Essay On Boston Marathon Bombing
The Boston Marathon Bombing: Working Through the Surveillant Assemblage
Introduction
The tragic bombing of the Boston Marathon captivated national and international audiences alike. Hundreds of local, state and federal agencies came together to undertake the massive investigation that would ensue. Surveillance technologies played an integral role in the investigation, and became headline news as we watched the events unfold in real time. As the five-day manhunt progressed, there was a coming together of citizen and state. Citizens were called upon to help identify the suspects, and became active agents throughout the investigation. One way to conceptualize all that happened in Boston at this time is to apply, and work through, the surveillant assemblage. “Assemblages consist of a multiplicity of heterogeneous objects, whose unity comes solely from the fact that these items function together, …show more content…
608). In this case, multiple surveillance tools, professionals and every day citizens functioned and worked together for the purposes of identifying and locating the bombing suspects. The bombing event is troubled further when we consider that, “the radical nature of this vision becomes more apparent when one realizes how any particular assemblage is itself composed of different discrete assemblages which are themselves multiple” (Haggerty & Ericson, 2000, p. 608). To flush this out further, three key parts of the surveillant assemble, as outlined by Haggerty and Ericson (2000), will be applied to the Boston Marathon bombing: component parts, the body, and rhizomatic surveillance. The bombing was framed around the notion of Islam extremism and terrorism. In summation of this paper, the framing of terrorism will be troubled as it distracts from clearly identifying the act. In place of it, the bombing of the Boston Marathon will be discussed as a control
Introduction
The tragic bombing of the Boston Marathon captivated national and international audiences alike. Hundreds of local, state and federal agencies came together to undertake the massive investigation that would ensue. Surveillance technologies played an integral role in the investigation, and became headline news as we watched the events unfold in real time. As the five-day manhunt progressed, there was a coming together of citizen and state. Citizens were called upon to help identify the suspects, and became active agents throughout the investigation. One way to conceptualize all that happened in Boston at this time is to apply, and work through, the surveillant assemblage. “Assemblages consist of a multiplicity of heterogeneous objects, whose unity comes solely from the fact that these items function together, …show more content…
608). In this case, multiple surveillance tools, professionals and every day citizens functioned and worked together for the purposes of identifying and locating the bombing suspects. The bombing event is troubled further when we consider that, “the radical nature of this vision becomes more apparent when one realizes how any particular assemblage is itself composed of different discrete assemblages which are themselves multiple” (Haggerty & Ericson, 2000, p. 608). To flush this out further, three key parts of the surveillant assemble, as outlined by Haggerty and Ericson (2000), will be applied to the Boston Marathon bombing: component parts, the body, and rhizomatic surveillance. The bombing was framed around the notion of Islam extremism and terrorism. In summation of this paper, the framing of terrorism will be troubled as it distracts from clearly identifying the act. In place of it, the bombing of the Boston Marathon will be discussed as a control