CNN Opps Again

Americans have a low opinion of the news media. According to Gallup 55% of Americans have little or no trust of the press. This afternoon CNN's John King verified this negativity by declaring that the Boston Police had 'a dark-skinned male' in custody for Monday's Boston marathon bombings. AP followed CNN's lead and their news-breaking claims were quickly reputed by city and state officials. As for the Gallup Poll, no one trusts them after the 2012 Presidential Election.

Redcoat Suspect

AP and I were sitting in the garden of the Fort Greene Observatory, discussing the lack of a video declaration from the Boston Marathon bomber(s). I had bought us big cans of 'Gansett beer. It came from New England. "It was only one person," I voiced my hunch. "He carried the two bombs in bags and dropped one and then the other." "Why four hours after the first runners?" AP had attended RISD. He had an analytical mind. "Because it was too crowded. Someone walking with two bags would have attracted attention." "And it didn't four hours later?" AP was a New Yorker. "The cops were standing down. The spectators were friends and family. No one was paying attention to a forty year-old white male with two bags over his shoulder." I knew my Boston, but didn't say that the police were in a bar on Newbury Street. There isn't anything more agreeable to any working man than getting paid to drink on the job. "One man? Those bags were heavy." The FBI said they were constructed out of pressure cookers loaded with household chemicals and ball bearings. "30-40 pounds each." I carried heavier bags, while smashing knives this winter. "He dropped the first up the street and then the second, which he detonated first and then blew the second." "And you're sticking with either a single bomber? The 42 year-old white guy from New Hampshire." "Missing a front tooth." "But not a Muslim." "A Muslim would have gone for a suicide mission, but there is another suspect." I put down my beer. It was empty. Luckily I had bought us two each. "The descendant of a redcoat officer from the Battle of Concord. Those Brits have a long memory." "That's the Irish in you speaking." AP was familiar with my blood. "Maybe you're right, so my money stays on the white guy from New Hampshire." "With the missing front tooth." We clunked our 'Gansett cans together. I hope they catch the bastard. Dead better than alive. And that's the Irish in me too.

Boston Suspect # 1

On Monday two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and over 170 were injured by the infernal devices. The explosion took place four hours after the start of the beloved race from Hopkington to Boston Garden held every year on Patriots Day commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord. My friend Eric was waiting for his wife on Columbus and Berkeley. She was in the changing room at the corner of Arlington and Boylston. His 82 year-old father-in-law went out to search for Meredith. They are both Boston natives. Two minutes later Eric heard a sharp boom and then ten seconds afterwards a smaller thud. "Bombs." He deducted within a second and called his wife. She was okay and he ran outside to get her father, whom he found standing in the rush of screaming people. "It was like 9/11." Eric collected his wife and got on the Mass Pike to drive west to Springfield before the police shut down the highways. East-bound traffic was dominated by first responders and black Ford SUVs with lights flashing within the shaded windows. I was glad to hear that he had escape harm. My older brother was fine. He worked on the other side of the Commons. Nobody I knew had been hurt, but my heart as well as many of those across the nation felt for the families of the dead and wounded, while asking, "Who?" Fox News was quick to accuse an Arab extremist, but upon seeing the footage on TV I immediately thought 'white male, 42, angry at liberals, pro-gun, anti-abortion and from New Hampshire'. Why New Hampshire? Just a hunch. Suspect # 2 a lone Muslim angered by the hunger strike at Git-Mo. I have no # 3. Two days later the FBI haven't a lead other than the bombs themselves. "It will take time... but we will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice” President Obama vowed, as the FBI transported the evidence to Quantico for further investigation.