To start I wish to offer both my prayer and thoughts to the injured and deceased as well as the families of the victims and families of the suspects (for they are still people too). Though most of us did not know the victims, we must remember that like all of us they have families and are loved. We are all human. God be with them all in these times.
Rest in peace Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu, Krystle Campbell and Officer Sean Collier.
A large triumph has rippled through the United States as the current suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing has been taken into custody. It has been a tense week as we went from not having any knowledge of those that committed a crime to identifying two suspects resulting in a gunfight and a city lock down and eventual capture of one and death of another.
The city can sigh in relief as the situation is (hopefully) coming to a close, it will be a sad day marked in the books for the American history, but also a day of resilience as many of the people bonded, and as our law system prevailed.
But through all of this I can only hope that we reach for justice and not vengeance. Though I am weak and would seek vengeance I turn to the system within my country of fair trail, and hope that the system can stand in where my inequities are present. It was created to play upon our moral frailty in hopes of creating the closest attainable system to secure both freedom and impartiality to ensure that we truly are innocent until proven guilty. Do not misunderstand I do wish for Justice, but it should come from fair trial.
Many seem these two men as the epitome of evil, which is something they have brought upon themselves and deserve. But I urge you to stop and look at the circumstances: the current man, or should I say boy? In custody is merely 19. He is not some adult, he is still a kid by many standards. His ages does not in the least take away from the actions he has been suspected of committing, but it does bring a point up that needs addressed.
As I learned about German History, more specifically The Nazi Regime (in a college course) it has been becoming increasingly obvious that many (Wrongly) blame it saying that this was specifically only a German case, and no one else would do such a thing on that scale ever again. But if you look at the facts it is prevalent that the Holocaust, though evil and perpetrated by the Germans of the time was a human atrocity not solely a German atrocity We all believe that in those situations we would be the better people and speak out against evil, but many of those that commit these crimes were regular people that turned by some small force. People are far easier to turn than what they believe. We are susceptible to fear and the pressure. With the right words in the right time anything can appear wonderful, even the harming of innocent people.
Rather than patting ourselves on the back and saying well we protected us, how do we better protect ourselves in the future? (which is a good thing don't get me wrong). Why don't we attempt to bring a world wide consciousness of the value of human life. It seems that we as a country, and we as a species has forgotten just how precious life is. That should be a focus, but sadly it most likely will never be.
But to deviate from the topic above to another matter that has arisen from this event.
I believe this event, this "terrorist" attack, will have a far greater weight on history than we currently comprehend. Though it will forever be written on the books of American History that this event was one of the terrorist attacks on our soil it will also be remembered the catalyst of the Citizen Police.
Citizen Police? To what am I referring? A valid question. This even was the first major United States terror event in a decent amount of time, but it was the first event to utilize the social media in a way to mobilize and control the people of this country. Everyone is now equipt with numerous photos and minute by minute details of the situation at hand. It has been slowly popping up across the country in local stations where police will posted wanted posters for those they are searching for. Like the wild west where those wanted signs would hand we have them too, but they are everywhere, not just on the sites of the police, but in your homes on your phones and computers. In your place of leisure these pictures now dwell.
With this information both visual and factual, the people are capable of assisting the law in ways never possible before. Everyone is now the eyes and the ears of the police, they can be the arms and the feet allowing for easier capture, and easier locating,but also more surveillance from the paranoid. In this instance it was a good use of the technology, but what will the future hold as we gain more power and hand it to the law?
Welcome the the 21st century, where everyone and anyone now carries the weight of the law beneath their finger tips without realizing the weight given and taken simultaneously in one action. This is the cost, benefit and consequent of our connected world, and one that will grow as time progresses forward.
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