Criminals as Celebrities (or Boston Bomber on Rolling Stone Cover)

[Timbuk2]

Rolling Stone has made the curious decision to put Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the front cover of its latest issue.



Tsarnaev is the surviving brother of the two who bombed the Boston Marathon.

In disgusted response to the publication, a police photographer has leaked a photo depicting the moment Tsarnaev was captured.



Beeb article below.

A US police photographer has leaked images of Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev during his capture in anger at the picture used by Rolling Stone magazine for its next cover.

Police Sgt Sean Murphy said his photos showed "the real bomber" - the magazine cover was "hurtful" to the victims' memories and their families.

The images, given to Boston Magazine, show him with the red dot of a laser sight of a sniper rifle on his face.

The bombings killed three people.

More than 260 were injured in the two explosions at the marathon finish line on 15 April.

Mr Tsarnaev is also accused of the murder of a fourth person, a university police officer, who was allegedly shot dead by him and his brother Tamerlan in the days after the attack.

The pictures were taken when Mr Tsarnaev, wounded after a gunfight with police, was found hiding in a dry-docked boat in a residential garden.

A spokesman for state police said the release of the photos had not been authorised, and they would not be given to other news media.

The spokesman also said Sgt Murphy, a police photographer, was subject to an internal investigation.

A tweet from the author of the Boston Magazine article said Sgt Murphy had been "relieved of duty".

The police photographer told the magazine he released the contrasting images of Mr Tsarnaev as a response to the Rolling Stone cover.

The latest pictures show the "real Boston bomber, not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine", Sgt Murphy said.

"These were real people, with real lives, with real families," he said in a statement. "And to have this cover dropped into Boston was hurtful to their memories and their families."

On Wednesday, Rolling Stone defended its decision to put Mr Tsarnaev on the cover, saying it was committed to serious, thoughtful coverage.

But two Massachusetts-based convenience store chains, Rockland and Tedeschi Food Shops, and national pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens, said they would not stock the edition.

An outpouring of angry comments appeared on social media networks saying the magazine cover was tasteless.

A bold move by Rolling Stone? A cheap shot to make a quick buck?

Utterly tasteless?

Should criminals be romanticised in this way? Made into celebrities á la Bonnie & Clyde?

Should there be legislation against such publication?

Should the police officer who leaked the photo of the capture face disciplinary charges? Lose his job? Face no further repercussion?

[Ominous Gamer]

the cover straight up calls him a monster. I don't know how the article is written yet, but it could very well open the door to conversation how regular joes fall through the cracks and become such people.

but its always about the money.

the officer has already been suspended.

This whole thing is becoming way more then it should be, almost reminds me of the national geographic cover that questioned if Darwin was wrong, or the time cover from last year that said Time To Die depending on how it sat in the magazine rack.

[RandBlade]

The officer should be suspended and disciplined but not if he has a clean record dismissed. From the sounds of it he clearly didn't have authorisation to leak these and it wasn't his call to make. I'd give him a formal warning to be expunged after a few months (ie a slap on the wrist).

The law should not interfere with such a publication but people should feel free to boycott it.

Without having seen article wouldn't want to say much more.

[ImAnOgre]

The officer was obviously outraged and overcome by emotion. There's an argument to be made to give him a pass, but also an argument to be made that officers shouldn't lose their cool, especially in the line of duty.

As far as the piece of crap magazine, I'm never ever going to read that magazine, and have never bought a copy. However, hearing that the story says how his mother basically screwed him up.... i'm not really outraged they did the story. They are free to write and publish the story, and i'm free to not buy it. If people want to continue to buy it, let them.

[Lewkowski]

Rolling Stone has made the curious decision to put Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the front cover of its latest issue.



Tsarnaev is the surviving brother of the two who bombed the Boston Marathon.

In disgusted response to the publication, a police photographer has leaked a photo depicting the moment Tsarnaev was captured.



Beeb article below.



A bold move by Rolling Stone? A cheap shot to make a quick buck?

Utterly tasteless?

Should criminals be romanticised in this way? Made into celebrities á la Bonnie & Clyde?

Should there be legislation against such publication?

Should the police officer who leaked the photo of the capture face disciplinary charges? Lose his job? Face no further repercussion?

Tacky tasteless move by magazine.

No criminals should not be romanticized, in fact they should be shamed.

No there shouldn't be legislation against the publication, that would be evil.

As far as the officer - don't really care either way. In general if the only "victim" is a criminal who cares?

[Hazir]

Wouldn't it be lovely if terrorists would all look like terrorist so that decent people can tell them apart from a mile away. Just saying.

It seems clear to me that that' s what RS is doing; showing us that what you see isn' t always what you get. I remember seeing that picture a couple of days after the bombings and I was WTF times three.

[Timbuk2]

Not sure RS had any agenda here beyond selling more magazines.

Your point is made though Hazir.