Seventy-five percent of Americans agreed with the statement “occasional acts of terrorism in the U.S. will be part of life in the future,” according to an April survey conducted after the Boston Marathon bombing.
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the 2008 Sri Lanka Marathon, and most recently, the 2013 Boston Marathon. What once might have been isolated incidents has now become a trend, as major sporting events become go-to targets for terrorist organizations.
For many of Boston's hotel security directors, the day started like so many other Marathon Mondays, a calm morning full of excitement and anticipation for the events about to begin in the quaint New England town of Hopkinton, 26.2 miles from the Marathon's finish line in Boston's historic Copley Square.
The Boston Marathon terror suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, are another example of the phenomenon of family-affiliated extremist and terrorist activities globally.
The bombing at the Boston marathon may have shaken the nation to its core, but it has strengthened the resolve of security professionals to perform to the best of their abilities, as well as to supplement their own strength through public-private partnerships.