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Here's a fact relevant to our discussions about police militarization in #CambMA:
Watertown PD involved in the nighttime shootout with the Marathon bombers had rifles in their vehicles, but did not use them because they had insufficient training to unlock them under stress.
Watertown PD involved in the nighttime shootout with the Marathon bombers had rifles in their vehicles, but did not use them because they had insufficient training to unlock them under stress.
In fact, I can't find a single instance where a military-style rifle or larger weapon was decisive or even useful during the two shooting incidents that took place in Watertown during the conclusion on the Marathon Bomber manhunt.
The bombers were initially armed only with a 9mm pistol, a pellet gun, and homemade explosives. Initial reports that they had a military-style M4 rifle were unsubstantiated. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2314448/Now-officials-claim-Boston-bombing-suspect-NOT-armed-boat-showdown--despite-police-account-firefight-shooting-himself.html
It's clear that all sorts of weapons were used to fire at the boat the younger bomber was hiding in at the end of the manhunt, but he was unarmed and posed no threat at that point. The (ineffective) gunfire was triggered by a panicky cop who shot for no reason.
The lack of tactical control shown by the police departments and federal agencies on the scene at the end of the hunt was considered a major failure in the official after-action report of the incident, as responders put hundreds of bullets into the surrounding occupied houses.
Let me elaborate a little more. There were two instances where police encountered the Boston Marathon bombers in Watertown where shooting ensued: 1) The nighttime carjacking shootout, and 2) The daytime apprehension on the boat.
The first is especially interesting...
The first is especially interesting...
When Watertown PD encountered the Tsarnaev brothers at the first incident, they were responding to a carjacking report passed to them by the Cambridge PD. The officers on the scene *did not know* they were pursuing the bombers. https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-anniversary/too-many-guns-how-shootout-bombing-suspects-spiraled-chaos-n80236
Today, Cambridge PD cites this shootout as a primary reason they need their Lenco BearCat armored vehicle. However, if Watertown had owned such a vehicle, it never would have been deployed to the scene of the shootout in time to make a difference.
You wouldn't fire up a slow, heavy, and unmaneuverable armored personnel carrier in the middle of the night to respond to a speedy pursuit of a carjacker. And by the time the shooting started, it's unlikely you'd get the armored vehicle to the scene before it ended.
It takes a specially trained driver to operate a vehicle like a BearCat. It's not the hardest thing in the world to get certified on, but you can't just expect anyone to grab the keys and go. That means you need the right crew on hand to deploy it, which may be tricky at night.
So a BearCat would not have played a decisive role in the shootout. Let's talk about weapons. We
ve already seen the first officers on the scene didn't deploy their patrol rifles (presumably some kind of M16 variant) because they were untrained on how to unlock them.
ve already seen the first officers on the scene didn't deploy their patrol rifles (presumably some kind of M16 variant) because they were untrained on how to unlock them.
WPD Sergeant John MacLellan and Patrolman Joe Reynolds were first on the scene. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the officers exchanged *pistol* fire. Tamerlan deployed explosives as well. No one had a rifle or automatic weapon. https://abcnews.go.com/US/boston-bombing-day-firefight-thought-gonna-die/story?id=38554342
According to ABC news, neither Watertown officer had ever fired their weapon in action, despite three decades of police experience. Officers shot the older bomber multiple times with their pistols before tackling him to the ground, where he was run over by his escaping brother.
There were other officers and agencies who rushed to the reports of the shooting, but it isn't at all clear that their gunfire contributed to taking down Tamerlan, who was engaged in a close fight with MacClellan and Reynolds until he was taken down. https://badgeofbravery.ncjrs.gov/winners2013/MacLellan-others.html
Tamerlan Tsarnaev fired 56 rounds, and the police fired 210-300, all on a residential street. The police response was uncontrolled; when officers showed up, they starting shooting "without necessarily having a target lined up and identified, or having appropriately aimed."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot multiple times, but not hundreds of times. Where did the rest of those bullets go? Many went into homes where families had been sleeping. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boston-marathon-bombing-firefight-sprayed-watertown-homes-bullets-article-1.1321824
And here's a point: generally, pistol shots don't have the same penetrative power as rifle shots, meaning that a round fired by a pistol that misses a suspect is less likely to create collateral damage to whatever is behind it than if it were fired by a military-grade M4 rifle.
The bigger the weapon, the further and faster the bullet will travel, and the increased risk of collateral damage. In a dense urban environment like Cambridge, that matters very much because there is always going to be an occupied building behind any target the police shoot at.
Had the police, who weren't aiming at the suspects, had bigger weapons, who knows what civilian casualties they might have caused. An M4 is accurate out to 500m, but deadly to anything in its path out to 1km or perhaps more. A pistol, much less so.
Even armed as they were, the agencies on the scene managed to cause two collateral damage incidents. MBTA Officer Richard Donohue was near fatally wounded by friendly fire and police fired on other police in their vehicle. Thankfully, no one died.
From a technical standpoint, two people exchanging pistol fire is pretty straightforward. Once you get 20 people and high powered weapons involved, things get complicated. Communication, control, and coordination of all the moving pieces is essential to prevent collateral damage.
The technical skill to control that kind of manpower and firepower is what makes the military different than the police. Infantry units train on this sort of thing. It's most of their entire job. It's hard, but it can be done well with practice.
You don't get good at it because you buy the right equipment. Expecting the police to coordinate an infantry level firefight safely because they have M4s is as ludicrous as expecting me to play point guard for the Celtics because I bought the right shoes. You have to train for it
Arming our police with military weapons and then expecting them to respond to once in a lifetime military threats without the military's training is not a credible public safety strategy.
I need to get some work done, but I may continue to the boat incident later.
