Terrorism far too close to home

            On Monday May 15^th during the Boston Marathon, Boston experienced its first act of terrorism which claimed three innocent lives and injured over 100 people. Around 2:45 in the afternoon, four hours into the race when most people finish, two bombs went off within twenty seconds of each other. Tamerlan Tsarnev (26) and his brother Dzhokhar (19) were the ones responsible for all the chaos that broke out in Boston. Besides the two bombs that actually went off, many more were found during the week that followed. Thursday night they engaged in a gun battle after shooting an MIT police officer, and Tamerlan was killed during the whole ordeal. However, Dzhokhar, a student at UMass Dartmouth was able to escape for a short period of time. Friday evening he was caught hiding in a boat somebody’s backyard, where he was sent to the hospital with gunshot wounds but is expected to live.

            Now the question is, will Dzhokhar be sentenced to death? Massachusetts does not have a death penalty, but since terrorism is a federal crime he may face it. Personally, I think since he is only 19 years old and has his whole life ahead of him, he should be sentenced to life in prison. Therefore, he will live out the rest of his life behind bars and miserable. The death penalty is the easy way out; he doesn’t really have to pay for what he did because either way he is going to die. I think the most important factor would be to find out why they did it, and if they had any other accomplices. I don’t think it is possible for two people to carry out such a devious plan without any help what so ever. Tamerlan was said to be the weird brother, but people who knew Dzhokhar said he was normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The government basically funded the whole thing however, since their whole family was on welfare.

            The two men caused extreme chaos in a city which is way too close to home. Not only is it the capital of our state, but it is our home. However, the incident has caused the city and state to come together in an extraordinary way. For once, everyone is putting aside their differences and coming together to mourn the tragedy. It is scary to think that something that we would normally hear about on the news could happen so close to home, and makes the danger of the world way more realistic. However, we are Boston strong and will overcome the tragedy and live on to never forget the lives that were lost, and the sacrifices that people made to keep our city safe.