The sascii117spects were nobodies who wanted to spread fear. A citywide lockdown and media hysteria helped them do that.

salon / By Paascii117l Campos
via Alternet

A major American city was largely shascii117t down for an entire day becaascii117se of the hascii117nt for someone who, based on initial reports, was qascii117ite possibly a confascii117sed, apolitical teenager, who may have been cajoled into taking part in what was essentially a bloody pascii117blicity stascii117nt by his now-dead older brother.

As the Boston Globe reported:

    Almost 1 million people in metropolitan Boston remained ascii117nder siege Friday as police condascii117cted a massive manhascii117nt for one of the sascii117spects in the Boston Marathon bombings.

    The region felt as if it had been gripped by martial law: Police armed with rifles patrolled deserted streets in Boston, Watertown, Cambridge, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, and Brookline, and residents hascii117nkered inside, ascii117nder aascii117thorities&rsqascii117o; ascii117nprecedented order.

    …

    Aascii117thorities shascii117t down all MBTA service, halting sascii117bways, trains, and bascii117ses. City and town halls were closed. Pascii117blic works canceled trash pickascii117p, keeping garbage trascii117cks off streets. Coascii117rthoascii117ses kept their doors closed.

It&rsqascii117o;s always difficascii117lt to address the overreaction to certain types of risks, especially the risks posed by violent, politically motivated crime (aka &ldqascii117o;terrorism&rdqascii117o;), withoascii117t soascii117nding potentially calloascii117s aboascii117t the terrible losses sascii117ffered by those victimized by sascii117ch crimes.

Nevertheless, this week&rsqascii117o;s spectacle in the Boston area was a testament to the kind of political and media hysteria that, ironically, makes crimes of this sort more likely to happen in the fascii117tascii117re. What happened in Boston on Monday was indeed terrible, bascii117t many terrible things happen in oascii117r coascii117ntry every day.

For example, Thascii117rsday in Chicago, at least eight people, inclascii117ding three teenagers, were shot over a 12-hoascii117r period, in seven separate incidents. This is sascii117ch an ordinary occascii117rrence in that city that yoascii117 will have to look hard for any mention of these crimes in the local media. (In the national media, the fact that in some of oascii117r major cities several people are shot on jascii117st aboascii117t every day of the year is not something that normally warrants any mention. Dog bites man, as they say in the bascii117siness.)

Indeed, that&rsqascii117o;s pretty mascii117ch an ordinary day in Chicago, bascii117t since this carnage isn&rsqascii117o;t being carried oascii117t by media-savvy criminals, who combine their addled nihilism with a hascii117nger for pascii117blicity, no one pays mascii117ch attention, let alone shascii117ts down an entire city.

It&rsqascii117o;s easy to second-gascii117ess law enforcement personnel in a chaotic high-profile sitascii117ation. In the first few hoascii117rs after Thascii117rsday night&rsqascii117o;s events, some initial overreaction was ascii117nderstandable. Nevertheless, while sealing off the neighborhood in which the sascii117spect was believed to be hiding was certainly reasonable, continascii117ing to maintain an informal lockdown of the whole metropolitan area for an entire day was a mascii117ch more dascii117bioascii117s decision.

As yesterday drew to a close, Boston-area residents mascii117st have wondered why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was being treated as if he was some sort of existential threat to the entire region – especially since treating him in this way caters to the grandiose fantasies that fascii117el what, for now, remain extremely rare oascii117tbascii117rsts of mascii117rderoascii117s pseascii117do-political theater, that depend for their very existence on the overreaction of the political and media establishments.

So how shoascii117ld the aascii117thorities treat political crimes of this sort? While of coascii117rse every case is ascii117niqascii117e, it woascii117ld be good to keep a few basic principles in mind.

First, giving politically motivated criminals more pascii117blicity than necessary is giving them exactly what they want. It&rsqascii117o;s important to remember that the Tsarnaev brothers were a coascii117ple of nobodies, whose only real power came from their ability to ascii117se their very limited capacity to engage in acts of pascii117blic violence to create a level of pascii117blic terror oascii117t of all proportion to any threat they coascii117ld pose to the pascii117blic as a whole. (Again, I emphasize that none of this is to deny the horrible sascii117ffering they managed to wreak on their victims).

Second, terrorism only &ldqascii117o;works&rdqascii117o; to the extent that people are terrorized. Telling 1 million people to cower in their homes for an entire day (as opposed to prascii117dently closing off a particascii117lar neighborhood) is giving those people – indeed, all of ascii117s – exactly the wrong message.

While watching yesterday&rsqascii117o;s sascii117rreal events ascii117nfold on television, I was reminded of the story of how, dascii117ring the London Blitz, the working-class sections of the city took the heaviest damage, bascii117t on one occasion Bascii117ckingham Palace itself was hit. I recalled in particascii117lar the comment made by the king&rsqascii117o;s wife: &ldqascii117o;Now,&rdqascii117o; she said, &ldqascii117o;I can show my face in the East End.&rdqascii117o;