Real Police Work
Watertown Police Chief Ed DeVeau told the local media what happened when his department encountered the Tsarnaev brothers.
First off, the brothers were not aware that the Mercedes SUV had a GPS anti-theft tracker, so police departments with the right equipment, like the Cambridge PD could track it. and Watertown was alerted they were on their way.
A patrolling officer spotted the SUV and the brothers’ Honda and called for back-up. Unfortunately the brothers spotted the police car and stopped to attack.
The patrol officer was joined by 4 on-duty and 2 off-duty officers, and hundreds of rounds were exchanged along with some home-made bombs that were in the trunk of the Honda.
Then Tamerlan decided to go on the attack and rushed the officers. He was wounded, but no one was risking a lot of aiming with all of the bullets flying. When Tamerlan ran out of ammunition, the classic ‘ton of blue’ was dropped on him, i.e. he was tackled and buried under police officers.
While the police were dealing with Tamerlan, Jokhar jumped into the SUV and tore down the road at them. The officers managed to get out of the way, but Tamerlan couldn’t, so he was run over and dragged by the SUV.
Other agencies were responding, so Jokhar jumped out of the vehicle and fled on foot.
Meanwhile the Watertown officers were dealing with two seriously injured people, Tamerlan and Transit Officer Richard Donahoe.
This is the procedure that I learned in the academy – if at all possible you arrest people, you don’t kill them. Guilt or innocence is for the courts to decide, your job is to deliver them to the court.
In a Charlie Pierce piece it is mentioned that the officers involved in the incident have turned in their weapons and are assigned to desk duty until they are cleared by a shooting review board. That’s how it is supposed to be. If you use force you have to justify it. If you shoot your weapon you have to justify it. This is what ‘protect and serve’ is all about – cops shouldn’t endanger people, and shouldn’t use any more force than absolutely necessary to keep the peace and enforce laws.
These guys did the job the way it should be done, the way people want it done, and they survived. That’s as good as it gets.
6 comments
Jokhar aimed his car at the pile up of police jumping on Tamerlan. Do you think the younger brother did what he did because his brother did not want to be ‘taken alive’?
I can’t see any other reason..
There is always raw panic, Ellroon. It was dark, he had just been in his first fire fight, and he was wounded – panic comes easy in those conditions. He wanted to get away and the SUV was his best choice.
If they were thinking clearly they would have made some effort to disguise themselves because they had to know there would be people taking pictures near the finish line. Tamerlan might not have been ID’ed, but Jokhar showed up like a mug shot in the surveillance video.
The drift I’m getting, and I know I would agree if I had been there, is that the cops couldn’t believe that he ran over his brother. The most charitable thing I can come up with is that he didn’t know his brother was in the road.
Waiting for the right-wing kooks to now state that none of this happened, that it’s just a false flag operation by the Obamination to justify more draconian laws like the Patriot Act in 3… 2… 1…
Uhm, yeah, they went there.
Sometimes reality really *is* stranger than fiction. Running over his own brother… man. But then, a Mormon bishop in Salt Lake City interrupted a rape by charging at the rapist while swinging a samurai sword. I couldn’t write that into any of my fiction. Nobody would believe it. Nobody. But it actually happened.
There are a lot of things that never show up in police reports because you don’t want the ‘bosses’ to think you are drinking on duty. “Did that really just happen?” is not an uncommon question. Neck strain from shaking your head should be listed as a job-related disability.
I have to admit that a Mormon bishop with a katana coming at you would probably have a greater effect than a uniformed officer saying ‘Stop in the name of the law!’ There are few authors who would introduce that vision into their writings, and then only after chemical enhancement of one form or another, like John of Patmos.
Frankly, they should worry more about what John of Arizona and Lindsey of Neverland will do, not Obama.
Oh, I’ve had to open a new thread and I’ll put a copy of your last comment in it.
Well, now we find out that the cops interviewed Jokhar without Mirandizing him, and that he was unarmed when the cops shot the hell out of a boat because of imaginary shots fired in their direction. Granted, he or his brother had just shot a police officer a few hours prior and were probably spooked to the point where they could easily imagine a shot and respond, at which point everybody *else* hears a shot and responds, but this definitely doesn’t paint the rosey picture you painted in your posting…
-BT
The boat was the FBI SWAT team and questioning was the FBI. The incident involving the cars were local cops.
The Transit Officer almost bled out from arterial bleeding before they got it under control at the hospital, so it was very close to two officers down and out.
That said, everyone was jumpy after the shoot out on the street with all of the bombs laying about. All it takes is anyone to discharge a weapon, especially at night. Feds don’t get a lot of real world experience, generally showing up to take over good cases after the shooting stops. [No, I don’t like the Feds because I have had to work ‘with’ them and they think you are working ‘for’ them.]
US Attorney Ortiz decided to invoke the ‘public safety’ stall on the Miranda warning, and a Federal judge decided she wouldn’t put up with that sort of thing in her jurisdiction, so the Feds are already off on the wrong foot with the district court.
The admissions made by Jokhar before he was advised of his rights are worthless and unnecessary. The car hijacking victim can testify to an admission by Tamerlan, so that is covered. The whole thing was a stupid waste of time and the good will of local Federal judges. That’s why I have more faith in what Massachusetts is doing. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen the Feds screw up a lot of solid local police work.
If people actually read the finding in the case that resulted in the warnings being mandated by the Supreme Court they would realize that it was police misconduct to obtain an unnecessary confession. The confession was thrown out and Miranda was convicted at the re-trial because there was overwhelming real, physical evidence of his guilt. There was no need to ask Miranda anything, but the cops did it anyway.
I have never had a problem with people talking after hearing their rights, and have occasionally had a problem shutting them up. If you have a conversation with someone Jokhar’s age and actually listen, they will talk. If you ‘interrogate’ them, they will clam up. The military and better police courses stress ‘active listening’, i.e. let them talk and encourage them while slowly leading to the area you are really interested in.