...you just can't have civilian gawkers in the way of a possible shootout.

Joe might just has well have said probable shootout. Or even certain shootout. From a distance it looks like it's the only solution America understands. I've been in several countries of late - admittedly some of the many where the US is generally despised - where reaction to the Boston incident has been seen as an entertaining farce.

Before debating the lockdown, people should be wondering how it was that the 19-year-old was still at large. If firefights are such a wonderful solution, and with such an amount of manpower brought to bear, how was the (seriously injured) boy able to saunter off the scene? What were the police aiming at during all that shooting? Surely not identifiable targets?

Some news channels carried a Skype interview with a guy who said one of the bullets had gone through a chair where he had been sitting moments earlier. Has anyone expressed interest in who fired that bullet?

The lockdown was just more evidence that the US doesn't do subtle, and probably never will. The fact that it achieved nothing - the suspect was found after the lockdown, and the property he was hiding in was never searched - will concern no-one, except possibly a few obsessives like Songwriter.

If the whole crazy response raised no questions, I wouldn't be surprised.