Lockdown in Boston

A voice on the recording warns all residents to "stay inside". TV journalists warn "it is very dangerous out here, stay inside". But I went out anyway. The streets in Cambridge are virtually empty, but just a few blocks over, in Somerville, people eat ice cream and stop in the Dollar store. Last night, endless sirens passed through Harvard Square as I chatted with my friend K. We looked at each other but I figure, "a fire". No idea about what was going on in Watertown. I found out first from a guy waiting at the bus stop. "An MIT cop got shot." I thought it was unrelated. Then the young woman in the grocery store, which was eerily quiet, looked so upset. 1 am and she is working alone, only one other worker sitting on a bench 50 feet away. "Did you hear? The cop died." I said, "Oh no, that's terrible." Then she said, "And there were explosions in Watertown." I tried to reassure her. "Oh, it's probably a gas main or some electrical outage." She looked extremely doubtful. I am glad for the two college students who said they couldn't believe the younger brother was really involved. Glad for the father who claimed his sons were "set up". I am glad now when people doubt the "official version" of anything, since we have all been lied to so frequently. Still it does look like the older brother may have flipped--but why? He had a young daughter and a wife. A brother who looked up to him, a home here. I would have liked to hear his side of the story, but that is forever silenced. What happened here at the Marathon was horrible. I wept for the poor little boy Martin, "No more hurting people. Peace." And the other victims. Like everyone else, I have been in shock all week. But it is also horrible when the police, as happens far too often, are given the power to be judge and executioner. We have a system of justice, remember? Yes, rapidly eroded but still standing. These young men should have been arrested and brought to justice, if for no other reason than to allow the victims to face them, to demand, "Why?" and to say, "Look what you have done to me, to my family?" And again, "Why?" When the police are allowed to act as judge and executioner, we move closer to a state without due process, without justice, and we are all deprived of the right to ask "Why?",