Gov. Deval Patrick: ‘Very Thorough’ Planning to Protect Boston Marathon

Office of Governor Deval Patrick(BOSTON) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Sunday the state is taking all necessary steps to secure the Boston Marathon after the attack on last year’s event that left three dead and hundreds injured.

“I think we are very well prepared and people should come out and enjoy themselves,” Patrick said Sunday morning on This Week.

“I think we have struck an appropriate balance between having more law enforcement presence, but also assuring that it continues to be a family outing and a civic ritual,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “The planning has been very, very thorough. The teams are well coordinated. … We had a sort of table-top exercise, a practice session, a full day, a couple of weeks ago with there were 450 people in the room from every state, federal and local agency and municipal leadership, as well, for each of the cities and towns along the route,” he continued.

Stephanopoulos also asked Patrick about the report that faulted Russia for failing to share intelligence and suggested the FBI could have done a better job tracking bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

“It’s obviously concerning that Russian intelligence was not responsive to questions asked by the FBI and by other United States intelligence agencies for a year or more. I knew this in the immediate aftermath, when we were getting this information. Now the public knows it, as a result of the inspector general’s — inspectors general report,” he said

Patrick said the marathon this year will be a “great occasion,” that remembers the tragic events but also honors the strength and teamwork demonstrated by the city.

“It’s going to be a great occasion and a solemn one, obviously, on Tuesday, when we acknowledge the tragedy of the last year, but, also, it has been a source of pride for us in the way that this community has shown the world what a community — and a strong community — looks like,” he said.

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