Boston Kabuki Theatrics

Okay, as anyone who is not apoplectic now knows, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing terrorist, has been apprehended.  The lockdown of Boston and vicinity is now lifted, and life can go on substantially as normal (though the victims and their families will surely have quite a challenge in achieving any degree of normalcy).

 

Hindsight is always 20:20.  I shall not dwell upon whether the lockdown needed to be as extensive as it was.

 

I will, however, note that the lockdown may well have served as a training exercise for the authorities, federal, state or local, who now have a better idea of the practical aspects of locking down Boston -- or any other city.

 

And while this particular lockdown was employed in order to achieve a very noble and vital purpose, I cannot help but be concerned that it may well serve as an operations manual for the next citywide lockdown -- which may well be for purposes other than the promotion and extension of the personal freedoms we in America like to believe we cherish.