Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Faces a Tough Road Ahead
by Tommy Lee Jenkins, III
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did it.
He conspired with his brother, now deceased, to blow up the 2013 Boston Marathon. He shot it out with police and escaped capture. He bragged about having blown up the Boston Marathon when he and his brother took an unwitting civilian hostage to get cash from him at an ATM.
I love Boston. I lived there from 1995-1996 and again from 2004-2010.
I love the stores. I love the history. I love the accessibility and the walkability of the entire city and the surrounding towns. I love to run. I love the Boston Marathon.
Despite the horrific bombing that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev orchestrated under the obvious duress of his older brother, my heart goes out to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is an American. Granted, he's a newly minted American, but he's an American, nonetheless.
He's 19. He's a baby. He didn't understand what he was doing, he was just tagging along with his older brother.
I believe he can be reformed.
I also believe that it would be a huge mistake for us, as Americans, to choose to exact revenge over justice. His case is a special case and should be handled as such. Right now, officials are contemplating seeking the death penalty. If anyone reading this has absolutely no empathy for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, they should at least consider the possibility that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would be an excellent case study for the profile of a terrorist. Perhaps, a new breed of terrorist -- a homegrown Islamist extremist.
Its a thought.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev saddens me so much because he did have everything going for him. He became an American. He graduated high school. He went to UMASS. He threw it away for appears to be nothing.
I'm just heartbroken that he's so young and he could have had a different future.
But he does serve a use and he has a purpose.
Study him, for he and his brother may be the beginning of a wave. Study him because he could give you insight into what to look out for in the off chance that he may be the face of a new kind of terrorist -- what officials in the intelligence community might call a "lone wolf" with no ties to any terrorist organization and bread crumb trails to follow.
