THE BOSTON LOCKDOWN AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS

With the implementation of a state of military siege against the population of Boston last week, the American ruling class has crossed a historical, legal and political Rubicon. The die is cast and the sun is setting on the democratic forms of rule that have existed in the United States for the past two centuries.

What history will remember as most significant about the events in Boston will not be the bombing near the marathon's finish line or the perpetrators or their motives. What will be remembered instead will be the unprecedented military lockdown of an entire major American city, with military vehicles in the streets and heavily armed soldiers going house to house—tromping through living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, staring down their assault rifles at terrified, barefoot families in their pajamas.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/25/bill-a25.html


THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE STATE OF SIEGE IN BOSTON

The New York Times published an editorial Monday that not only endorses last week's police-military lockdown of Boston, but suggests that it was entirely consistent with democratic procedures. In "How to Handle a Terrorism Case," the Times makes the absurd argument that the operation that led to the arrest of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a vindication of "the fundamental rights that distinguish this country from authoritarian regimes."

In the editorial, the leading organ of the "liberal" establishment shamelessly falsifies what actually occurred, omitting any mention of the use of National Guard troops, SWAT teams, machine-gun mounted armored vehicles and Black Hawk helicopters. It makes no mention of the order for some 1 million residents to remain in their homes or the warrantless house-to-house searches carried out by heavily armed police.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/25/time-a25.html