George Washington Bridge Guards In Hot Seat

Now that the sleepy George Washington Bridge guards have been fired, WCBS 2 says that it may only be the "tip of the iceberg," as Port Authority sources say "there are many incidents involving these guards. One guard reportedly lost his job for playing canned laughter over the police radio frequency so the cops couldn't talk to one another. In another instance a guard was reportedly asleep when a man walked by and jumped to his death of the bridge." The PA say the guards really just check security clearance of bridge workers, but "Port Authority police sources said they are also tasked with alerting them to suspicious activity on the bridge." Which is why Joe Lepore, the bicyclist who blew the whistle on the sleepy guards, said, "Maybe you just nod off at that one moment when somebody decides to sneak by some liquid nitrogen or some explosives and start to do damage. And I explained it to one of the guards on the other side. I said look if this bridge blows up, we're all going, including you... I didn't do this with a vendetta or any personal issue with anybody. It's safety for all of us."

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By Jen Chung in News on September 2, 2009 11:39 AM

Comments [rss]

dadoc

"Security" has become a business in and of itself. It protects nothing, is ineffective, mongers fear and employs the otherwise unemployable. Stimulus maybe, by providing jobs where job skills and needs are lacking, but what else do you expect? Firing these two guys will not change a thing. How about everybody charge those cellphones & document every tax-funded slacker we see. Not enough hours in the day.

Past Taliban

"Maybe you just nod off at that one moment when somebody decides to sneak by some liquid nitrogen or some explosives and start to do damage"

Too late. Goldman Sachs already snuck-in TRILLIONS in fraudulent CDO's. The damage is done. You just don't know it yet.

Liam

Was it MQ on his way to the race?

jt10000

PS - a friend of mine was in the crowd who helped talk the guy down from jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday.

jt10000

sort of building upon what SP said: do we really think the bridge is in such danger, and that these guards will help?

It's security theater.

SP

"a guard was reportedly asleep when a man walked by and jumped to his death of the bridge."

What exactly was the guard supposed to do? Use his awesome mind reading powers to know that the man was going to jump? Was this man wearing a sign around his neck saying "I'm gonna jump!" in flashing lights? Maybe the guards should follow each person across the bridge just in case. This is completely idiotic.

Not defending the guards for sleeping on the job, bet seriously, the whole idea that the guards are doing anything useful to begin with is outdated. Once you walk past the guards, so long as you aren't behaving suspiciously (subjective and hard to define in The Land of The Free) or doing something illegal to begin with, they have no way of monitoring you or even responding to what you do once you are in the middle of the bridge span.

This is, as usual, CYA from ineffective MANAGEMENT, punishing the lowly employees for their own complete lack of leadership and responsibility. Sleeping was probably the best use of their time.

PTG in nyc

Well said.

Newsflash: Rent-a-Cops are F'ing worthless.

Spirit of 76

Frankly, these guards can't do much to protect the bridge anyway. The Oklahoma City bomb was on a 20-foot Ryder truck, filled with low-grade homemade explosive. Imagine what a 53-foot semi filled with more sophisticated explosives (like they use in IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan) could do if terrorists detonated it as they drove past one of the towers or worse, coordinated the attack to have one by each tower and maybe one at midspan. Unless they're stopping and searching semis, there's little safety advantage in having these guards.

Peter

Is the liquid nitrogen stolen from Walt Disney's cryogenics tank?

shamanovsky

Union workers.

SP

These guys were non union. Asshole.

shamanovsky

Citation needed.

EricRoberts

Probably the only reason they were able to be fired so efficiently.

valeriob

can there be a mandatory high-five for all passing vehicles?

since ezpass, there's really no reason to stay awake.

henry.hamilton

Under these circumstances, I would never have informed on the guard. The bike rider guy sounds like a pantywaisted, garden variety little tattletale. Then uses the public safety as a justification. What a fucking HERO!