocence campaigns” after the detention of young men accused of rebel activity are common in the North Caucasus, along Russia’s southern rim. The region has seen two devastating civil wars in Chechnya, where Moscow has sought to quell an Islamic insurgency.
“Counterinsurgency and policing practices there have traditionally been quite indiscriminate, with most evidence and intelligence collected through coercive interrogations,” he said in an e-mail. “The local population is inherently skeptical of charges leveled against suspected terrorists, in part because, in the North Caucasus, the evidence used in such cases is often not reliable.”
It's only reliable when the USraelis do it.
The quick apprehension of the Tsarnaev brothers, he said, has added to the perception that they were set up.
There is also general anti-Americanism in the region because of the unpopularity of the US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. For years, Russians have used reports of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay to defend their own practices, Zhukov said.
Yeah, blame it all on that.
Conspiracy theories about US intentions abound in the region, he said, although different political factions ascribe conflicting motives to the Americans. The belief, for example, that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” is more mainstream in Russia and the North Caucasus than in the United States, he said. The “free Dzhokhar” movement follows in the same tradition.
“It is not clear what Washington gains by setting these boys up, the story goes, but clearly they are up to something,” Zhukov said.
Although tensions continue to fester between Russians and Chechens, Russian politicians have also begun supporting the idea that the United States has built a false case against the Tsarnaev brothers. Last week, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of an ultranationalist party, said American intelligence agencies were covering up the truth, and that the Tsarnaevs had been framed.
Why would they cut that paragraph?
Outside the Worcester funeral home, protesters said Tsarnaev should be cremated or, as Osama Bin Laden was after he was killed in a raid by US Navy SEALs, buried at sea.
Yeah, no one can check that body.
One of the protesters, Darlene Olsen of Leicester, carried a sign that said, “Bury the Garbage in the Landfill.”
“He just doesn’t belong here,” she said.
“Just burn him and throw him in the sewer,” said a young man who was walking by....
Yeah, "Boston Strong!"
--more--"
"Police, politicians push for increased video surveillance" by Tami Abdollah | Associated Press, May 03, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Police and politicians across the nation are pointing to the example of surveillance video that was used to help identify the Boston Marathon bombing suspects as a reason to get more electronic eyes on their streets.
From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, efforts include trying to gain police access to cameras used to monitor traffic, expanding surveillance networks in some major cities, and enabling officers to get regular access to security footage at businesses.
I'm not really commenting because we see where this is all going. Who benefits again?
Some in law enforcement, however, acknowledge that their plans may face an age-old obstacle: Americans’ traditional reluctance to give the government more law enforcement powers out of fear that they will live in a society where there is little privacy.
Doesn't seem to be much of a concern to the sheeple around here. I imagine that feeling is more pronounced it the south and west, thank God.
‘‘Look, we don’t want an occupied state. We want to be able to walk the good balance between freedom and security,’’ said Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Michael Downing, who heads the department’s counterterrorism and special operations bureau.
‘‘If this helps prevent, deter, but also detect and create clues to who did [a crime], I guess the question is can the American public tolerate that type of security,’’ he said.
We are tolerating it with all the f***ed-up brains prescription drugs can affect.
The proliferation of cameras — both on street corners and on millions of smartphones — has helped catch lawbreakers, but plans to expand surveillance networks could run up against the millions of dollars it can cost to install and run the networks, experts say.
That is NOT a PROBLEM when it comes to TOTALITARIAN TYRANNY!
And remember, folks, it is ALL BASED on LIES!!
Whatever Americans’ attitudes or the costs, experts say, the use of cameras is likely to increase in the coming years, whether they are part of an always-on, government-run network or a disparate, disorganized web of citizens’ smartphones and business security systems.
Yeah, WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK, American?
‘‘One of the lessons coming out of Boston is it’s not just going to be cameras operated by the city, but it’s going to be cameras that are in businesses, cameras that citizens use,’’ said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. ‘‘You’ll see the use of cameras will skyrocket.’’
Part of the push among law enforcement agencies is for greater integration of surveillance systems. For decades, law enforcement has contacted businesses for video after a crime. An integrated network would make that easier, advocates say.
Since the Boston bombings, police officials have been making the case for such a network.
That should give you pause.
In Philadelphia....
In Chicago....
In Houston....
In Los Angeles, police have been working on building up a regional video camera system funded by about $10 million in federal grant dollars over the last several years that would allow their network to be shared with nearby cities at the flip of a switch, Downing said....
And yet YOU NEED AUSTERITY because of budget woes, American!
‘‘First, it’s a deterrent and, second, it’s evidence,’’ Downing said, adding, ‘‘it helps us in the hunt and pursuit.’’
How about a stormtrooper on every corner, and a Gestapo in every pub?
--more--"
Remember when that stuff was only going to be for fighting "terrorists?"
"Authorities reviewing July 4 security after suspects’ alleged plan" by Meghan E. Irons and Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, May 04, 2013
Authorities are carefully reviewing security measures for the July Fourth celebration in light of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings and disclosure that the suspects may initially have planned to target the Independence Day celebration.
Related: You Can Not Trust Your TV
The Fourth of July fireworks going to be phony this year?
The Boston Pops concert and fireworks display, summer highlights that draw an estimated 500,000 people, are among the host of upcoming public events, from college graduations to charity walks, that are prompting heightened security following the bombings.
Authorities would not say what specific measures might be put in place for July 4, but security specialists said they would probably include an increased police presence along the Charles River Esplanade, broader searches of bags and belongings, and tighter restrictions on movement during the event.
Authorities are also studying security plans at other large public events, such as the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, to learn new ideas on minimizing threats.
Authorities expressed confidence that security — particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — has been sound.
What?
But a spokesman for the State Police, which spearheads security at the July event, said officials are studying ways to make large public events “even harder targets for someone to attack.”
“The public should be assured that security measures include those that they see and others that they won’t see,” said David Procopio.
Governor Deval Patrick said Friday that the government would do “everything humanly possible” to make the concert safe, but called on the public to remain on alert.
“We’re going to do everything we can, everything humanly possible, to make it as safe as possible, and we have done so ever since security was first heightened after 9/11,” Patrick told reporters at Northeastern University’s graduation ceremonies. “It’s very important, at the same time, that people remain vigilant and be on a special level of vigilance in this coming year in the wake of the Marathon attacks.”
Be on tip-toes and egg shells all year?
Northeastern’s commencement, held at the TD Garden, featured a strong police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs. Guests were prohibited from bringing in large bags, and had their other bags checked upon entry.
For the Walk for Hunger on Sunday, organizers have asked the 35,000 participants not to bring large, bulky bags, and urged volunteers to look for unusual objects and suspicious behavior. More police will monitor the 20-mile route.
Ellen Parker — executive director of Project Bread, which holds the annual walk — said organizers decided to make the changes after consulting with police. After the bombings, fund-raising and registration slowed, and one school group pulled out of the event. Supporters wanted to know what plans were in place to make the race safe....
In Cambridge this week, police gathered to review security plans for Sunday’s MayFair, a Harvard Square festival that attracts about 7,000 people. Cambridge police also help cover several other events, including the Head of the Charles Regatta and the Cambridge Caribbean Carnival, that draw scores of spectators.
“Law enforcement is definitely looking at placing some type of access restrictions and security checks at most of these events,’’ said Deputy Superintendent Jack Albert. “There will also be additional police presence.”
Land of the free, huh?
In Boston, organizers of the city’s Caribbean Carnival in late August are also planning additional measures and are meeting with police later this month, far earlier than usual, to look for potential “gray areas” in security....
I say TURN THEM AWAY! There could be TERRORISTS on that boat!
Security specialists say large outdoor events like the July Fourth celebration are inherently vulnerable to attack, soft targets that cannot be made fully secure without changing the fundamental nature of the event.
“Whenever you have a crowd of people coming together, there’s a potential for bad things to happen,” said Henry Willis, director of the RAND Homeland Security and Defense Center.
Just walking out the door is potential for bad things to happen, so don't go anywhere or buy anything in Boston!
At the same time, major events in a single location give authorities time to bolster security.
After the Marathon bombing, spectators may well be more attuned to their surroundings, making them more likely to notice suspicious behavior, specialists say.
“You can protect each other,” Willis said.
But who will protect us from a false flagging government running drills?
Authorities echoed the call for vigilance.
“We do not want people to live in fear,” Procopio said. “All we ask is that they continue to be alert to anyone or anything that doesn’t look right and call 911 immediately if they do see something.”
This has gone BEYOND FASCISM to TOTALITARIANISM!
Currently, spectators must pass through one of three entrances to the lawn in front of the Hatch Shell to have their bags checked. Alcoholic beverages, glass containers, large tarps, and any sharp objects are confiscated. After 6 p.m., admission is closed due to “crowds and public safety concerns,” according to the event website.
While bags are fully searched, there are no metal detectors.
So who is bringing the gun?
Edward F. Davis, the Boston police commissioner, said Friday that after the Marathon bombings, authorities are renewing efforts to provide “the highest level of security possible.”
“We’re going to be there July Fourth to make people feel safe,” he said. “They should not be afraid to come into the city.”
Related: You Can Not Trust Your TV
Not at all.
As graduation season begins, colleges have also taken steps to bolster security, as Northeastern did Friday.
“I think in the current environment, it’s in everyone’s best interest to be careful,” said Ellen de Graffenreid, a spokeswoman for Brandeis University, which will have a heightened police presence at its May 19 ceremony.
Simmons College is asking attendees not to bring large bags and not to leave any belongings unattended.
“Public venues throughout the country are increasing security in light of these events; this should not be viewed as an indication of any increased threat to the Boston area,” the college said in its announcement.
Roger Cressey, security consultant and former White House counterterrorism adviser, said universities are doing their best to make guests feel safe, even if the actual threat is minimal.
“The message [colleges] must have is that we acknowledge this is a higher time of security awareness, and we are taking action,” Cressey said.
Yeah, have you GOT the MESSAGE!!?
--more--"
"US officials seek lessons in bombing catastrophe; Aim to balance antiterror steps with civil liberties" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, May 05, 2013
WASHINGTON — Three weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, the US Department of Homeland Security is seeking to use lessons from the attacks to enhance community policing and more effectively prepare religious and civic leaders to spot the warning signs of homegrown terrorism, according to top officials.
Oh, so now the PASTORS and the rest are to become involved -- just as the "conspiracy" blogs warned YEARS AGO!
The approach, while raising its own set of civil liberties concerns, is seen by officials as a potentially more effective and less intrusive way of combating terror than expansive electronic and photographic surveillance powers or massive security sweeps at public events....
Yeah, right. We are going to get those, too.
What it appears we are getting all around is the FORMER SOVIET SYSTEM of SNITCHES! I can't wait until all the PERSONAL GRUDGES start making their way into the chain. I've got a few to call in myself about that neighbor across the street. Don't like seeing all the traffic coming and going, as if drugs were being dealt there. That, and the fact that they have dark skin makes me think terrorists.
The approach requires a deep analysis of the Boston Marathon bombings by officials in a Department of Homeland Security program called Countering Violent Extremists, which was established in 2011 to devise new ways to confront homegrown threats.
And the Marathon bombings validated it with a big shove.
Officials are profiling the psychology of the two Boston suspects, the tactics employed in the attack, and the interaction between law enforcement and local leaders to determine how additional outreach in the local community around Cambridge, where the two suspects lived, might have headed off tragedy, several officials said.
They need their heads checked because this s***-hole farce has gone on long enough.
The goal of the review is to answer a key question: With additional training and encouragement, could local religious, education, or civic leaders have picked up on the emerging threat and alerted authorities?
The administration’s desire for greater community engagement — which President Obama briefly mentioned in a press conference last week — is emerging as some members of Congress and security specialists assert that the Boston bombings underscore the need for more aggressive forms of policing: more domestic surveillance, greater security at large public gatherings, and greater police powers than were granted after 9/11.
Welcome to the 21st-century's version of NAZI GERMANY!
There have also been calls for more surveillance cameras in public places, and even spy drones to help prevent domestic terrorist attacks or track potential suspects in the aftermath. Meanwhile, because the two primary Boston suspects were immigrants, others have advocated for a major tightening of border security.
But according to several top Obama administration officials, counterterrorism officials in Washington are taking a cautious approach to the calls for more layers of security, out of fear of overreacting and eroding Americans’ civil liberties — a sacrifice that still may not make the nation safer.
Or they are worried about validating the "conspiracists."
“What are we willing to give up in terms of our freedoms to achieve security we’re probably never fully going to get anyway?” said a senior Homeland Security official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
We've already given away so much, and the government is taking more.
But some local leaders also are wary about “community engagement’’ aimed at early detection of certain behavior, concerned that it could lead to a system of domestic informants and unwarranted scrutiny of innocent people.
We WON the COLD WAR only to BECOME the SOVIET UNION!
“I would be very nervous about perpetuating a culture when we are giving people a list of things that are indicators someone might be a threat to our national security, when there really is no profile,” said Ayanna Pressley, councilor-at-large on the Boston City Council.
Pressley, who was in Washington on Friday for a panel discussion on the lessons of the Boston attacks sponsored by the Truman National Security Project, agreed communities “should have a heightened and greater awareness of anyone who appears to be distressed.”
“But we need to tread very lightly here,” she added.
Civil liberties groups have also long been concerned about empowering local law enforcement or others to monitor individuals or organizations for possible criminal or terrorist behavior. Last fall, the Massachusetts ACLU obtained, through a suit against the Boston Police Department, intelligence reports that designated peace activists as “extremists.”
In other words, ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BOW DOWN to THIS WAR CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT is a "terrorist."
Meanwhile, so-called law enforcement “fusion” centers, designed to disseminate information on possible terrorist activity, have come under fire from Congress for unjustified invasions of privacy.
In the wake of the Boston attacks, the ACLU’s national office urged Americans to resist the urge to profile people with particular backgrounds.
“Our nation needs to stay the course and judge people by their actions and their character, rather than the color of their skin or their religion or beliefs,” the organization said in a statement. “This is what makes America great.”
That is what I do!
******************************
In the meantime, Homeland Security is using the Boston attacks as a case study to develop better profiles of potentially violent individuals.
“We have developed an analytic process where we look at the event, we look at the tactics used in the event, we look at how the event was prepared for by the perpetrator, we look at the behaviors and indicators that were exhibited,” said John Cohen, the principal deputy counterterrorism coordinator at the Department of Homeland Security [and] a Lexington native who previously served as homeland security adviser for Governor Mitt Romney. “We work with experts in the field — behavioral profilers and others — to get better understanding of the psychological dynamics of the individual or groups of individuals who carried out the attack.”
Government studies of previous large-scale attacks perpetrated by religious extremists, antigovernment groups, and the mentally disturbed have highlighted certain shared patterns, officials say.
“When you take motivation out of it,” said one US official involved in reviewing the homeland security implications of the Boston attack, “the indicators that are apparent to people are in many cases common across the board.
“In all of these cases there are opportunities for intervention. It may not be law enforcement at all times that is best suited to do it. It may be a teacher. It may be a faith leader,” the official said.
President Obama, speaking at a White House press conference on Wednesday, cited the benefit of enlisting well-informed community leaders in schools, churches, and other civic institutions to be part of an early warning network....
Well, when it is GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES CREATING, DIRECTING, and FUNDING TERRORISM, what then?
Such efforts, including training police cadets and organizing seminars for religious and other community leaders, have been expanded in the past two years under a plan Obama approved in 2011 called the “Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States.’’
So ALL THIS was IN the WORKS TWO YEARS before the Marathon bombings and it STOPPED NOTHING!
“Our best defenses against this threat are well-informed and equipped families, local communities, and institutions,” the plan stated. “Law enforcement plays an essential role in keeping us safe, but so too does engagement and partnership with communities.”
It's the LYING POLICE STATE that LOVES YOU!
--more--"
And CUI BONO?
"Armored truck maker sees validation in manhunt" by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, May 05, 2013
The manhunt for suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had reached its climax. Tsarnaev, who eluded police for 17 hours after an early morning gunfight, had been located aboard a trailered boat in Watertown. The question was how to take him into custody.
“We had to assume he was heavily armed, based on what he’d done,” said Robert Duprey, a member of the State Police SWAT team. “If you approach on foot and he throws a bomb, you’re dead.”
He never even had a gun.
Instead, police drove up to the vessel in a BearCat, a SWAT truck made by Lenco Armored Vehicles of Pittsfield that has been alternately heralded as an essential piece of safety equipment and derided as a waste of money.
The use of BearCat trucks during the search for Tsarnaev — at least nine of the vehicles prowled the streets of Watertown throughout the day — was “rewarding as a validation for us and our equipment,” said Len Light, Lenco’s chief executive.
Milton Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr., who sits on the state’s Southeast Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council, called voting to buy one of the BearCats that was on the scene “one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
But some critics remain unmoved by the trucks’s role in capturing Tsarnaev, who proved to be unarmed, and say the $250,000 vehicles are not necessary at the local level.
“The question is, do we want a militarized police force?” said Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “That’s what we saw in Watertown.”
They already are.
Lenco’s BearCat and its $400,000 big brother, the BEAR, have 3-inch-thick windows, steel-plated frames, and are used by all four branches of the military. They are the most popular SWAT trucks in the United States and have been used in the response to many other emergencies, including the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last year.
But the role of a BearCat in catching an alleged terrorist represents a milestone for the company because concerns about terror attacks have driven Lenco’s law enforcement business over the past decade.
The LIES are COSTING YOU and COSTING YOU, America -- and you don't give a f***.
As part of its response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security launched the Urban Areas Security Initiative in 2003. The program awards grants to help “high-threat, high-density urban areas” prepare for “acts of terrorism,” according to its stated mission. But some grant money has been used to buy advanced equipment — including BearCats — in places that appear to be unlikely terror targets.
Police in the small city of Keene, N.H., for instance, received a fully funded BearCat last year. On its grant application, the city cited its annual pumpkin festival as a possible terror target, a claim US Senator Thomas Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, mocked in a December report by his office on the Urban Areas Security Initiative. The report concluded that many grant-funded purchases of Lenco trucks have been “boondoggles.”
Keene’s application also mentioned another possible target, the Clarence DeMar Marathon, which it said “has been held for the last 33 years and is an official qualifying race for the US Olympic Trials, as well as an official qualifying race for the Boston Marathon.”
Last month’s bombings at the Boston Marathon were a reminder that disaster can strike anywhere, Coburn said in an interview, but it is unrealistic to budget a BearCat for every town, he argued. Money spent on supplying cities like Keene would be better spent on intelligence, Coburn added.
The bombings also did not change Keene City Councilor Terry M. Clark’s belief that his community, with a population of about 23,000, has little need for a BearCat.
“I think they’re a waste of money for small-town police departments,” said Clark, who voted against bringing the armored truck to Keene. “My opposition was that [Lenco was] going way too far and just running up their numbers. It’s arms dealing.”
Hey, at least SOMEONE is MAKING a BUCK!
Clark and other Lenco critics acknowledge the company’s vehicles serve a purpose but argue that few law enforcement agencies need bulletproof, blast-resistant trucks of their own. A single BearCat should be shared by many police departments, they contend.
Watertown police do not own a BearCat but share one with 53 other members of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, which covers 845 square miles. Other law enforcement agencies with BearCats also sent their vehicles to Watertown to help with the manhunt.
Sharing trucks can work, said Duprey, of the State Police, but having a local BearCat can make a difference in an emergency.
“You need a trained driver, and you need to physically get there,” said Duprey. “I’m not saying we should have 350-some-odd BearCats in the Commonwealth, but if it takes an hour to get there from a shared location, that extra 50 minutes that guys are waiting on the ground feels like forever.”
--more--"
A picture really is worth a thousand words.
"Killing without a script" by Juliette Kayyem | Globe Columnist, May 06, 2013
They were making everything up as they went along.
That's my jewspaper for you!
It is completely fair to ask: What were they thinking?
They weren’t....
My jewspaper again.
Though evidence may yet emerge that Tamerlan Tsarnaev received some technical training during his trip to Russia in 2012, whichever foreign elements were involved in the Marathon bombings, if any, seem to have cared little that Tamerlan’s lack of an exit plan could eventually expose them.
Indeed, it now appears that the Tsarnaev brothers let tactics drive their strategy. The Marathon was chosen simply because it was the closest event to when the brothers finished the bombs. Their disturbingly nonchalant behavior after the fact, leading to their violent behavior once the FBI released their pictures on April 18, is further evidence that they had no blueprint.
To me it is evidence of innocence.
As the nature of the terrorist threat has so clearly changed, so has reality for the American public. Counterterrorism is no longer the sole province of commandos who raid compounds in places like Abbottabad, Pakistan. Signs of violent extremism may be best identified by the potential assailants’ family, friends, and community — not the CIA or FBI. This has long been the case for those who’ve been responsible for mass murder at elementary schools and movie theaters.
Yeah, whatever. So where does drone-missile droppers and lying mouthpiece media fall in?
Random acts of terror will have to be acknowledged as a threat, just like mass killings are, while authorities do all they can to make sure any such attacks do as little harm as possible. A post-Marathon bombings Pew poll showed that 75 percent of Americans believed that occasional terror will be a part of our future. That isn’t a sign of resignation. It is mature realism....
It will be as long as this lying, false-flagging government stands.
--more--"
"Walk for Hunger raises $3.1m, but falls short of goal; Sponsor hoped to exceed 2012 total of $3.6m" by Gal Tziperman Lotan | Globe Correspondent, May 05, 2013
This year’s proceeds fell short of expectations — possibly because public attention has been focused on victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, which rattled the city 20 days before the walk....
The Walk for Hunger was the first large public event in Boston since the Marathon.
Many walkers noted a larger-than-usual police presence along the route from the Boston Common to Brookline, Newton, a slice of Watertown, Cambridge, then back over the Charles River to the Common.
Organizers asked walkers not to carry large bags.
Some participants were concerned about safety — one school group dropped out ahead of time — and wanted to know if organizers were taking extra precautions.
Michelle Tran of Franklin, a physician’s assistant, said she felt safe.
“All the cops were around — constantly around. Everyone was happy, and nothing looked suspicious,” she said.
Megan O’Neill of West Roxbury and her Boston College co-worker, Karen Peirce of Framingham, wore bright blue shirts with the words “Boston Strong” in yellow block letters.
The slogan appeared on shirts worn by many of the walkers — some with the Boston skyline, some with American flags, others with pictures of large blue-and-yellow ribbons.
Sheeple.
--more--"
"Muslims being targeted, advocacy group charges; Cambridge man fights off attackers" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, May 07, 2013
An Algerian-American from Cambridge was attacked outside a Back Bay restaurant Saturday night, say police and a Muslim advocacy group, the latest of several assaults on Muslims since the Boston Marathon bombings three weeks ago.
The assailants allegedly called the 23-year-old college student, Amine Hadjeres, a “terrorist” and told him he looked like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects accused of planting bombs at the Marathon finish line on April 15, who was later killed while trying to elude police.
The victim, a US citizen, said he was attacked by two tipsy men outside the Cafeteria Boston restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston about 10 p.m. Saturday night after he left to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Hadjeres said he initially tried to ignore the men, who taunted and shoved him, but wound up brawling with them in the street after they would not leave him alone. He said the fight left him with bloody knuckles and a bruised elbow and hip, but he successfully fought off both men and walked back into the restaurant, where he was greeted with applause.
“They messed with the wrong dude,” Hadjeres said. “Their faces were pretty banged up.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, urged state and federal authorities to charge suspects with violating hate crime laws.
“We urge local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to take the suspects in this case into custody and to bring appropriate charges that reflect the apparent bias motive,” said council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
Police told the council the suspects have been identified, but not yet arrested.
And I haven't seen anything since in my Globe. They must be Jewish.
The council said the incident was just the latest attack on Muslims since the Marathon bombings. A Muslim taxi driver was allegedly attacked in Virginia a week ago by a passenger who accused him of carrying out the Boston attack.
In Malden, a mother of Middle Eastern descent who was wearing an Islamic head scarf called a hijab, was attacked two weeks ago by a man shouting anti-Muslim slurs, the council said....
Why omit the fact that she was Palestinian?
The US attorney’s office vowed to work with the FBI, Boston police, and the state attorney general’s office “to ensure the matter is fully investigated and prosecuted, should the facts demonstrate a hate crime....
Oh, I feel better already.
--more--"
"Walk for Hunger raises $3.1m, but falls short of goal; Sponsor hoped to exceed 2012 total of $3.6m" by Gal Tziperman Lotan | Globe Correspondent, May 05, 2013
This year’s proceeds fell short of expectations — possibly because public attention has been focused on victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, which rattled the city 20 days before the walk....
The Walk for Hunger was the first large public event in Boston since the Marathon.
Many walkers noted a larger-than-usual police presence along the route from the Boston Common to Brookline, Newton, a slice of Watertown, Cambridge, then back over the Charles River to the Common.
Organizers asked walkers not to carry large bags.
Some participants were concerned about safety — one school group dropped out ahead of time — and wanted to know if organizers were taking extra precautions.
Michelle Tran of Franklin, a physician’s assistant, said she felt safe.
“All the cops were around — constantly around. Everyone was happy, and nothing looked suspicious,” she said.
Megan O’Neill of West Roxbury and her Boston College co-worker, Karen Peirce of Framingham, wore bright blue shirts with the words “Boston Strong” in yellow block letters.
The slogan appeared on shirts worn by many of the walkers — some with the Boston skyline, some with American flags, others with pictures of large blue-and-yellow ribbons.
Sheeple.
--more--"
"Muslims being targeted, advocacy group charges; Cambridge man fights off attackers" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, May 07, 2013
An Algerian-American from Cambridge was attacked outside a Back Bay restaurant Saturday night, say police and a Muslim advocacy group, the latest of several assaults on Muslims since the Boston Marathon bombings three weeks ago.
The assailants allegedly called the 23-year-old college student, Amine Hadjeres, a “terrorist” and told him he looked like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects accused of planting bombs at the Marathon finish line on April 15, who was later killed while trying to elude police.
The victim, a US citizen, said he was attacked by two tipsy men outside the Cafeteria Boston restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston about 10 p.m. Saturday night after he left to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Hadjeres said he initially tried to ignore the men, who taunted and shoved him, but wound up brawling with them in the street after they would not leave him alone. He said the fight left him with bloody knuckles and a bruised elbow and hip, but he successfully fought off both men and walked back into the restaurant, where he was greeted with applause.
“They messed with the wrong dude,” Hadjeres said. “Their faces were pretty banged up.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, urged state and federal authorities to charge suspects with violating hate crime laws.
“We urge local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to take the suspects in this case into custody and to bring appropriate charges that reflect the apparent bias motive,” said council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
Police told the council the suspects have been identified, but not yet arrested.
And I haven't seen anything since in my Globe. They must be Jewish.
The council said the incident was just the latest attack on Muslims since the Marathon bombings. A Muslim taxi driver was allegedly attacked in Virginia a week ago by a passenger who accused him of carrying out the Boston attack.
In Malden, a mother of Middle Eastern descent who was wearing an Islamic head scarf called a hijab, was attacked two weeks ago by a man shouting anti-Muslim slurs, the council said....
Why omit the fact that she was Palestinian?
The US attorney’s office vowed to work with the FBI, Boston police, and the state attorney general’s office “to ensure the matter is fully investigated and prosecuted, should the facts demonstrate a hate crime....
Oh, I feel better already.
--more--"
"Marathon bombing response spurs questions; Some in black community urge similar fight against homicide" by Meghan E. Irons | Globe Staff, May 06, 2013
The Boston Marathon bombings captured the world’s attention....
Since the Marathon attack on April 15, gunfire has not ceased in Boston’s urban community....
But as they come to terms with the massive scale of a single attack that has afflicted so many, minority residents are wondering why they have not seen a surge of response in their own crime-stricken communities, where many young men have been felled by bloodshed....
Because that isn't part of a government-sponsored agenda push.
Because that isn't part of a government-sponsored agenda push.
Since the bombings, six people have been shot and killed, and at least 23 people have been shot in Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury, police said.
Twice as many people dead, and yet it's Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, every day in my Glob.
Twice as many people dead, and yet it's Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, every day in my Glob.
Residents in low-income minority communities say they are constantly besieged by gunfire, noting the triple homicides on Harlem Street in Dorchester last year, the quadruple killings on Woolson Street in Mattapan in 2010 that left a 2-year-old dead, and the constant news of slain black men.
Proving this government that loves you so much and wants to protect you so much doesn't give a shit.
Proving this government that loves you so much and wants to protect you so much doesn't give a shit.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said he understands that residents devastated by the loss of their sons and brothers and loved ones to violence are yearning for collective support like that now engulfing bombing victims. He pointed to the unusual circumstances of the most recent events, in which radicalized brothers struck a treasured and popular event as the world watched.
How about those actors, Ed?
How about those actors, Ed?
“There’s been an outpouring of sympathy from across the world that doesn’t attach to what happens day in and day out,’’ said Davis. “And I think that’s a tragedy. I think that each life is precious. And each life should receive the same type of attention.”
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, in a speech last week, seemed to hear echoes of the Marathon bombings on city streets miles away from the Back Bay. “We must heed young Martin Richard’s call: ‘No more hurting people,’ ” the mayor said, invoking the memory of the youngest of the three Marathon spectators who died in the blasts. “We have to put an end to violence in our neighborhoods and the senseless scourge of guns.”
As we use them to rule over the planet.
As we use them to rule over the planet.
In spite of the horrific events and demands on manpower, Davis said the department maintained a sizable presence in the city’s neighborhoods since the bombings. He said that when homicides occur, victims’ advocates and trauma counselors are available to assist the grieving. The city also offers funds to cover funeral expenses for some who cannot afford it.
Still, residents in the neighborhoods feel torn watching on the sidelines as charities established for bombing victims raise millions, access to counseling is readily available, and health insurers vow to waive out-of-pocket costs to members hurt in the blasts.
These residents said they do not mean to seem callous or insensitive. They care about the well-being of all victims, but also worry about the plight of families of homicide victims who have no money to bury their dead....
The issue of the minority community’s response to the bombings has been swirling on social media, radio shows, and national television. The issue came up in again recently during a panel discussion at Emerson College and a public safety meeting at Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester.
At the Baker House meeting, the Rev. Vernard Coulter inquired about having a police lock-down in crime-ridden areas, so police would be able focus on gang members causing trouble. But the idea was quickly rejected by others at the meeting.
Coulter said black clergy members, who have buried too many, are closely watching the response to the marathon tragedy.
“We are observing this very carefully,” he said. “We need that kind of effort here.”
--more--"
Back to the burial:
"Funeral home searches for place to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev" by Wesley Lowery and Brian MacQuarrie | Globe Staff, May 04, 2013
WORCESTER — Unclaimed for nearly two weeks, the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was delivered Friday to a stately Worcester funeral home, where an angry crowd gathered to protest.
“It’s not right for him to be laying in there like that; it’s not right that we’ve got to take him,” said 21-year-old Ryan Madelle. Other protesters waved signs and chanted, “Send him back!” and “USA!”
USA is the new Sieg Heil.
According to the death certificate, which was shown Friday to the Globe, Tsarnaev, 26, died of gunshot wounds to his torso and extremities and blunt trauma to his head and torso. The document, dated April 25, adds that he was “shot by police and then run over and dragged by motor vehicle.”
Except it was the cops that ran him over, but you know.
Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. April 19, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, shortly after a chaotic shoot-out with police in Watertown. His brother, Dzhokhar, struck him with a stolen vehicle while fleeing the scene before being captured later that day, authorities said.
The brothers, ethnic Chechens who immigrated to the United States a decade ago and lived in Cambridge, are suspected in the twin explosions April 15 that killed three people and wounded 264 on Boylston Street.
Honestly, I'm tired of boiled-down bullshit, thank you.
As Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body lay at the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, his family made plans Friday for a second autopsy, and the funeral director searched in three states for a cemetery that would accept the remains.
By Friday evening, funeral director Peter Stefan said, he had been rejected by four cemeteries: two in Boston, one in Connecticut, and one in New Jersey. The family’s wish is that he be buried in Boston, he said.
“This is what we do,” he said, medical papers protruding from the breast pocket of his shirt. “I am burying someone who is dead. Everyone who is dead deserves to be buried.”
The body was released Thursday from the state medical examiner’s office in Boston to an uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, according to a family adviser in Russia. Tsarnaev’s wife, Katherine Russell, had said earlier in the week that other family members could claim the remains.
Keeping family members out.
Initially, the body was brought to the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home in North Attleborough amid protests from residents. Stefan said that destination had been selected by someone acting on behalf of Tsarnaev’s wife, but that the body was transferred to Worcester at the family’s request. “There were so many people involved with this, that there was a miscommunication,” Stefan said.
As word spread that the body had been brought to Worcester, about two dozen spectators and protesters assembled across the street. Police stood guard outside the home throughout the day.
Wearing a T-shirt with “Boston” scrawled across the front in black marker, Sandra Garcia of Worcester held a sign that read, “Send the pig back to Boston.” Accompanied by her mother and two young children, Garcia, 30, said the body should be taken to Russia or, at the least, to Boston.
Stefan said he would continue to contact cemeteries to find a plot. If a plot cannot be found, Stefan said, he will ask the federal government for help.
“This body needs to be buried, period,” said Stefan, who has experience with Muslim funeral rituals.
After the second autopsy, which is expected this weekend, the body will be washed and prepared for burial according to Muslim tradition, Stefan said. The funeral director Stefan said he will cover the costs if the family cannot afford the funeral.
David Boyle, president of the Massachusetts Cemetery Association, said cemeteries are barred by state law from discriminating because of a person’s crimes or allegations of crimes. However, Boyle noted, cemeteries have differing regulations....
In other developments Friday, law-enforcement teams using dogs and a helicopter began searching in Dartmouth as part of the bombing investigation. State Police did not disclose what their officers, federal agents, and local police were seeking. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, plus three friends charged with obstructing the inquiry, had attended the University of Massachusetts campus there.
Officers searched a wooded area off Smith Neck Road, said a woman who lives on the street but asked not to be identified.
Another Dartmouth resident, who lives a few miles away on Gulf Road, said that in the weeks before the Marathon bombing, he heard an explosion in a secluded, wooded area near his home.
“I just heard, boom!” said John Arruda, 41. “It was windows rattling, that type of crazy, what was that? It made me go outside and look. . . . I thought, honestly, I was going to hear that some factory blew up in Fall River.”
Arruda said he forgot about the explosion until April 19, when news reports surfaced that one of the alleged bombers had attended UMass Dartmouth. He called Dartmouth police that day, and the FBI on Wednesday.
“When you start to think about it,” Arruda said, “would they test it up around Boston, or would they test it out in the woods here?”
**************************
At a Dorchester mosque on Friday, the imam who married Tsarnaev and Russell in June 2010 said he was startled to learn that the groom had been linked to the Marathon bombings....
--more--"
Back to the burial:
"Funeral home searches for place to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev" by Wesley Lowery and Brian MacQuarrie | Globe Staff, May 04, 2013
WORCESTER — Unclaimed for nearly two weeks, the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was delivered Friday to a stately Worcester funeral home, where an angry crowd gathered to protest.
“It’s not right for him to be laying in there like that; it’s not right that we’ve got to take him,” said 21-year-old Ryan Madelle. Other protesters waved signs and chanted, “Send him back!” and “USA!”
USA is the new Sieg Heil.
According to the death certificate, which was shown Friday to the Globe, Tsarnaev, 26, died of gunshot wounds to his torso and extremities and blunt trauma to his head and torso. The document, dated April 25, adds that he was “shot by police and then run over and dragged by motor vehicle.”
Except it was the cops that ran him over, but you know.
Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. April 19, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, shortly after a chaotic shoot-out with police in Watertown. His brother, Dzhokhar, struck him with a stolen vehicle while fleeing the scene before being captured later that day, authorities said.
The brothers, ethnic Chechens who immigrated to the United States a decade ago and lived in Cambridge, are suspected in the twin explosions April 15 that killed three people and wounded 264 on Boylston Street.
Honestly, I'm tired of boiled-down bullshit, thank you.
As Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body lay at the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, his family made plans Friday for a second autopsy, and the funeral director searched in three states for a cemetery that would accept the remains.
By Friday evening, funeral director Peter Stefan said, he had been rejected by four cemeteries: two in Boston, one in Connecticut, and one in New Jersey. The family’s wish is that he be buried in Boston, he said.
“This is what we do,” he said, medical papers protruding from the breast pocket of his shirt. “I am burying someone who is dead. Everyone who is dead deserves to be buried.”
The body was released Thursday from the state medical examiner’s office in Boston to an uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, according to a family adviser in Russia. Tsarnaev’s wife, Katherine Russell, had said earlier in the week that other family members could claim the remains.
Keeping family members out.
Initially, the body was brought to the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home in North Attleborough amid protests from residents. Stefan said that destination had been selected by someone acting on behalf of Tsarnaev’s wife, but that the body was transferred to Worcester at the family’s request. “There were so many people involved with this, that there was a miscommunication,” Stefan said.
As word spread that the body had been brought to Worcester, about two dozen spectators and protesters assembled across the street. Police stood guard outside the home throughout the day.
Wearing a T-shirt with “Boston” scrawled across the front in black marker, Sandra Garcia of Worcester held a sign that read, “Send the pig back to Boston.” Accompanied by her mother and two young children, Garcia, 30, said the body should be taken to Russia or, at the least, to Boston.
Stefan said he would continue to contact cemeteries to find a plot. If a plot cannot be found, Stefan said, he will ask the federal government for help.
“This body needs to be buried, period,” said Stefan, who has experience with Muslim funeral rituals.
After the second autopsy, which is expected this weekend, the body will be washed and prepared for burial according to Muslim tradition, Stefan said. The funeral director Stefan said he will cover the costs if the family cannot afford the funeral.
David Boyle, president of the Massachusetts Cemetery Association, said cemeteries are barred by state law from discriminating because of a person’s crimes or allegations of crimes. However, Boyle noted, cemeteries have differing regulations....
In other developments Friday, law-enforcement teams using dogs and a helicopter began searching in Dartmouth as part of the bombing investigation. State Police did not disclose what their officers, federal agents, and local police were seeking. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, plus three friends charged with obstructing the inquiry, had attended the University of Massachusetts campus there.
Officers searched a wooded area off Smith Neck Road, said a woman who lives on the street but asked not to be identified.
Another Dartmouth resident, who lives a few miles away on Gulf Road, said that in the weeks before the Marathon bombing, he heard an explosion in a secluded, wooded area near his home.
“I just heard, boom!” said John Arruda, 41. “It was windows rattling, that type of crazy, what was that? It made me go outside and look. . . . I thought, honestly, I was going to hear that some factory blew up in Fall River.”
Arruda said he forgot about the explosion until April 19, when news reports surfaced that one of the alleged bombers had attended UMass Dartmouth. He called Dartmouth police that day, and the FBI on Wednesday.
“When you start to think about it,” Arruda said, “would they test it up around Boston, or would they test it out in the woods here?”
**************************
At a Dorchester mosque on Friday, the imam who married Tsarnaev and Russell in June 2010 said he was startled to learn that the groom had been linked to the Marathon bombings....
--more--"
"Bombing suspect’s family urged to settle on burial; Mother wants Tsarnaev’s body sent to Russia" by Brian MacQuarrie, Milton J. Valencia and Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, May 07, 2013
Governor Deval Patrick on Monday urged the family of Tamerlan Tsarnaev to resolve the emotional question of where to bury the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, whose body lay washed and shrouded in a Worcester funeral home beset by protests.
“This isn’t a state or a federal issue; it’s the family’s issue,” Patrick told reporters in New Bedford. “And the family has some options. I assume they will make a decision soon. I hope they do.”
The search for a burial plot has brought rejections from several cemeteries in multiple states and prompted a plea for federal help to settle the matter.
Even the Tsarnaev family has offered conflicting solutions: His mother wants the body returned to Russia, according to the Worcester funeral director, while his uncle in Maryland has insisted Tsarnaev be buried in Cambridge, which has refused.
Yup, the CIA UNCLE MUCKING EVERYTHING UP!
“I think everybody is feeling upset about what happened,” Patrick said. “But we showed the world in the immediate aftermath of the attacks what a civilization looks like, and I’m proud of what we showed, and I think we continue to do that by stepping back and let the family make their decisions.”
Yup, the POLICE STATE is the new face of "CIVILIZATION."
The governor declined to suggest where Tsarnaev should be buried, but the candidates for US Senate soundly rejected Massachusetts as an option.
“The people of Massachusetts have a right to say that they do not want that terrorist to be buried on the soil of Massachusetts,” said US Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat. “I think that the body should be controlled by the federal government, and that it should be returned to the family of the terrorist for disposal.”
Markey has already convicted them.
Gabriel Gomez, Markey’s Republican opponent and a former Navy SEAL, said on Twitter that Tsarnaev’s body should be buried at sea, like Osama bin Laden.
That way no one could find out if it was really his body or not (it wasn't).
Peter Stefan, director of the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, said Tsarnaev’s mother had called him in tears on Sunday to ask that the body be shipped back to Russia, where she lives in the predominantly Muslim republic of Dagestan. “She was upset, you know, crying, very tearful,” Stefan said of the call from Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died following a wild shoot-out in Watertown on April 19, four days after twin bombings at the Marathon killed three people and wounded more than 260. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, fled the shooting scene but was captured later in the day. He is being treated and held at a federal prison hospital in Ayer.
In other developments Monday, a federal magistrate judge in Boston released a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s on $100,000 bail and confined him to house arrest in Cambridge as he awaits court hearings on charges that he lied to authorities in a terrorism investigation.
Robel Phillipos, 19, who attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been accused of misleading FBI agents as they searched for evidence in the days after the bombing.
Two Kazakh nationals, who also attended UMass Dartmouth, have been charged with discarding potential evidence and trying to cover up Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s alleged involvement in the bombings.
Looking frail and nervous in an orange prison jumpsuit, Phillipos was released to the custody of his mother and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. A probable cause hearing was scheduled for May 17.
Lawyers for Phillipos reiterated before US Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler that he is not charged in planning the bombing or throwing away evidence, and that he has cooperated with authorities.
“Just like all Americans, and all of the people from Boston, Robel is grieving at the tragedy of the lives lost forever and the people whose lives have been affected by this,” said Susan Church, one of his lawyers. “At no time did Robel have any prior knowledge of this Marathon bombing.”
Phillipos, who graduated with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in 2011, faces up to eight years in prison.
Just sign the statement and everything will be fine.
The teen allegedly gave conflicting accounts of his actions on April 18, when authorities released photos of the bombing suspects to the public. The two Kazakh nationals, friends of Phillipos and Tsarnaev, have been charged with disposing of a backpack with fireworks that belonged to Tsarnaev.
Of course, when government and media do it, no problem.
Phillipos received support in court from family members, friends, community advocates, and educators.
Tim Groves, a former principal at King Open School in Cambridge who knew Phillipos from kindergarten to eighth grade, called him trustworthy. “I’m confident, as we learn these details, this person will emerge in a public way,” he said.
However, Assistant US Attorney John Capin told Bowler that “the government stands by its allegations and is confident it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that Phillipos committed the alleged crimes.
The father of one of the Kazakhs charged with covering up for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said in an interview with the Globe that his son, Azamat Tazhayakov, is “100 percent innocent.”
Amir Ismagulov, an oil executive and city councilor in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, said his son is from a loving, affluent family that taught him to be tolerant of all religions; the family is Muslim but only attends mosque for special holidays.
Ismagulov, who is in Boston, said he hopes to stay in the United States until he can clear his son’s name. He has placed flowers at the bombing memorial at Copley Square, he said.
“I want the people of Boston to know the truth. We are a secular family, we are not jihadists, we are not Islamists. We’re a normal family,” he said. “And I want people to know that Azamat has loved America since he was a child. I want them to understand that he would never do anything to hurt America.”
In Worcester, protesters demanded for a fourth day that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body be taken elsewhere.
About 1:30 p.m., a family who had visited the funeral home to pick up the ashes of a relative exited the front door. The protesters, believing them to be from Tsarnaev’s family, unleashed a series of chants and expletives.
Just Bostonians showing the class they are known for.
Despite the ongoing protests, Patrick told reporters he does not believe a burial in Massachusetts would pose a public safety problem.
But near Worcester, a cemetery has been receiving calls from people in a panic. Each time, the message is the same: Please don’t let him be buried here. Not with my loved ones.
“You had to know this was going to be an issue,” said Brian Killelea, general manager of Worcester County Memorial Park. “Cemeteries shouldn’t be about one person.”
Many cemetery directors defended the highly unusual decision to refuse burial, saying that Tsarnaev’s gravesite would offend visitors and cause undue distraction at a solemn place. While Massachusetts law requires that towns provide one or more “suitable places” for burial, it does not require municipal cemeteries to accept a body for interment, officials said.
“The state has no jurisdiction,” said Amie Breton, spokeswoman for the office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.
Others noted that local cemeteries often limit permits by residency, as well as by available space.
On Sunday, Cambridge officials said Tsarnaev’s burial in that city would bring “turmoil, protests, and widespread media presence.” Several private cemeteries also denied burial.
“I certainly understand that a cemetery wouldn’t want to be known as the cemetery that has the Boston bomber,” said David Walkinshaw, spokesman for the Massachusetts Funeral Directors Association.
In a statement, the Massachusetts Cemetery Association said each cemetery has the right to establish its own policies.
But others said that although cemeteries have no legal obligation to bury Tsarnaev, they could not recall a time when a cemetery had refused a body for interment.
“We are obliged to serve the living while caring for the dead,” said Bob Biggins, owner of the Magoun-Biggins Funeral Home in Rockland and past president of the National Funeral Directors Association. “His family deserves the ability to lay their loved one to rest in keeping with their religious norms.”
Funeral home and cemetery directors noted that the remains of reviled figures — from Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to Newtown, Conn., gunman Adam Lanza — are typically buried in private or are cremated, which avoids a debate over their resting place.
“Usually, the story ends at their death,” Walkinshaw said. “But in this case, it’s never left the media’s eye.”
It's called agenda pushing.
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Related: Tsarnaev and the death penalty
"Reviled figures typically laid to rest outside public view" by Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, May 08, 2013
Outside a Worcester funeral home, where the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev lies, protesters have lashed out in anger. One called for the accused Boston Marathon bomber to be fed to the sharks. Another vowed to never set foot inside the funeral home again and said she would leave Massachusetts if the body is not sent elsewhere.
“I don’t want to even live in this state if he is buried here,” Jennifer Merchand, 29, said Monday.
Fine, leave then.
Yet a number of reviled, infamous figures, from Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo to defrocked priest John Geoghan, have been laid to rest with minimal outrage, typically in private ceremonies that drew little attention.
Geoghan, who was accused of molesting about 150 children and became a symbol of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, was buried in a Brookline cemetery, the burial site of former Boston mayors and several members of the Kennedy family. Geoghan, who was killed in prison in 2003, was buried with no protests after a private funeral in West Roxbury.
DeSalvo — the man known as the Boston Strangler, who admitted to 13 murders — was buried in Peabody in 1973, after he was stabbed to death in his cell as he slept.
More recently, Newtown gunman Adam Lanza, who killed 27 people before shooting himself, was laid to rest privately at an undisclosed location, according to published reports.
Then we found out Adam Lanza actually died a day before the shooting.
While the depths of public outrage over the Marathon bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260, has little precedent, particularly with emotions still raw from the attack, the past burials lend context to the current controversy, which has sparked intense debate.
Municipal graveyards set their own policies and are under no obligation to accept burial requests, although denials are highly unusual. On Sunday, Cambridge officials said they would not allow Tsarnaev to be buried in the city cemetery, and several other cemeteries have done the same.
Tsarnaev’s mother wants his body returned to Russia, but his uncle has requested he be buried in Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived.
The CIA uncle with which the kids had a falling out?
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Boston’s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, said it would be “disrespectful” to Boston residents to have Tsarnaev buried in the city.
This has turned really ugly.
But some funeral directors said they could not recall a burial in Massachusetts that has drawn protests or presented any type of distraction and said everyone is entitled to a proper burial.
“There are convicted murderers buried in Roman Catholic cemeteries,” said Bob Biggins, a funeral director in Rockland and past president of the National Funeral Directors Association.
Presidential assassins have also received burial. Lee Harvey Oswald is buried in a Fort Worth cemetery, where workers are forbidden to provide the location of his grave. Several infamous mass murderers, including Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, were cremated. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was put to death in 2001, was also cremated.
In Massachusetts, the case of Charles Stuart, who shot and killed his pregnant wife then blamed her death on a black gunman, caused widespread furor. In 1990, he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett after taking his own life. At the funeral, the minister said, “We cannot explain why the events of the past week took place, and we can never understand them.”
Six years later, John Salvi, who killed two receptionists at abortion clinics, was buried in Peabody after killing himself in his prison cell. In a eulogy, a minister described Salvi as a “troubled young man whose uncontrollable emotions drove him to act irrationally,” according to a published report. “We can’t judge what transpired in his troubled mind,” the Rev. Lawrence Wetterholm said.
In 1927, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were cremated at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston after their execution. Their ashes were later returned to Italy.
Related: Sacco and Vanzetti: The other famous Boston frame up?
Seems to be a PATTERN!
Five years after the Cocoanut Grove fire, a 1942 nightclub blaze that killed nearly 500 people, club owner Barnett Welansky died and was buried in Woburn.
He had previously been convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and on his release from prison told reporters “I wish I’d died with the others in the fire.”
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Related: Tamerlan Tsarnaev should get an unmarked grave
But not in Boston:
"Menino won’t allow bombing suspect’s burial in Boston; Officials hope a solution is near" by Evan Allen and Brian MacQuarrie | Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff, May 08, 2013
Mayor Thomas M. Menino will not allow the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev to be buried in the city, his spokeswoman said Tuesday, even as authorities in Worcester, where the body languishes in a funeral home, expressed confidence a solution is near.
“It would be disrespectful to our residents to accommodate this individual,” said Dot Joyce, Menino’s press secretary.
Instead, the mayor wants Tsarnaev’s family to return the body to the suspect’s native Russia, instead of burdening American officials with trying to find a burial plot amid continuing protests and a string of rejections from cemeteries in multiple states.
Menino “is recommending that the family make the decision,” Joyce said. “The mother wants it to return to Russia, and that’s where it should go. We’re not involved in this person’s life at all.”
The mayor’s declaration is the latest turn in a dark saga that has moved from the chaotic terror of Marathon Monday to a lingering, sometimes ugly dispute over how to dispose of the suspect’s remains....
Protesters have gathered outside the funeral home since Friday, when the body was brought there after being released by the state medical examiner. Most of them have criticized the presence of Tsarnaev’s body, but about 40 people from local faith groups arrived Tuesday evening to pray and ask for tolerance.
Sister Rena Mae Gagnon, 77, a nun of the Little Franciscans of Mary, held a sign that read, “Burying the dead is a work of mercy.”
“I was very saddened by the initial reaction when I heard that people were here protesting,” Gagnon said. “We’re Christians. We’re not to act that way.”
We are when we have been brainwashed, inculcated, and indoctrinated by Zionist Jews.
Clarence Burley, a Paxton resident who is corresponding clerk for the Worcester Friends Meeting, a Quaker group, said he is bothered by “the thought of a body that is part of God’s creation lying in a refrigerator.”
“This is a body that has been left behind,” said Burley, 86, who wore a traditional black, flat-brim Quaker hat. “The violence that was in Tamerlan has left this body, which is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
In Boston, the administrator of One Fund Boston met with about 40 bombing victims, some on crutches, to continue discussions about what to expect in compensation. Donations to the fund have reached about $28 million, said Kenneth R. Feinberg, who also managed the compensation pool for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Created by Menino and Governor Deval Patrick, the fund is intended to be a single source of donations and has attracted large amounts of corporate contributions.
Feinberg said he had never seen a tragedy with worse physical injuries than the Marathon bombings, including those on Sept. 11.
Then there really weren't any people in those buildings.
The task of distributing money to victims, Feinberg said, is “a horrible undertaking” and “raises questions that I believe would defy Solomon in getting answers.”
Yeah, poor, selfless Ken Feinberg.
Feinberg, who met with the victims at the Boston Public Library, has also administered funds for victims of the mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Aurora, Colo.
A draft protocol for disbursements calls for dispensing assistance based on severity of injuries: Those who were killed, suffered double amputations, or permanent brain damage would receive the most, followed by those who suffered a single amputation and then those who were hospitalized overnight.
Then there are gray zones, Feinberg said, whether to compensate people with emotional trauma, whether to consider victims’ finances, and whether to compensate people who needed only outpatient treatment.
And how to do it all quickly. Feinberg said he expected to have a final version of the protocol next week and begin the first wave of payments June 30.
“If there is one instruction I’ve received from the mayor and the governor, [it’s] ‘Ken, get the money out and get it out fast. People in grief need this compensation,’ ” he said. “That’s what we hope to do, and that’s what we plan to do.”
Feinberg stressed that the fund will not have enough money to compensate every victim.
“When you look at the horror that happened here in Boston, the horror, the number of deaths, the number of horrible physical injuries, the number of people still in the hospital today,” Feinberg said, “I assure you based on everything I’ve done in the past, including 9/11, there isn’t enough money to pay everybody who justifiably expects it or needs it.”
Some victims said they would be willing to take less compensation to save a small amount for others....
Bombing victims also can apply to the state attorney general’s Victim Compensation Fund, which might cover people who do not receive help from One Fund Boston. Applicants can be compensated up to $25,000 for needs ranging from mental health counseling, lost wages, or modifying a home for a wheelchair, according to a spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Steps away from the meeting, a different kind of reckoning began.
John McColgan, Boston’s city archivist, carefully peeled back the tape on a poster board at Copley Square, where hundreds of visitors from across the globe had written messages of hope and love for the bombing victims....
He and four other city workers and archivists were working to preserve those messages before the weather worsened, with rain in the forecast....
Ending where we started, with the "good."
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Also see:
Star-studded lineup for ‘Boston Strong’ benefit
Researchers try to map social contacts after bombings
Bombings survivor cheered at Bruins game
Watertown pride and courage were on parade
After bombings, hospitals turn to healing their own
Painful waiting game in family’s quest to save a leg
It’s time to bury this story
Embracing fear, rather than running from it
Time for me to let go of the jewspaper.
