You've perhaps read about the bizarre actions of Wenhao Zhao, 33, of Australia, who apparently stood in front of the Capitol yesterday, dressed in black , with two black bags, being about as menacing as he possibly could without actually doing anything. He was eventually tackled and his bags detonated, and he didn't have anything actually dangerous in them.
That's weird, but that's sort of standard weird. Crazy people pull stunts like that in front of the Capitol or the White House all the time. Here's what I found really bizarre in this Washington Post account:
The spectacle drew crowds of tourists, reporters and photographers, all trying to get the best view of the unfolding drama. Some tourists took photographs of each other in front of heavily armed police officers while others chatted on cellular phones with relatives tracking the incident on television.Notice how this sentence starts with tourists. We're all used to reporters and photographers throwing caution to the wind and sticking their noses into dangerous situations just so they can get the scoop. But tourists?! I mean, you just have to take one look at the tableau to realize police are afraid this man is a suicide bomber. Who the hell stands around chatting with their relatives about how fun it is to stand a few feet away from a potential suicide bomber?
The article concludes:
Several hundred tourists, many of whom said they were not allowed inside the Capitol, watched it all. Luke Thompson, 22, visiting from Glen Elder, Kan., said he was disappointed when his Capitol tour was canceled. But he said he didn't mind witnessing the police response."This kind of thing doesn't happen where I'm from," Thompson said. "It's a big shock. We missed our tour, but we got to see how the security is working.
