Tsarnaev Brothers May Have Planned To Go To NYC After Boston Marathon Bombings

[dkf]

When the suspects seized a Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle and held the driver hostage, they told him that they planned to head to New York, the senior United States official said Sunday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/us/boston-marathon-bombing-suspects-hoped-to-attack-again.html?pagewanted=all

[OKNancy]

1. oh my.

[jberryhill]

2. Because it's always a courtesy to let your carjacking victim know where you are going

That way, the owner can more easily retrieve the car when you are done with it.

Common carjacking courtesy that is.

[LeftofObama]

8. Yeah, I'm having a hard time believing some of the stuff from the car jacking.

First they tell the victim that they are indeed the bombers and now they tell the victim that they are going to NYC to apparently blow up more stuff.

It kind of reminds me of some of those old TV shows where the criminal ties you up and then lays out his plan in detail.

[Yo_Mama]

9. Apparently the carjacking victim told the cops immediately

that they said they were the bombers. Therefore it's credible.

Also, they loaded up not just firearms but a lot of their homemade bombs. Therefore they seem to have intended to do something with them.

Let's not harass and impugn the poor carjacking victim. Pressure cooker bombs and those other IEDs are not the type of stuff you carry along with you if you are just trying to get out of Dodge.

[jberryhill]

12. It's the reporting that sucks

Nobody has a beef with the carjacking victim.

The continued non-existent editing of news copy is the appalling thing here.

Let's take a basic fact - they said they were going to "New York". The article implies that means the city.

However, regardless of what they said, the notion that a carjacker will helpfully provide his/her destination, instead of saying they are going one place instead of another, requires a certain amount of non-thinking to take such a statement at face value.

Accurate reporting would be that "they said they were going to New York" instead of "they were planning to go to New York". There is a difference there.

[onenote]

24. what exactly is the difference between these two sentences:

"they told him that they planned to head to New York" (the sentence in the story)

and

"they said they were going to New York" (the sentence you suggest would be more accurate).

Given that we don't know the exact words they spoke, either is possible. As for the plausibility of them telling the car owner what they were going to do next...well, I don't think there is a guidebook for what one is supposed to say or not say in these situations so, again, it doesn't strike me as particularly implausible that these guys would say anything and everything that came into their heads. Maybe just hearing the sound of their own voices was somehow reassuring to them. Maybe they're just stupid. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

[jberryhill]

25. The headline says "NYC"

I wasn't suggesting a better quote, just simply typing without looking up.

Did they say "New York City" as implied by the headline, or did they say "New York" as stated in the article.

Again, with feeling, if someone says "New York" it does not necessarily imply "New York City". But someone put "NYC" in the headline, while the article says "New York".

But "may have planned to go to NYC" is different from "said they were going to New York"

On edit:

Look again at the two quotes I used, and your reproduction of them. "they were planning to go to New York" and "they said they were planning to go to New York" are also two different things.

[onenote]

27. I travel between Boston and New York quite a bit and when I leave Boston

I usually just tell people I'm heading to New York and they get the drift that I mean New York City. If I was going to Albany, I'd say "Im going to Albany" or "I'm going upstate". I'd never say I'm going to New York since that wouldn't tell anyone anything useful.

[LeftofObama]

14. I'm not harassing or impugning the car jacking victim at all.

I feel horrible for what happened to the victim! I'm just talking about the reporting. They have all but implied that the bombing suspects twirled the edges of their mustache while they laid out their dastardly plan.

[jberryhill]

10. The article in the OP says "New York"

Which, the last time I checked, was an entire state, and not just a particular city in it. That's why they selected their motto "The Entire State" to avoid confusion.

[Taverner]

28. Not me - it's got teenage dumbassery written all over it

[Xipe Totec]

3. Now one is in New Jersey, the other one heading there.

Did I say New Jersey?

I meant hell.

[hrmjustin]

4. Glad they caught him.

[truedelphi]

5. Funny how before an event, the authorities know nothing -

But immediately after an event they are suddenly omniscient. What would explain that? (Off to scratch my head for a while.)

[jberryhill]

13. It's the same reason why there are a lot of "history" courses and few "future" courses

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. I took a great course once on the History of the Future

Basically a history of how the concept of the "future" has operated in human thought (i.e., our concept of "the future" has a fairly recent provenance).

[truedelphi]

22. Well I confess to being somewhat facetious in my original remark

And then there are reports like this one, which lead to even bigger questions, don't they?

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Very professional, like their disguises

What a pair of LOSERS.

[Mass]

7. Or may not have... More unnamed sources, because, as we all know, unnamed sources have been so

reliable last week.

[truedelphi]

20. But ya gotta admit - it's pretty easy for authorities to now

Mind meld all heinous activities the dead man had been planning.

Meanwhile Sibel Edmond lets the world know that getting the USA into Syria and having that nation become our client state is very important to keep the balance of world's energy firmly in the USA domination side of things.

[Warpy]

11. Yet they went down Arsenal St. in Watertown

instead of popping over onto the Mass. Pike.

Makes no sense. But then again, very little of this stuff makes any sense.

[Mariana]

15. May have. Or may not have.

C'mon, jackasses in the media, just shut the fuck up until you actually KNOW something. Stop publishing all these fucking rumours and hearsay from unnamed people who probably know jack shit. May have. Give me a break.

[BeyondGeography]

16. And from there

Disneyworld.

[dipsydoodle]

17. Article says NY : not NYC.

There is a difference.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. There's little doubt that they were heading to Colonie

Perhaps Elmira?

Horseheads?

[liberalmuse]

21. I'm sorry.

My bullshit meter is pinging big time with some of the details in the carjacking story. I'm sure I'll be banned from DU for even questioning the "official" storyline, but c'mon.

[snooper2]

23. Glenn Beck is always looking for more traffic to his sites

[bigwillq]

26. I think it's time to ban Mercedes-Benz (nt)