Boston.

The rolling news this week has had the look and feel of a Tom Cruise film.  I’ve been frustratingly busy, so haven’t caught too much of the detail, but Boston has looked like something you might find unbelievable if you saw the film.

I can only try to imagine what it felt like in those suburban towns in which this all unfolded.  Surreal would probably be an understatement.

Despite having to fight the urge to wonder what possesses senior policemen in the US to wear such silly hats, this has been one of those world events that we will all remember for many years I am sure.

Having witnessed a “police incident” on one of our trips to the US, the sheer scale and awesomeness of the fire power deployed in Boston was not too surprising, despite it being to find one 19-year-old.

Of course, we don’t know the full details, and who is to know if these two are the only ones involved or not, and of course the police, FBI and everyone else involved couldn’t know what they are dealing with.  Having seen the US police deploy a tank and SWAT team for a bank raid, I would imagine the resources currently sat in Boston could invade a fairly large country if they so wished.

This week has also shown how different things are now, in terms of reporting these types of events.  Rolling news can be great of course when you want to watch events unfold live, but when you’ve seen the Uncle of these two suspects shout at the press in his weird accent for the seventeenth time this hour, you get the impression that there isn’t actually a lot to report.

The other big difference to events like these is of course that every observer can become a news reporter.  We all have cameras in our pockets, handily attached to the internet, and this results in incredible images like this.

I know that this image is disturbing, and I apologise if you find it too much.  If it were me, I would pin this picture on the wall of whatever institution the living suspect is being kept in.  In fact, I’d make him meet this chap and look him in the eye.

Despite all the new developments in rolling news and images captured by observers, I imagine that this tragedy will fall into the same conspiracy theory category of 9/11, where we’ll all be looking at grainy images of weird goings on, and some no doubt will be certain that the two chaps held responsible were only part of a bigger master plan and organisation.  To those killed and injured that will never matter.

Whenever I have to visit London, a tube journey now is never free from a wary glance around the carriage at my fellow passengers.  No matter how hard I try though I just cannot imagine something actually happening like it did one July.  I suppose I should be glad that I can’t!

Apologies for the sombre tone, but it felt wrong to be my usual glib self this week.  The trouble is, every week there is some horror somewhere in the world like this, and I suppose it is only the level to which it is reported that affects the attention we give it.

I’ve added to the attention these idiots have received just by writing about it here, which is both annoying and sad.

Till the next time….