“Free Jahar”? Give me a break…

Last week was something of a legal frenzy week in Boston’s federal court house.

Whitey Bulger’s trial erupted when Whitey and one of his former protégés – or, if you look at it another way, one of several of Whitey’s goons who turned state’s ev for a sweet deal – started hurling f-bombs at each other in court. After which the defense asked for a break, because old Whitey is just exhausted by the strenuous trial pace, and the fact that he has to get up at 4 a.m. each morning to get to court on time. It was decided that Whitey had had plenty of time to rest while he was on the lam, so, see ya in court, boyo.

If it weren’t for the bring up the bodies overlay, the Bulger trial (which is certainly colorful) might even seem a bit amusing.

But there’s no getting around all those bodies, and the gruesome way in which the human beings who once inhabited those bodies lost their lives…

In the same courthouse – where, as it happens, my niece once attended pre-school, where one of her classmates was the grandson of Billy Bulger, our former state senate president, the former president of the University of Massachusetts, and Whitey’s bro – an appearance was also made by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also part of a brother act, this one the Marathon Bombing terrorist duo.

While Whitey’s trial last week was  about bringing up the bodies – 19 is the count – the Tsarnaev court appearance (the trial won’t convene for a while) was apparently about brining out the crazies.

Duke Latouf flew in from Las Vegas to show his support for Tsarnaev.

"I believe this is a false flag for martial law," said Latouf…"I think they were Hollywood-style bombs." (Source: Salon, citing The Boston Globe)

I always wonder just what it is that folks like Duke Latouf do for a living that enables them to take off mid-week, fly into Boston, and show up outside the courthouse to demand justice for the likes of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Can someone actually make a living as a conspiracy theorist?

Then there’s the  “Hollywood-style bombs” comment.

There are three people – including an eight-year old – who lost their lives to those “Hollywood-style bombs”, and dozens of folks – including the six-year old sister of that eight-year old – who lost their limbs to those “Hollywood-style bombs.”

Does Latouf think these are false flag, Hollywood-style people?

Many of those out demonstrating on Tsarnaev’s behalf were women:

“I’m here to show Dzhokhar support, to let him know there are thousands of people worldwide that do believe his innocence,” Mary Churback of Freetown told WBZ-TV news. (Source: Boston CBS Local)

Based on what, exactly? That baby-face? That mop of curly hair?

Lacey Buckley, 23, said she traveled from her home in Wenatchee, Wash., to attend the arraignment. Buckley said she has never met Tsarnaev but came because she believes he’s innocent. “I just think so many of his rights were violated. They almost murdered an unarmed kid in a boat,” she said.

There’s plenty that can be said about the crazy use of fire and man power during the manhunt that ended with the cops finally apprehending that “unarmed kid” in a boat. But there was incredible chaos at the time. Forget the bombings a few days prior. At the time of the manhunt, a cop in Cambridge had just been killed, another one grievously wounded (albeit by “friendly fire”),  and someone had been carjacked at gunpoint. And although the “kid” may have been unarmed when he was found in the boat, during the getaway, bombs had been hurled at the police and, since they’d just killed that MIT cop with a gun, it was pretty clear that at least one of the brothers had a gun.

Lacey Buckley – again, what do these people actually do for a living? – probably takes the prize for a) having traveled the farthest, b) saying the looniest things, c) wearing the craziest tee-shirt (“Free the Lion”):

"I see zero evidence to say he actually did this," added Lacey Buckley, 23, of Washington state. "There is no DNA; there are no fingerprints. They got nothing."  (Source: Boston Herald.)

All I can say is, if I’m ever guilty of a criminal act, I’ll be wanting Lacey Buckley on my jury. (And does it count that Tsarnaev pretty much scrawled a confession, in blood, while in the boat?)

"He's just a baby," Buckley told a Herald reporter. "Gross." (Source: Wenatchee World.)

First, congratulations, Ms. Buckley, on making the home-town news. Now everyone in Wenatchee who didn’t know you were a bit “off” does now.

Meanwhile, I beg to differ with Ms. Buckley here. Nineteen-year olds – no matter how doe-eyed, curly-haired, and ooey-gooey cute – are not babies. They’re young adults. We repeatedly see Dzhokhar Tsarnaev referred to as a teenager, especially by his supporters. Technically, sure, he’s a teenager. But, despite the “I’m cool/I’m cute” backwards baseball cap, he was hardly a teeny-bopper gunned down while skateboarding home from a Justin Bieber concert.

And, at least in my day, once you got out of high school, nobody but nobody thought of themselves as teenagers. We thought of ourselves as college students, or workers, or soldiers. We considered ourselves pretty darned grown up.

On the other hand, you can apparently be 35 years old and not be all that mature in your outlook.

Karina Figueroa, 35, a New York City resident, said she believes that Tsarnaev is wrongly accused. “I’ve seen a lot of videos showing inconsistencies,” she said in an interview with the Globe. “They are framing him, I believe. I want him to be exonerated.”(Source: Salon, citing The Boston Globe)

Not to mention that you can apparently be 35 years old and have so few other demands on your life (job? family?) that you can ship up to Boston to express your desire that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev be exonerated.

Not all Tsarnaev’s fans had to travel from points afar to show their support:

“I have sympathy for the victims. I can see where they are coming from," said Tsarnaev supporter Jennifer Mack of Boston. "At the same time, this is my country. I can support who I want." (Source: Boston Herald)

Nice that you can see where the victims are coming from, Ms. Mack. Empathy is a good thing. And, yes, you can support whoever you want. Just don’t think it’s going to make you a lot of friends, especially in Boston, where nobody is more than a couple of degrees of separation from someone who was killed or injured on Marathon Day

All this outpouring of support for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is amazing to me.

You’d think we were talking about Martin Luther King in Montgomery Jail. Or even Edward Snowden at Moscow Airport. I may not agree with what Snowden did, but at least his supporters have a point.

“Free the Lion”? “Free Jahar”?

Somehow I get the feeling that, false flag conspiracy theorists aside, a lot of the support for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is coming his way because he looks like the lead singer in a boy-band.