I was saying that it is disturbing the feds can bring in such a force and control such a section of a major US city.DHS has grown far beyond what it was intended to be, it is literally like a civilian army, regardless of political views, should bother everyone.

You're being silly, Bubblehead. Silly is a mild word for it.

The city already had a large police presence due to the Marathon. It's one of the biggest public events of the year in Boston, of not the biggest, and certainly the widest geographically. Hence, large presence of state city and federal law enforcement types.

But hey, I guess if they needed a place to house anyone stranded by the events, those FEMA camps sure would come in handy.

If dealing with a terrorist attack is not the job of the Department of Homeland Security:

A. What is DHS's job; and
2. Whose job is it?

DHS's job was SUPPOSED to be to be centralized department at the federal level to assess, prevent, and respond to terrorist incidents since one of the failures of 9/11 was no "the buck stops here" the DHS has absorbed multiple departments and with 200,000 employees, thousands of armored vehicles, billions of round of ammo, they are a de facto Army.DHS are not supposed to be a de facto branch of the US military.The look a lot more like soldiers with humvees, armored vehicles, rifles, military gear etc The locals and state agencies are supposed to handle this as civillian law enforcement, DHS could assist but deploying their army, taking over a 12 block area.This should disturb everyone as it could(and likely will be) used in a negative manner sometime in the near future.Even if it never does, a duty as citizens is to be skeptical of the government and prevent it from having certain abilities, the feds doing this with their de facto civillian army is one thing.This affects us all!

Again, nothing wrong with law enforcement presence but DHS is more like a de facto army as demonstrated by their tactical gear, rifles, armored vehicles etc.Looked like the equipment the military used to invade Iraq with. Why this does not upset you guys, other than you are far too trusting of the government, especially the people in charge currently.

Agreed. It should also be noted, since 9/11, it is now the norm, for very high profile, highly attended events, for the local LEOs to be augmented by at least a state-level presence such as state trooper, highway patrols, etc. For an event such as the Boston Maratthon, it would not be unusual to even see National Guard elements, as well. We just recently had a major marathon here in Los Angeles and there was LEOs from all over Southern California here to assist...

<O>

Yeah short of GPMG,SAWS,disposable rockets,hand grenades,M203s and associated ammo,main battle tanks,attack helicopters,strike aircraft,aircraft carries and the Royal Army,Royal Marines,and Royal Air Force the armed forces of Australia and the Armed forces of Poland.

And everything else that an actual military armed force invading a country would consist of.

^:rotfl2:

(P.S. It isn't the 'Royal Army' - if it is anyone's, it is Oliver Cromwell's)

Splitting hairs, trying to pivot.Nice try! DHS does not need to be in Army style gear, with rifles, APC's, Humvees. I am sure they have rocket launchers in their vehicles. I would not doubt they have attack helos, laws are supposed to prevent civilian aircraft from being armed but hey since when did the law mean anything to the current government right?

The whole point was, the feds have way more capability than they should.Show me real reason they can be trusted? Exactly, you can't.

So now your paranoid rants are true unless we can prove otherwise...

Edit:
I apologize. I forgot which thread I was replying to, and on further thought, I regret the level of snarkiness I brought here.

Actually, that raises an interesting point. If you look at the DHS budget, a large chunk of their expenditure (57% by my calculations) goes on 'Customs and Border Protection', the Coast Guard, and 'Immigration and Customs Enforcement' - given Bubble's concerns over immigration, I'd have thought he'd be all in favour of them...

2012 DHS Budget: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-...012-BUD-12.pdf

Paranoid lately? I do not know if you really are paranoid or if you just are bored and post such nonsense for the attention or what your deal is.

Honestly, I do not really care either but clearly "you still do not get it" as Sailor Steve has said so many times.

Can we please hold back on the conspiracy theories and general politicization of this event at least for now?

I agree

Damn GW Bush and the right wing nuts for starting all these programs...

Obama cut HLS bombing prevention by 45% and many other cuts to HLS, which I guess you would agree is a good thing or now is it his fault?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...Secretary.html