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Breakdown of what is happening on this reddit thread [1]. You can listen to the police scanner here [2]. Live steaming video here [3]. For those listening on th

Breakdown of what is happening on this reddit thread [1]. You can listen to the police scanner here [2]. Live steaming video here [3]. For those listening on the scanner this is the area/streets they are talking about [4]. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_thread_live_updates_of_boston/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_th... [2] http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s146109/ http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s... [3] http://www1.whdh.com/video/7newslive http://www1.whdh.com/video/7newslive [4] https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=100+talcott&hl=en&ll=42.363142,-71.162395&spn=0.003413,0.008256&sll=42.363142,-71.16342&sspn=0.003413,0.0103&hq=100+talcott&t=m&z=18 https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=100+talcott&hl=en&ll=4...

weisser 14y ago
A much-needed mirror (broadcastify is getting slammed): http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s146109/ http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s...
- WestCoastJustin 14y ago
  Updated -- thanks!
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
a_p 14y ago
The most accurate information may be gleaned from police scanners. News cameras may give you pictures of the amount of police officers at the scene, but they cannot get close enough to give you video of what's actually happening. The irony is that of those three sources of information (Web site, radio, news camera), the best source of "real time" information is the oldest. Yes, it's true that the scanner is being broadcast over the internet, but you could listen to the police scanner with amateur radio equipment decades ago. EDIT: I find that it is much easier to listen to the police scanner than a news station, because the SNR ratio is much higher. When there is a break in the action, news reporters fill the air time with speculation or repeat the same old information. On the police scanner, when they have no new information, they are silent. Having said that, I still find it cool to hear an officer ask the dispatcher (on the radio) to tell an overhead helicopter to point a searchlight at a certain location, and moments later see on television a helicopter flying overhead with its searchlight on.
- kellishaver 14y ago
  Maybe it's the fact that I spent my youth growing up around HAM radio and then did several years of EMS dispatching, but I much prefer listening to the scanner than the news. It can be chaotic at times, garbled at others, but if you're used to sorting it out, it's the best way to get accurate information.
  - flexd 14y ago
    There are a lot of people listening. I think perhaps the best way of learning information now is to follow the info posted in #bostonbombing on Freenode, they are live-updating what they hear on the scanners + a lot of other sources.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Former firefighter and 911 dispatcher here: I agree completely. It takes a while to get a feel for it, but if you want to know what's going on in real-time, listening to the emergency comms is the way to go. Unfortunately, in some jurisdictions that's hard or impossible to do, as they use digital systems with trunking that made it hard to monitor with a scanner and/or use encryption. Need I say that I think encrypting this stuff is a bad idea? Even if it may, on rare occasion, benefit a "bad guy" to listen to the police channels, weighed against the need for government transparency, I think the need to keep the comms open for everybody wins out.
- smackfu 14y ago
  Only problem here is that people take the police scanner as gospel, even though the police may be as confused as anyone else. And because it's not a news source, no one feels the need to explicitly correct things that are wrong.
  - hga 14y ago
    Absolutely, it's full of the fog of war. But I'd rather try to interpret that myself than get it filtered through the traditional media in quasi-real time (vs. the much more reliable reporting that happens, say, a couple days after everything is over).
trbs 14y ago
Mods deleted the reddit thread above, it's been moved here: http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_thread_live_updates_of_boston/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_th...
- WestCoastJustin 14y ago
  Updated -- thanks.
  - kefka 14y ago
    Older reddit thread hit limit and crashed. New link http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1co395/live_updates_of_boston_situation_part_2/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1co395/live_updates_of...
    - buro9 14y ago
      What limits exist on a thread?
      - kefka 14y ago
        100,000 users clicking reload every second. 500 posts per second. And there's a text capacity on an article text body. buro9 : This is just a complete conjecture. I do not know Reddit's internal hardware infrastructure. I just know that real-time police radio transcription is the best news source, bar none. And it's getting hammered.
        buro9 14y ago
        Interesting. Are those are by-products of the threaded display? As a flat display of a thread would just result in new pages at the end, all of which would be incredibly cacheable.
        random42 14y ago
bconway 14y ago
Say what you want about the "enlightened liberal sensibilities" of the northeast, the Massachusetts death penalty sure is swift and efficient.
- hga 14y ago
  You should hold off on that judgement, e.g. there's plenty of talk about suicide vests, or injuries that go beyond just gun shots. ADDED: There's no particularly kind and gentle way to deal with someone throwing explosives at you....
  - bconway 14y ago
    My judgement was based on the dozen or so news agencies reporting "killed early Friday in a violent standoff with the police." But you're right, maybe they're all incorrect.
    - hga 14y ago
      To hypothesize the least violent encounter I can imagine where the use of lethal force by the police would be justified: If someone is advancing on you, a known explosives user (during the chase) who's from a region where the use of "suicide vests" is common, and refuses to stop, you without hesitation shoot to stop. And at as far a distance as you can. The encounter could have been more violent on the part of the deceased, or since he killed a fellow officer it could have been an execution as all too often happens like recently in California. But the event was probably more confused than any of what I'd said here might imply. All I can say that we know by inference is that the event was confused enough, and/or there were few enough police there, that his brother escaped---actually, I don't think we know that, the brother might have been let off before the stop---and has obviously successfully gone to ground. Likely into an apartment or home, and they're going to have to search house to house, apartment to apartment, could take quite a while assuming he is inside the 25 block? cordoned off area in Watertown. Not too familiar with that suburb, but I lived in Cambridge and surrounding mostly urban suburbs for a dozen years, it's likely a densely populated area. Even with a maximum effort by all it could drag on for more than a day, or he could get flushed out a minute from now. ADDED: while all current accounts from the media are highly suspect, this: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/19/report-boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-in-custody-second-at-large/ http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/19/report-boston-marathon... would fit in what else we've heard or can discern: "According to WBZ-TV’s Joe Shortsleeve, MBTA transit police intercepted the Mercedes in Cambridge and followed it. "A source told Shortsleeve the brothers lost control of the car and crashed it. A gunfight with police erupted and an MBTA police officer was shot and seriously wounded. "Miller reported that Tamerlan Tsarnaev threw a bomb at police as he approached them and that’s when officers shot and killed him. "Shortsleeve’s source said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev then jumped back in the Mercedes, drove over his brother’s body, threw bombs at police and crashed again. He ran off, firing a weapon and that sparked the massive manhunt in Watertown."
danvideo 14y ago
phew. it sounds like it is finally over. live video feed based on shots outside watertown house http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marathon http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marat...

weisser 14y ago

A much-needed mirror (broadcastify is getting slammed): http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s146109/ http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s...

WestCoastJustin 14y ago
Updated -- thanks!

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

a_p 14y ago

The most accurate information may be gleaned from police scanners. News cameras may give you pictures of the amount of police officers at the scene, but they cannot get close enough to give you video of what's actually happening. The irony is that of those three sources of information (Web site, radio, news camera), the best source of "real time" information is the oldest. Yes, it's true that the scanner is being broadcast over the internet, but you could listen to the police scanner with amateur radio equipment decades ago. EDIT: I find that it is much easier to listen to the police scanner than a news station, because the SNR ratio is much higher. When there is a break in the action, news reporters fill the air time with speculation or repeat the same old information. On the police scanner, when they have no new information, they are silent. Having said that, I still find it cool to hear an officer ask the dispatcher (on the radio) to tell an overhead helicopter to point a searchlight at a certain location, and moments later see on television a helicopter flying overhead with its searchlight on.

kellishaver 14y ago
Maybe it's the fact that I spent my youth growing up around HAM radio and then did several years of EMS dispatching, but I much prefer listening to the scanner than the news. It can be chaotic at times, garbled at others, but if you're used to sorting it out, it's the best way to get accurate information.
- flexd 14y ago
  There are a lot of people listening. I think perhaps the best way of learning information now is to follow the info posted in #bostonbombing on Freenode, they are live-updating what they hear on the scanners + a lot of other sources.
- mindcrime 14y ago
  Former firefighter and 911 dispatcher here: I agree completely. It takes a while to get a feel for it, but if you want to know what's going on in real-time, listening to the emergency comms is the way to go. Unfortunately, in some jurisdictions that's hard or impossible to do, as they use digital systems with trunking that made it hard to monitor with a scanner and/or use encryption. Need I say that I think encrypting this stuff is a bad idea? Even if it may, on rare occasion, benefit a "bad guy" to listen to the police channels, weighed against the need for government transparency, I think the need to keep the comms open for everybody wins out.
smackfu 14y ago
Only problem here is that people take the police scanner as gospel, even though the police may be as confused as anyone else. And because it's not a news source, no one feels the need to explicitly correct things that are wrong.
- hga 14y ago
  Absolutely, it's full of the fog of war. But I'd rather try to interpret that myself than get it filtered through the traditional media in quasi-real time (vs. the much more reliable reporting that happens, say, a couple days after everything is over).

trbs 14y ago

Mods deleted the reddit thread above, it's been moved here: http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_thread_live_updates_of_boston/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_th...

WestCoastJustin 14y ago
Updated -- thanks.
- kefka 14y ago
  Older reddit thread hit limit and crashed. New link http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1co395/live_updates_of_boston_situation_part_2/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1co395/live_updates_of...
  - buro9 14y ago
    What limits exist on a thread?
    - kefka 14y ago
      100,000 users clicking reload every second. 500 posts per second. And there's a text capacity on an article text body. buro9 : This is just a complete conjecture. I do not know Reddit's internal hardware infrastructure. I just know that real-time police radio transcription is the best news source, bar none. And it's getting hammered.
      - buro9 14y ago
        Interesting. Are those are by-products of the threaded display? As a flat display of a thread would just result in new pages at the end, all of which would be incredibly cacheable.
        random42 14y ago

bconway 14y ago

Say what you want about the "enlightened liberal sensibilities" of the northeast, the Massachusetts death penalty sure is swift and efficient.

hga 14y ago
You should hold off on that judgement, e.g. there's plenty of talk about suicide vests, or injuries that go beyond just gun shots. ADDED: There's no particularly kind and gentle way to deal with someone throwing explosives at you....
- bconway 14y ago
  My judgement was based on the dozen or so news agencies reporting "killed early Friday in a violent standoff with the police." But you're right, maybe they're all incorrect.
  - hga 14y ago
    To hypothesize the least violent encounter I can imagine where the use of lethal force by the police would be justified: If someone is advancing on you, a known explosives user (during the chase) who's from a region where the use of "suicide vests" is common, and refuses to stop, you without hesitation shoot to stop. And at as far a distance as you can. The encounter could have been more violent on the part of the deceased, or since he killed a fellow officer it could have been an execution as all too often happens like recently in California. But the event was probably more confused than any of what I'd said here might imply. All I can say that we know by inference is that the event was confused enough, and/or there were few enough police there, that his brother escaped---actually, I don't think we know that, the brother might have been let off before the stop---and has obviously successfully gone to ground. Likely into an apartment or home, and they're going to have to search house to house, apartment to apartment, could take quite a while assuming he is inside the 25 block? cordoned off area in Watertown. Not too familiar with that suburb, but I lived in Cambridge and surrounding mostly urban suburbs for a dozen years, it's likely a densely populated area. Even with a maximum effort by all it could drag on for more than a day, or he could get flushed out a minute from now. ADDED: while all current accounts from the media are highly suspect, this: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/19/report-boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-in-custody-second-at-large/ http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/19/report-boston-marathon... would fit in what else we've heard or can discern: "According to WBZ-TV’s Joe Shortsleeve, MBTA transit police intercepted the Mercedes in Cambridge and followed it. "A source told Shortsleeve the brothers lost control of the car and crashed it. A gunfight with police erupted and an MBTA police officer was shot and seriously wounded. "Miller reported that Tamerlan Tsarnaev threw a bomb at police as he approached them and that’s when officers shot and killed him. "Shortsleeve’s source said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev then jumped back in the Mercedes, drove over his brother’s body, threw bombs at police and crashed again. He ran off, firing a weapon and that sparked the massive manhunt in Watertown."

danvideo 14y ago

phew. it sounds like it is finally over. live video feed based on shots outside watertown house http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marathon http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marat...