Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will make his first appearance in federal court today since being arrested for, along with his brother, setting off bombs at Boston Marathon and leading police on a massive manhunt. But many of the people on hand to witness the heavily armed convoy that took Tsarnaev from prison to court today were not eager to see justice done to the suspect. Some were adherents to conspiracy theories, pushed by conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones, and others who think Tsarnaev is a patsy to cover up the fact that the real mastermind of the bombings was the U.S. government.
The Boston Globe reports:
Some of the supporters started chanting — “Justice for Dzhokhar" and “Give him his freedom back" — as the motorcade took Tsarnaev into the Joseph Moakley courthouse where he is scheduled to be arraigned on 30 federal charges, 17 of which could bring the death penalty. [...]
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."
A second Tsarnaev supporter, Duke Latouf of Las Vegas, said he believes the attack was not an act of Islamic terrorism, but part of a plan by government to impose martial law on Americans. “I believe this is a false flag for martial law,’’ said Latouf, who said he flew in from Las Vegas to be on hand when Tsarnaev appears in court. “I think they were Hollywood-style bombs.’’
One man who happened to be passing the courthouse at the time turned to the supporters and said, “You are disgusting. You’re disgusting. Don’t you know people died?"
When you spend a lot of time thinking about conspiracy theories, as I have, you can't help but appreciate their ingenuity and narrative flourish on some level. These are stories, after all, and they have to be compelling or else no one would believe them. But the Boston marathon bombing conspiracy is one of the laziest, most ridiculous and implausible narratives of any kind I've ever encountered, conspiracy theory or not.
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