Photography in the Boston Manhunt

Photo by David Green

It's been fascinating to watch the role of photography—particularly, personal photography by citizens—in the affair of the bombing at the Boston Marathon. A marathon participant from Florida, David Green, snapped this picture of the aftermath before going to try to help victims. Later, after he put his picture on his Facebook page, many of his friends realized that he had inadvertently taken a picture of one of the suspects the FBI had asked for help in identifying. When David sent the picture to the FBI, it turned out that for a short time it was one of the clearest pictures they had of suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev.

Meanwhile, here in Milwaukee a couple of guys are making and selling "BOSTON STRONG" T-shirts; $15 out of every $20 sale will be donated to the bombing victims' fund. They started out trying to sell 110 of them. More than 12,000 have been ordered as of this writing.

Here's the link.

Closest to home
We had our own terror scare around here this week. On Tuesday, a man with a gun caused the local college to go on lockdown. More than 30 squad cars converged, choppers circled overhead, police with dogs searched.

Eventually, Michael Weidemann was arrested at his house.

"It was a dumb mistake on my dumb part and I'll never do it again," said a contrite Weidemann. A local dumpster-diver, he had found an airsoft gun in the trash and had been carrying it around hoping to sell it to someone for $5 or $10. "I walked past some college girls and I must have scared them half to death."

Once the story of what really happened got around, students at Carroll University (as they call it...it's really a college) used social media to collect enough money to pay Weidemann's fine for him.

So, student John Heavey said, "this is really a tale of understanding and sympathy."

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Al Patterson: "This amuses me. Many times I have been hassled by police for taking pictures, now they want our pictures? Can't have it both ways folks. Choose wisely...."

Dennis Mook: "The irony is that this same Boston Police Department, who have in the past arrested citizen photographers for taking photographs of them and others in public, now utilized those same citizen photographers to help solve this heinous crime. Thank goodness for citizen photographers. Boston PD should welcome them with open arms in the future.

"As a retired chief of police, I find the conduct of police officers around the country who harass and arrest citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in taking photographs in public places shameful and inexcusable. They should be welcoming citizen photographers as, in Boston, they proved to be a key to solving a terrorist act. Photographic crowd-sourcing could be put to work in every community to assist in identifying criminal suspects and assisting in removing them from the streets.

"I'll close with a heartfelt congratulations to all the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who worked extra hard to solve this crime. Additionally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that my heart goes out to the families of the slain and injured citizens as well as the murdered and wounded police officers."

Comments

[Sarge]

I'd love to see photos of Boston's deserted streets taken by TOP readers. I only ever see this in post-apocalyptic movies. Deserted urban streets used to happen where I come from (Manila) during Good Friday. But not anymore.

[MJFerron]

An old friend from 40 years past told me she was photographing the the finish line and decided to take a short walk down the road. That's when the bombs went off. Sometimes you count your blessings.

[Sarge]

P.S.
Congratulations to all for the successful outcome of Boston's unprecedented lock down.

[Player]

"Boston Strong"? There's nothing strong about Boston. The citizens of Boston/ Watertown have been essentially disarmed by the state of Massachusetts and are left to cower in their homes.

If this terrorist at large showed up at my door it wouldn't be "a tale of understanding and sympathy" but a 45 ACP right between the eyes. It's called the Second Ammendment.

[I'm glad that makes you feel powerful, but the reality is that you're statistically more likely to shoot the wrong person and become a murderer yourself, whether or not you could be arrested for it. Here in Wisconsin we had a case where the police raided an underage drinking party and a young black boy ran away when the police got there (as did all the other kids). He hid on the porch of a neighboring house and the homeowner shot him dead. Google "Bo Morrison" for more. --Mike]

[Dennis Ng]

Got them!

Their background leads to many thoughts ...

[El Inglés]

The shirt doesn't ship outside North America. Pity.

[Jim]

An airsoft rifle is not a firearm. The guy should have been checked out and let go after the cops found out what it was.

[According to the best information I can find, he was given a ticket for Disorderly Conduct, which the police pass out relatively freely in these parts. The fine was $310, which was paid by students as a means of forgiving the inadvertent perpetrator, who is a former U.S. Marine now down on his luck.

Accounts vary as to whether it was an "Airsoft gun" or a "pellet gun"--unless those are more or less the same thing, I don't know. In any event, it looked like a gun. --Mike]

[Jeff]

Good thing David wasn't caught up in the wide-open-lens craze, or we'd be looking for a guy named Bokeh.

Jeff

[Ed Grossman]

As a resident of MA who works in Boston, please allow me a moment in this public forum to thank everyone who's helped the victims and/or protected the rest of us from harm. I am grateful to be safe.

As for the "now, you like us..." folks, remember we can't have it both ways either. Police officers, like the rest of us, aren't perfect. The balance between our rights and our safety is a delicate one. If they're going to get it wrong, I'd rather they err on the side of public safety.

Player, many thousands of people (including myself) worked in Boston in the days after the bombing. Nobody "cowered". The state asked people to stay out of the area in an effort to facilitate the manhunt on Friday. It was easier for the police to conduct the search for this murderer if the streets were empty and people were home to open their doors for inspection.

Your claim that there's nothing strong about Boston is a slap in the face to many fine people. I'm personally insulted. Consider yourself lucky that the First Amendment gives you the right to express your self-centered, ill-informed opinion in a public forum.

[I'm not going to allow any further comments in this particular vein, although people are welcome to continue commenting on the post. It's already gone a bit too far, but then the alternative is censorship. This issue is not about gun control and this is a time when we should be supporting our fellow citizens in Boston, not criticizing them.

Look at it this way: say what else you will, the authorities there identified and stopped the bombers very quickly, neutralizing any further threat quite effectively. That's lots better than a few days ago when the bombers were still a mystery and the potential threat was still open-ended. --Mike the Mod., whose mother and stepfather live in Cambridge and were under the "shelter in place" orders from the Boston police.]

[Mark Roberts]

The USA Today web site has a series of photos of deserted streets in Boston yesterday. http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/19/us/gallery/boston-ghost-town/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

I spent the day indoors doing work but it was eerie not to see and hear traffic and other activity all day. Things seem to be returning to normal now.

[Dennis Mook]

I should have prefaced my comment with a heartfelt congratulations for to all the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who worked extra hard to solve this crime. Additionally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that my heart goes out to the families of the slain and injured citizens as well as the murdered and wounded police officers. My neglect and my apology for not doing so. Indeed, it was my intention but I hit the send button without reviewing my remarks.

[Peter Cameron]

Possibly I'm being too cynical, but I suspect police will resume viewing photographers as probable terrorist/pedophile/voyeurs within a matter of days and the harassment will continue.

[Stan B.]

Peter- You're not being cynical at all, this hypocritical state of affairs must end- right now! We must all commit to ending undue harassment and prohibition of photographers in public places. They cannot record us 24/7 in public and then prohibit us from taking photographs in public venues. We must be vigilant in reminding them that they cannot continue intimidating us only to then plead for our cooperation whenever it suits them.

[Sarge]

Mike,

I'm wondering whether the proportion of cellphone photos was preponderant among the manhunt photos sent in to the FBI.

Crowd-sourced "Little Brother" capture is preferable to Big Brother surveillance.

@Mark Roberts

Nice street and architecture shots. Not at all eerie to me. Thanks for the link.

[kevin willoughby]

An interview with the photographer:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/49263362#51606969

[Adam Lozo]

Is there anyway you can verify this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-fDFZF9h8Y&feature=youtu.be

It reports that the above image removed the backpack via photoshop.

[Kevin Purcell]

@ Adam Lozo: Don't feed the conspiracy theory trolls.

See also http://xkcd.com/331/