FBI Releases Boston Bombing Suspect Images/Videos 416
An anonymous reader writes "The FBI has released images of what they say are two suspects with backpacks and ball caps. 'Somebody out there knows these individuals as friends, neighbors, co-workers or family members of the suspects,' Special Agent Rick DesLauriers, the head of the FBI's Boston office said. 'And though it may be difficult, the nation is counting on those with information to come forward and provide it to us.'"
Low FPS Compression Artifcacts Too Bad (Score:2, Insightful)
There are cheap cameras today that do full HD, low artifacts, and run 30 frames a second. These images were from old equipment and software. The smudged faces is that. They should be replaced. All replaced. The city I live has less than one FPS on its non-traffic cameras. It's pathetic what salesman push on the HLS-cash-infused cities when cheaper, and much better, hardware and software is available right now. You get what you pay for, and sometimes, not even that.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
For their sake (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Vigilante Justice? (Score:5, Insightful)
The government posts "most wanted" pictures for heinous crimes quite often, usually without dire consequences for either the perpetrator, or idiot members of the public getting themselves killed trying to nab violent psychopaths. I suspect these two have already gone into hiding --- they won't be obvious to the general public. But who they were and where they lived before the crime will be discovered really fast. However, I can see this type of situation getting messier in the future --- suppose the "unofficial crowd sourced intelligence gathering" had identified "suspects" on public message boards within 30 minutes of the incident (which I don't see as out-of-the-question for future incidents); then things could get awfully rough for any vague look-alikes in the area.
Many are missing the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Facebook? (Score:4, Insightful)
a) Facebook photo's are (or should be) private especially to the government
b) Even if it's 99.9% accurate, that still yields a lot of false positives. And having worked with that stuff, you would be glad to have 90% recognition.
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
And this is why people are scared of Google Glass--it'll make an already existing problem worse; that is, the government will outsource its spying to the people.
Re:Vigilante Justice? (Score:5, Insightful)
While in general I agree with your post, one thing is terribly wrong.
I suspect these two have already gone into hiding
This assumes that the men in the photos are guilty, please don't be another member of our society who convicts people in the court of public opinion, there's far too many Nancy Grace viewers already. How about "I suspect the people who carried out this crime have already gone into hiding" or something along those lines. Sorry if this comes off as pedantic.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:These are... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dead men walking.
Along with anyone who looks like them.
Re:Wow (Score:2, Insightful)
To be fair to them, plenty of other sites picked out everyone with a backpack except those two as well.
To be fair to them, they aren't trained law enforcement officers with many years of experience identifying suspects. They shouldn't have been picking anyone out; They should have been submitting their photos, videos, and eyewitness accounts directly to the FBI instead of engaging in vigilantism.
Everyone on 4Chan and Reddit who engaged in such activity should be ashamed of themselves -- they've engaged in modern-day witch hunting, with potentially deadly consequences. If I could, I'd reach through my computer monitor and punch each and every one of them in the face. Hard.
None of you are going to "crack the case". The very most you'll accomplish is diverting valuable law enforcement resources during a critical window of opportunity. They've said what they need; If you can provide that, then do so. Otherwise shut up, get out of the way and let the professionals do their job.
And yes, I am being a bit harsh, but the stakes are high -- people's lives are at risk as long as the people responsible for this act of terrorism remain free. I have no sympathy whatsoever for 4Chan, Reddit, and the rest of the armchair internet sleuths. We've spent billions on homeland security preparing for exactly this -- now let them take care of it. We're paying enough for it as-is, without you asshats throwing monkey-wrenches into the process thinking you're "helping".
Re:WTF? (Score:0, Insightful)
Fuck you and your damned Nietzsche
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:4, Insightful)
Since you had the courage to post with your account, I decided not to down-mod you, but ask you a counter-question: How?
Many countries have problems with selective interpretations of religion (including Christianity - abortion clinics, for example). How would you prevent such behavior? By outlawing a religion (Won't help - you don't declare your religion upon entry into the US)? How about ethnic cleansing (huge collateral damage)?
And if you resort to such techniques, what does it say about the robustness of your country's ideals? If you drop them at the first sign of trouble, are they really worth preserving? India (the world's largest democracy) has had attacks for decades (citation [wikipedia.org]). And they haven't spent years interfering in the Middle East. So if you have a workable solution, I'd love to hear it.
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Insightful)
"existing problem"? What problem? FBI asking Americans to look at their photos in order to help identify and question suspects who *bombed* innocent civilians at a freaking marathon? What is so terrible about that? You freaking nuts are sick.
Re:False flag (Score:3, Insightful)
Where are the pictures of them dropping and leaving the backpacks in the exact spots the explosions took place?
They mentioned that on one newscast. They suggested that the FBI didn't want potental witnesses to get confused by what they saw personally and what they saw on TV.
Imagine at trial months from now, the defense attorney cross examining a witness, "Now Mr/Ms So-and-so, are you certain you personally saw my client place his backpack at the scene of the explosion or are you just remembering the video the FBI distributed after the incident?"
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:a picture of #2 walking away after bomb blast (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not what the mod system is for.
Who cares? What the GP is doing is counter-productive and even harmful to a high profile terrorism investigation. Are we really going to sit here and nitpick about what the "system was designed for" ?!
It may encourage vigilance (different from vigilantism), and even result in a credible tip. Why assume the worst?
Because everybody in the country knows about it by now. There's a finite number of people who can potentially and legitimately help the case, and a whole big, giant, seething ball of useless people who only think they're helpful but in reality are only making things worse. The people who can help know who they are, and hopefully by now have contacted the FBI... and not posted to their Facebook where it does almost no good.
The internet is a great tool, and as an IT professional I know this better than most. But I also know that the average person is a dumb, stupid animal, and if they get the idea that they can be a hero into their head, they may wind up getting themselves or someone else killed.
This is something the professionals need to handle, not people like you and me. People like you and me need to just sit back, watch the news, and let them do their job. I know how I feel whenever someone screws up a computer or piece of software because they thought they knew what they were doing -- it's a big reason why I get paid so much money. Right now, if I were working on this case, the one thing I'd want from someone like me, is to stay out of the way, and not make it worse.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:4, Insightful)
Since you had the courage to post with your account, I decided not to down-mod you, but ask you a counter-question: How?
Under which guideline would you have down-modded his post? I don't have points myself right now, but I don't remember there being an option in the dropdown for "Unlikeable."
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
I like the part where you discuss taking it upon yourself to find and punish people for taking it on themselves to find and punish people.
Re:Tough angle (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the suspects was wearing his hat backwards in the video. Now really if you are wearing a hat to hide your face from security cams that is about as dumb a thing as you can do.
The thing is that they may be able to hide and lie low etc. But the FBI doesn't forget.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that I'm condoning any violence but when a bunch of Saudis brought down your towers you did use it to justify killing a lot more than 3000 innocent Muslims... Look at it from another perspective. You're a huge and powerful country that thought you were completely justified to kill a bunch of innocents. Why would a hurting and disillusioned Muslim feel bad about taking the hurt to you? From my perspective you both have pretty similar attitudes. If you want to claim the moral high ground you have to earn it.
Additionally, as the other poster said there is currently no link between this bombing and Islam. So you're either a troll or a racist, probably both.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:a picture of #2 walking away after bomb blast (Score:0, Insightful)
Always amazing to me how people can, in one topic, claim that the government is absolutely the best people to handle the situation, and then in another, argue about how the government is not to be trusted, ever, with anything no matter how remote and unlikely the potential is for the government to fuck something up.
That photo is, quite obviously, one of the guys they're looking for. And I fully expect you'll see copies of it posted in the next day or so by the FBI, along with surveillance video from various cameras on that corner showing him walking away. Your response is, in fact, exactly what the FBI *doesn't* want to happen - "don't say anything, don't show a photo, don't try to help." If the poster you're responding to had said, "I know where this guy lives, let's go FUCK HIM UP," that would be a different story, and you'd have a point - but that's not what was said. Now stop being a pedantic, FBI-jocking cuntrag, and enjoy the chase as these pathetic douchebags get rolled up and locked away for life.
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. We should catch them, try them and if guilty fry them. No reason not to be civil.
Re:a picture of #2 walking away after bomb blast (Score:5, Insightful)
Professionals built the Titanic; amateurs built the Ark.
The Titanic actually existed.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Mind you the average person in the US isn't terribly bright.
The US governance also fears an educated population. Educate them out of ignorance and wars on terror.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:5, Insightful)
What about Timothy McVeigh? Are you saying it's ok for US military veterans to kill kids at a day care center? Are you saying it's justified for NRA members to blow up buildings? Should we look the other way when American raised as Catholics commit mass murder?
No, I think you would disagree. Because in those instances we're tying one nutjob murderer to larger groups that he is not a representative member of. So why do you make that same mistake with muslims, assuming they're all evil or that there's a vast muslim movement to destroy the US? Are you listening to too much of the far right wing media that keeps insisting that muslims are the enemy, spending too much time reading WorldNet Daily, going to one of those churches who falsely teach that islam is a religion of violence while overlooking all the violence that Christians have committed?
And why do you think this bombing was the result of muslims in the first place?
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:1, Insightful)
Muslim countries on the whole are black holes of civilization in every way, from human rights to education, not to mention science and technology. Nothing positive has come from Islam for many, many centuries. Islam is a primitive, violent, mind suffocating ideology of fear and oppression and we are trying to drag them out of it's grip and into the modern world even against their will, as it is not in our interest to share the planet with a bunch of medieval ignoramuses armed with nukes. The entire Muslim world, all one billion of them, have accomplished exactly TWO Nobel prizes for Science (both of them Western educated scientists who happen to be Muslim) and few more for Peace, mostly terrorists! Meanwhile 20 million Jews have won 177 Nobel prizes! Islam needs to be radically reformed if the human civilization is to progress and I don't give a crap if Muslims feelings are hurt as there are actually more important things that Muslims feelings. So shove your cultural relativism up your liberal ass.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:5, Insightful)
You completely ignored the GP's message to spout off your hostile and prejudiced tirade. The question was why do you expect them to give a crap about how innocents in America feel if America doesn't give a crap about their innocents?
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Under which guideline would you have down-modded his post? I don't have points myself right now, but I don't remember there being an option in the dropdown for "Unlikeable."
Flame-bait: There is no evidence at this time to back up his hypothesis that it was Islamic fundamentalists. Also, he used a phrase "If the world can't keep Islam and all the Islamic violence out, at least USA can try" - which would seem to imply that he has a problem with the religion and the violence, without differentiating the two (and which planet would he have them relocate to?).
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not trying to slander, I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of attributing the sins of a few people onto all the organizations and ethnic groups that they belong to.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:0, Insightful)
Who are you to say it is a mistake with Muslims? The Koran tells Muslims to go to war against nonbelievers. [skepticsan...dbible.com] Mecca is occupied by the house of Saud which indoctrinates hajj attendees with the Wahhabi doctrine that Muslims are the supreme people who must follow God's command to destroy everyone else. The bestselling book of the 20th century was Sayyid Qutb's Milestones, which argued for Muslims to quit living in peace with the West and start killing people again. Most importantly, those Muslims who do not believe that Muslims must be nutjob murderers have been getting wiped out by those that do, to the point where the "extremists" are now a majority in most Muslim-majority countries. Look at what happened after the nutjobs murdered Salman Taseer. The people of Pakistan came out in large numbers to celebrate the killing of a liberal.
There is in fact a "vast Muslim movement to destroy the US" called the Muslim Brotherhood. You might know them as the Taliban, al-Shabaab, the Syrian "youth movement" "freedom fighters", the "Bosniaks", the "Palestinians", the "Arab Spring", Boko Haram, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. We used to call them "Nazis." [frontpagemag.com] They run the Muslim Student Associations on college campuses. Do some research. I recommend starting with Revolutionary Sudan [google.com] by Burr and Collins, as it ties many things together.
Two additional "vast Muslim movement[s] to destroy the US" include the Khomeinists and the Lashkar e-Taiba, each of which is strong enough to conquer countries. You really ought to start paying attention to what is going on in the world before you start calling better-informed people ignorant.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Look no further than the KKK to see an extensive history of violence in the USA coming from proud Christians. Thousands of people dead because of a different flavor of intolerance, in a different era. This too shall pass.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not saying that every Muslim is bad, but the fact is, most of those bombings are connected with Islam ...
And most of the drone strikes on muslims are connected with us.
It shouldn't take a rocket science to see that the "war on terror" is going to generate a backlash. Doesn't matter at all "who started it" or "who is in the right". All that matters at this point is that as long as one side pokes the other side with a stick the other side will poke back.
A war on terror can't be won, it will only generate a perpetual backlash. The only winning move is not to play.
Re:OH SHIT (Score:5, Insightful)
This shouldn't be modded off-topic. This has been confirmed to be the bombing suspects, armed with assault rifles and explosives. One is dead, having used a suicide vest, and the other (supect #2, white hat) is still being hunted by over 9000 cops. That's not a lame joke. That's the actual number of cops on the scene.
Re:It's the Muslims !! (Score:5, Insightful)
It was the people who practice Christianity [wikipedia.org] who bombed a government building in Oslo (killing 8) and then went on a killing spree on a youth camp (killing 69).
See... I can do it too.
I see why you do it. It is fun to let the actions of a few wackos condemn a whole religion.
Also, if you hate freedom of religion so much, why don't you move to Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Egypt (or China)?