A strange spring blizzard

[benndragon]

So, I've heard that people who don't know Boston from a hole in the ground think they declared martial law and are all scared about the loss of freedom. While it might be the case that if this shit had gone down in their city they would have something to be afraid of, that's not at all what happened here

Comments

[unseelie]

this was my thoughts as well. It's like a winter storm swept in over night. Ya close the door, sit, have a drink, watch social media/TV, wait til things calm down. No need to get panicy and cower under your bed with an AR-15. ;)

[zandperl]

This is not how the friends I've talked with experienced it. You're making it out like it was no big deal, while most of my friends in the metro Boston area were really shaken up by the lockdown.

[achinhibitor]

I haven't compared a lot of notes, but so far the only person I know who was worried was worried after the fact -- she was walking past Main & Vassar in Cambridge either shortly before or shortly after they killed the MIT officer. Myself, I live in the north end of Waltham, and though officially locked down, I didn't even know about it until my brother (in Iowa) called (he'd heard about it on the radio). OTOH, I'm a long way from Watertown so there was about zero personal risk. Then again, most of the people I know are techies and have a good intuitive understanding of risk.

[benndragon]

We were all very concerned, and a couple of friends of mine within the 20-block search zone felt very stressed out (somewhat alleviated by the 8 SWAT officers with rifles politely requesting permission to search their home and then doing so with practiced efficiency; as they left, one of them pointed at the portal gun plushie they had on the mantle and said, "My kid loves that game!" which was pretty much the perfect thing to say at that point in time). It wasn't fun, by any stretch of the imagination.

But we were not terrified, not paralyzed, not hiding out of fear. We were staying out of the way so people could do their job. Maybe your friends are different, but me and my local friends are pretty solid on this point.

[cos]

I know a few people here who were freaked out, and many more who weren't.

[mr_teem]

Yes. I was making more-or-less the same point in conversation yesterday. It was even better because there wasn't the a measurable risk of losing power.

(This does require taking a step back and remembering that it was just two guys with a handful of bombs not, say, a swarm of the risen dead.)