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The devastating train bombings in Madrid have spurred NYC to increase transity security. The MTA says there are more uniformed officers and dogs deployed at subway stations, trains, bridges and tunnels. The Daily News reports that more cops are on the platforms at heavy traffic stations like Penn Station, Grand Central, and Bowling Green. NJ Transit and Amtrak are making efforts to increase security as well, but many agree that trains are particularly vulnerable. Mayor Bloomberg asked New Yorkers to pray for those in Spain and emphasized, ""It goes to show we still live in a very dangerous world. We cannot afford to let our guard down . . . We have to be reminded that vigilance is not something we can afford to drop."
New York has been at a High (Orange) Alert level ever since September 11, 2001.
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Increase security? Security in the subway should be high already. This kind of stuff does not reassure me, it appears amatuerish, "Madrid got blown up?, ok now we will increase security in NYC".
D'Oh!
despite all the claims of security, i can't see how that's going to prevent a terrorist attack. if a terrorist really wanted to, they could bomb the subway, a store, anything. is the show of force enough to stop them? hopefully, but i don't see any police patrolling outside of manhattan, and with a subway system as large as ours, it's impossible to monitor everyone that enters the system. one swipe of your metrocard out in the boonies and you're in manhattan in less than an hour. seems like an effective way of transport to me.
that said, i don't think people should live in fear of something like this happening. (insert slam against bush administration here.) people just have to be more aware. if that can stop another attack, who knows.
i noticed a uniform lurking outside of the york street stop last night, and another one on the corner of york and washington, but that's really nothing out of the ordinary. i haven't seen too many officers actually on the platform since last fall, when there used to be two or three at any given time. and that little booth with the closed-circuit television playing security camera footage of the tracks? i've yet to see anybody actually inside it. and i've yet to see a train actually show up on the monitor (my conspiracy theory is that it's all a bluff, that there's really no security cameras, just looped footage).
Yes more piggies guarding our every move. 1984 lets go!!!
Increased police patrols don't do much good when they're all standing together talking to each other. For example this morning there were two cops on the platform of the WTC Path station. In yatching at each other they failed to notice a bag under the bench 10 feet away from them. Now i'm not saying (or paranoid enough to believe) that behind every bag of garbage left behind is something terrible lurking, but they should be looking at stuff like this - especially after yesterday.
Re: the pig remark, I realize that the NYPD is not perfect, but many officers are trying to protect citizens. I think a modicum of respect would be approrpriate.
The very same people who are whining about our vulnerability against terrorist attacks are complaining that we have too many police officers on the street?! I'm flummoxed as to who you think would protect us? The cart vendors?
I agree. Even though most cops i've known are overly cocky and arrogant, you have to respect them and the work they do. They deal with alot of sh*t so its easy to see where the attitude comes from.
I like the word "flummoxed"
There was a line buried in the jump from Elaine Sciolino's front page story in today's Times quoting a letter claiming responsibility for the attack in Madrid on Thursday:
"We bring the good news to Muslims of the world that the expected `winds of black death' strike against America is now in its final stage," the letter said, adding that the strike was "90 percent" ready "and, God willing, near."
I am sort of surprised that this is not more prominently placed, or at least more thoroughly covered. I understand that every claim is not necessarily accurate and that the authorities need time to investigate all possibilities.. regardless of this however, I slowed down for a moment, it made this morning's sky on the upper west side seem a little less blue.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates make claims that New York City/America/Christendom will be destroyed every other month, as far as I can tell. The previous threat was for something to happen on Feb. 2. As I recall, the distributed video for that threat even had cheap computer animation of a giant radioactive cloud knocking down Manhattan buildings.
That there's a mention of imminent 'winds of black death' is neither surprising nor alarming in and of itself, at least not without more information.
I said on September 12, 2001, that the next attack would be on the subways, and I'm still certain of it. Not to make anyone nervous or anything, but it just makes so much sense from a terrorist point of view for so many reasons. #1, there is nothing that can be done to prevent it. #2, the subways are a symbol of New York, and we all know how terrorists love symbolism, #3, a severe attack would likely keep many people off the trains for some time and would have a significant impact on the city from an economic standpoint. If people aren't taking the subway to work or to go shopping, no one is making money.
To say it's a concern is an understatement...
There was a bit on Nightline the other night with some guy talking about how, despite all of our efforts to increase security, we're virtually helpless against a smaller scale attack and that it's a wonder that nobody's really tried that strategy here yet. Anyway, it's good that local authorities are at least trying to keep us safe, but it would be nice if our federal government would maybe try thinking about why it is that many people want to bomb the hell out of us in the first place and perhaps address that problem as well.