Clear as an Azure Sky but Questions Remain

IT would seem some clarification is in order after things I've written recently. The hyper-militarization of American police agencies, coupled with a draconian intensification of statutory law, makes me uneasy. My sense of the current attitude prevailing toward the present US civil liberties climate, is this: "Hey, go ahead and take away our freedom; we weren't really using it much, anyway." And so you wouldn't have found me on the streets of Watertown, cheerleading and applauding the SWAT teams that took the young man into custody. He's still supposed to receive the presumption of innocence, BTW; yet all the media sources I saw/heard yesterday instantly jumped on the opportunity to shout: "They got him - we're safe now!" I really doubt the entire Boston Metropolitan Area needed to be locked down during the manhunt; that seems grossly disproportionate to the actual threat. I also dread that eventuality becoming a commonplace and shiver a little when I imagine that strategy migrating from The Coast to our Heartland. Actually, Chicago was locked down a couple years ago in anticipation of peaceful protests when the NATO Summit met there. I am enough of a realist to recognize it's just a matter of time before even a relative backwater like Madison gets equal treatment. Yet it wouldn't do not to add: I'm appalled, and yes, angered by the bombing at the Boston Marathon. No doubt I haven't done enough to mourn the loss of three innocent lives, and the wounding of 180. But I can't help but wonder why a couple of young Chechen brothers, one of whom, anyway, whose friends and acquaintances described as an affable, low-key individual, would target such an innocuous event. The typical "terrorist profile" all too often just doesn't hold water these days and many times it seems the FBI has gone far out of their way to entrap an unsophisticated young person. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/20/boston-marathon-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-mirnada-rights