TRI In The News
Rutherford: Watertown Police Crossed Line with Search
From NBC 29
Original article available here
Amidst the chaos of trying to apprehend the remaining marathon bombing suspect, some believe peoples' civil rights may have been violated.
The president of the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute says the lockdown and door-to-door searches in Watertown bypassed civil liberties.
The Rutherford Institute says police crossed the line.
"I think this was drawing the line over what was two so-called suspects which they supposedly had in mind from the beginning. The question at that point would be: ‘don't they trust the people of Boston to turn in terrorists?'" said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.
Whitehead says lockdowns and door-to-door searches are typically conducted during a time of war.
To put the scope of Friday's lockdown in perspective, locking down Watertown would be much like locking down Charlottesville. At 42,000, Charlottesville only has 10,000 more residents than Watertown.
