Do you believe the FBI and NSA when they say more than 50 plots were foiled by NSA surveillance?

[MannyGoldstein]

95. Well, now I can see why you're so concerned.

It was a big deal, but not quite at the level that you're thinking.

No tanks, zero. As far as I can tell, just a few armored Humvees, which make sense in case the guy was holed up somewhere shooting or throwing more bombs.

Most cops had armor on, which seems prudent. A few had combat fatigues, but certainly not most.

The "swamped" area was just a few square blocks. We live about a mile away, in a reasonably-well-traveled area, and didn't hear or see a cop all day. Boston was certainly not swamped - in fact there were no extra cops around that 'm aware of - but some Boston cops went to Watertown to help out.

As to machine guns - I'm quite certain that local cops around here don't carry machine guns or automatic weapons. Maybe some staties carry automatic weapons, but I can't fathom that they carry machine guns as a matter of course. We're not gun nuts here, and neither are our cops. It just wouldn't be tolerated.

My own city, Newton, borders Watertown and Boston. Most years, Newton makes the list of the top-10 safest cities in America. Watertown is similarly safe (but smaller and not a city), as are most parts of Boston. I'm not sure of the cause and the effect, but for some reason, the local cops are just incredibly reasonable. Even shooting an errant bear rains hell down upon the cops, can you imagine if they shot a person unless it was incredibly necessary?

The night when the younger bomber brother was captured, I was at an event with about 50 people from around the country. One of the participants looked up from his cell phone and announced "They found the guy, they say they'll be executing him in 5 minutes."

Someone in group: "Executing him?"

Original reader: "Well, they sad they'll be storming his boat in 5 minutes, and I'm sure that they'll figure out *some* reason to kill him for resisting arrest - after all, he killed a cop or two last night"

Me: "I know that's what they do in some other parts of the country, but that's not what happens here. They'll do what they can do get him alive."

And they did.