The story of the Boston bombings continues into its second week following last week’s tragic explosions and the real-life action thriller that was the chase for one of its perpetrators. If it weren’t the circumstances which initiated the chase, it would all have made for an excellent episode of one of the police chases that US news media famously enjoys to air. But now that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers behind the despicable bombings which took the lives of two women and an eight year old boy, has been captured, the world awaits news of his questioning with an intense intrigue – who is this Tsarnaev person and what lead him to want to commit such atrocious actions?
Written By William Barns-Graham
Since the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week, the world has been following the pursuit of Tsarnaev avidly. The suspect was captured on Friday evening after a manhunt that took the life of his brother and fellow bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It is thought that Dzhokhar may have killed his brother, running him over as he fled capture on Thursday initiating the chase, before he was eventually captured on Friday. He is now in hospital being treated for his wounds, one of which was sustained to his throat meaning he currently cannot speak. His Miranda rights have been suspended because it is believed that he could pose a continued threat to national security and civilian lives. It is thought that the brothers were planning future attacks as well. It has been reported that Tsarnaev has been writing responses to interrogators by ABC, NBC and CBS but this has been denied by the FBI’s Boston field office and Boston police department. Tom Menino, Mayor of Boston, told reporters that he doesn’t know if we’ll ever get answers from the individual.
As the focus shifts from the pursuit to the punishment, there now also comes the slow unravelling of the back-story and motives of the terrorist attack. There have already been many reports of shock by those who knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He has been described as a sociable, participating member of the college society he was part of and was thought to be a happy civilian in America – his parents are certainly shocked by their son’s actions. Such description hardly befits someone who has committed actions that are normally only committed by people with an unstable mentality – you usually have to be sick to commit such sickening actions. But it seems that something swayed him and his brother into these actions – perhaps the older brother led his younger brother astray.
The brothers originate from Chechnya in southern Russia and had been living in America for a decade. His brother was more known for aggressive actions than his younger brother with reports that Tamerlan had disrupted a mosque in Cambridge objecting to a speaker’s comparison of the Prophet Muhammad to civil rights champion Martin Luther King.
“You are a kafir [unbeliever]“, and said he was contaminating people’s minds and was a hypocrite.
The brothers were both Muslims but it would be lazy to say that this is the sole motive – even the most aggressive of fundamentalist Muslims have motives shaped by other factors as well, whether that be hatred of the West due to the difficulties of their own upbringing or some kind of mental stability and to say that they committed these atrocities because they were Muslims would demean the faith and lives of many decent Muslims around the world. The brothers reportedly lived comfortably in the USA for many years so something within that time must have tipped their previous belief in Islam into some fundamentalist anger that was so strong to make these people commit such terrible attacks.
Other than the back-story, the charges that the two will face will make for many headlines. The death penalty is not given in Massachusetts, and the USA could surely take a moral high-ground in not using such out-dated and debatable punishments, even against its greatest enemy in attempt mass-murder caused out of religious extremism. Of course, such high-ground hasn’t always been taken by the USA who were widely criticised for their use of torture in Guantanamo Bay while there is such a widespread feeling of anger and sadness caused by the Boston attacks that many will be baying for blood. It is difficult to resist such emotions in response to what was a ghastly crime, but the USA and Massachusetts has to stand by its own morals and judicative principles amid even these worst of times.
The story behind Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s infamous life and his future fate will make for plenty of emotional and compelling reading in the months to come, but, as is the duty of the law, he will be given his justice and the extent of that punishment will be severe. Any punishment will hardly be enough to appease the grieving US population and families of those who were tragically killed and nothing will bring those who have lost their lives back.
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