Charging Boston Bomber with Federal Crimes is a Dangerous Precedent

Like most Americans, I followed the arrest and capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and would have lost no sleep if the young man had been killed.

Some news reporters tag Tsarnaev as a teen influenced by his deceased  his 26-year-old fanatical brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Regardless he and his brother committed horrific acts against innocent citizens and the younger brother is being kept alive to face charges.

Not surprising, the politicians have decided to become involved and conservative Bobbsey Twins Senators John McCaine and Lindsey Graham have said that his rights as a citizen should be curtailed and he should be tried as an enemy combatant----which is a whole set of rights different than American citizens. 

Fortunately as of today, for American citizens that most dangerous precedent  will not be occurring.  Rather he will face federal charges creatively crafted to give him the death penalty for using a weapon of mass destruction.

The citizens of Massachusetts  ended the death penalty and if found guilty Tsarnaev would receive life imprisonment. If the same act was committed in Texas he could receive the death penalty etc. Charging him at the federal level with the charge of using a weapon of mass destruction could mean a death sentence and is playing to current public sentiment.

In reality, Tsarnaev's actions are no more hideous or more destructive than many of the crimes committed by other men and women who inflicted the same amount of damage using high-powered weapons.

And though most Americans have no sympathy for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, tweaking the laws to move an American citizen to be tried under a new set of laws to assure a death sentence should be objectionable to all Americans.

Those men and women who have defended the Second  Amendment to bear arms should be alarmed with this current discussion.    High powered guns are equally as destructive and potentially could be classified as weapons of mass destruction and subject to new regulations.  

In some respects the 911 terrorists did succeed in beating us.

When 911 occurred we had a dismal set of leaders of both parties whom quickly enacted laws and made decisions to protect the nation. Through our elected representatives, Americans quickly gave up rights, which will impact the rights of all abiding citizens and if in the wrong hands could be abused.


From government monitoring of the internet and telephones, becoming entangled in Iraq and Afghanistan, the continued indefinite imprisonment of people at Guantanamo Bay,  water boarding to extract information from enemy combatants, the discussion of drones targeting American citizens overseas, and now American citizens possibly being charged as enemy combatants or using weapons of mass destruction for terrorist acts, are examples of Americans slowly giving up their rights to the federal government.