How else can you catch a terrorist in an urban environment?

[Guest confidence]

I've finally developed/changed my opinion on the Boston lockdown and checked the existing stale threads but couldn't find a fitting place for this post...

 

At first, it seemed weird to me that they did a lockdown but I didn't see any other choice. Then, I watched a video of innocent citizens being yanked out of their houses with a gun to their face but I still would not relent. "How else can you catch a terrorist in an urban environment?", I said.

 

Then it hit me. The root causes. The cause and effect of what got us here in the first place. How this may seem like the only way but that the battle was lost a while back and that is why we are in this shape.

 

 

If you are on the fence or doubting there is a problem with the house to house search as I did, first go watch the various videos online. Please note: Photos will not suffice. It is impossible to see the severity of the situation without watching videos instead of just looking at photos. I watched raw footage of swat teams in full combat gear pulling innocent citizens out of their front doors at gunpoint with no warrant. They then had them put their hands on their head, frisked them and then commanded them to run down the street with their hands on their head. Sometimes the innocent citizen would get their hands a little too low and the swat guy would yank them up with great force to the point that it was obviously painful to the citizen. Sometimes while running down the street as commanded, they were subject to additional improvised/random frisking by whatever police happened to be on the sidewalk, even though they were just frisked 2 seconds earlier on their porch 15 foot away (literally). It's like these guys were making up the rules as they went along. They did not appear to discriminate no matter what the age or gender. Then without permission, they entered and cleared each citizen's home. This is in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment, obviously. Additionally, there was an armored military-style vehicle parked in the middle of the road with a gunner up top barking commands to residents.

 

I'm not a libertarian (I'm really not!) but I have to ask myself, how did we get here? Think about it...Isn't it interesting that they didn't catch him until they *lifted* the lockdown and an average citizen located him? What does this teach us about the value of citizens in stopping crime? I wonder if anybody in the Boston area that day wished that they had a means to protect themselves like a firearm, or if never even occurred to them to question the idea of allowing the police to enter their homes in this manner? I'm guessing they were so afraid of the terrorist that they didn't even care about their rights. A firearm would change that. As we all know, the firearm is the great equalizer. No longer do you have to cower in your home. If he comes, you will at least have a fighting chance.

 

And that's the problem. It's personal responsibility. No one wants something as out of style as responsibility. They don't want to be responsible for their actions, and they don't want to be responsible for their safety. They've given up their responsibilities to others. The government will protect me! Please pull me out of my house at gunpoint in order to save me from this terrorist who is successfully terrorizing me into giving up my rights!

 

First the terrorists took us to urban warfare in their neighborhood. Now they are taking the urban warfare to our own neighborhoods. There's only one way to solve this. Each citizen needs to take responsibility for their life in every way. Start out with arming themselves. Maybe we even need a real live militia in each neighborhood like is our right in the Constitution! That would be lots better than having an armored vehicle in your front yard with a gunner on top! The founding fathers would agree!

 

 

The problem is here that a long time ago we as a country lost our spirit. We lost our nerve. We lost our sanity. We lost our morality. We lost our sense of responsibility and our sense of requirement of responsibility from others. We lost our ability to see that giving the terrorists $100,000 of tax payer money in the form welfare, etc. is a problem. And so in a way, some of us are no worse than them. We blame our children's problems on others, as the terrorists' mother has. Our teens get pregnant, and we blame the school for not passing out condoms. Our kids take guns to school and shoot their classmates and we say they were bullied. We have our own demons that we won't take responsibility for. We accuse the Boston terrorists of killing children but we kill millions of children every year via abortion. And we've forgotten God. Let us mourn. Mourn for our country. And mourn for our own failings. That's the first step to any real kind of progress.

 

If the paragraph above does not describe you, then it was not meant for you. But I am truly asking myself, "In what ways have I shirked my responsibilities?" It's a sobering question that makes me realize that my kids and your kids -- the next generation -- are watching us. They will write history. Hopefully, it will be a better history than what is being written today.

[JGunner]

This is the exact point I've made to many of my friends. I didn't say it quite so eloquently, however.

It's all about personal responsibility for your safety.

[Guest Emtdaddy1980]

Very nicely written and eloquently stated my friend.

[Guest Darth Maul]

Thank you for a well thought out and well written post.

[Randall53]

what all of this means is tha OBL and his followers are winning. They have negatively changed America forever just like they wanted.

[Chucktshoes]

what all of this means is tha OBL and his followers are winning. They have negatively changed America forever just like they wanted.

We were already well far down that path. OBL and Al Qaeda were just the excuse the statists in our own midst were looking for. The Islamic terrorists are not our real enemy, our real enemy is us. As a nation, we have done this to ourselves. When our response to an act of violence/terrorism/war is to attack ourselves and the liberties that define our country and her people the way we did with the Patriot Act, the problem isn't them, it is us. When an attempted incident is thwarted and we start making people submit to sexual assaults to board a plane, the problem is us. Finally, when we have an attack with all of three fatalities and people call for the surviving suspect to be stripped of his rights as a citizen, put an entire city on "lockdown" and treat the citizens like they were inmates in a prison (where the term originated) there is no denying the problem is us. 

The majority of the people in this country have given up their rights and accompanying responsibilities as citizens in exchange for EBT cards and the assurance of a safety that can be never guaranteed. Welcome to the USSA.

[Guest nra37922]

Officer you are more than welcome to search my premises BUT I am armed and can take care of myself and my family.  I am not going to leave my home without you producing a warrant,  However if I find the terrorist on my property I will do my best to turn his corpse over to you.

[Guest confidence]

Officer you are more than welcome to search my premises BUT I am armed and can take care of myself and my family.  I am not going to leave my home without you producing a warrant,  However if I find the terrorist on my property I will do my best to turn his corpse over to you.

 

I'm a little afraid that before you could get the first few words out, he would already have his foot on your neck. :(

[safeandsecure]

Confidence -- agree completely.  Especially the next-to-last paragraph.  What was that comic/cartoon line? "We have met the enemy and he is us!"  You can't legislate away personal responsibility and expect anything different.

 

Thanks for a great post ...

[JayC]

This is what concerns me more...  Where were all the supposed oath keepers?  I've not heard about a single incident where a police officer or national guardsmen (there appears to be videos of ACU clad NG troops involved) refusing this unlawful order.

 

And that should concern you a lot more than the fact they did it...  that nobody said NO.  

 

You constantly hear people argue that the police and the military won't turn on the population, they will stand by their oath and follow the constitution,  I think this goes to show those people are wrong, when push comes to shove, the vast majority of police officer (it would seem ALL of the hundreds involved in this action) will follow orders and violate the constitution. 

 

That is a much more chilling issue IMHO.

[Titansfan]

confidence, well written post.

 

I've seen one video of a SWAT house search which was on this forum.  I could not confirm if this was house to house search or the house had people who had assocations with the alleged bombers?

 

House to house?  We can recall in grade school when school staff were looking for contraband, students or just the boys are lined up to empty pockets.  Ones at the end of the line observe what's going on and ditch the contraband before it's their turn.  Same would apply with house searches.  Neighbors would look out the windows, see SWAT/Police and make efforts to conceal contraband (Oh crap, better get those movies from Frostwire off my computer!)

 

Ok, house to house search, knock knock, POLICE!!!, I open the door with AR-15 in low ready....... what then???