Bloomberg: NYPD Has Capabilities "You Don't Know About"

Spider-Mike saves the day

We now know that the NYPD has the power (if not necessarily the authority) to shoot down airplanes, but that isn't the only trick hiding behind the thin blue line. In a brief discussion today regarding Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's 60 Minutes revelations, our mayor let this little doozy slip: The "New York City Police Department has lots of capabilities you don't know about and you won't know about them." Like a squad car that turns into a giant robot?

Bloomberg let out that tidbit while explaining that the NYPD's current anti-aircraft capabilities still wouldn't have prevented 9/11. "It certainly does not mean 9/11 wouldn't have occurred," he said. "9/11, there's been plenty written about whether there were enough telltale signs, and people should have known and nobody listened, and that sort of thing. It's not my job to rehash history. Our job is to make sure that we stay safe going forward and that we show that the terrorists didn't win and that New York City is back."

Still, we can't help but wonder what superhuman powers the police might have that we don't know about, since we thought we were quite familiar with most of their capabilities (Pepper spraying protesters! Knocking down cyclists! Dancing sexily! Stopping hecklers in their tracks!). Does the NYPD have a secret stash of RoboCops from the Omni Consumer Product corporation hidden in a bunker somewhere? Perhaps that bullet-proof boat they bought with FEMA money is also a submarine equipped with shark repellent? Or is that "Ring of Steel" the NYPD has been working on that monitors lower Manhattan actually MADE OF STEEL? Guess we'll have to wait until Kelly lets another secret slip on national TV before we can find out...

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By Garth Johnston in News on September 26, 2011 2:52 PM

Comments [rss]

RobertMosesSupposesErroneously

Bloomie's clearly building a giant steam-powered spider, a la Wild Wild West. All that excavation and equipment going to the 'East Side Access Project' is really a cover for his steampunk factory lair.

birdtird

El Bloomberg should use his capabilities to make that picture disappear

soothsayer

the nypd purchased 6 barrett .50 rifles back in 2005 at $100000 a piece. read this in a ny daily news article. At the time the nypd claimed they could use the rifles to shoot down small boats and airplanes, but this claim was suspect because they didn't have a helicopter mount system at the time.

Mike Isler

Try $10k a piece for the rifles, not $100k.

TheOtherBob

I don't know -- I have a hard time figuring out how you have a democracy where the people aren't allowed to know what the government is doing. Some secrecy...ok, I can understand. We can't tell the Russians our launch codes, after all. But a culture in which secrecy is the default? I don't see how that could conceivably work.

Ryan Rosado

They have a secret citizen/protester/minority beating technique handed down from one prick cop to another for generations.

GalBklyn

"New York City Police Department has lots of capabilities you don't know about and you won't know about them."
Sounds like someone got beat up in jr. high one too many times. Maybe once he is out of office Mike Bloomberg will realize that the NYPD is not the M(ichael)B(loomberg)PD and we will go back to normal.

Guest

It actually sounds like someone is in charge of running a city that's been the target of two successful attacks so far and continues to have a target painted square on its back. Further, it sounds like someone who has hired some pretty smart people and prevent and is trying to prvent another one from happening.

I am absolutely no fan of Bloomberg, but if you think this city can depend on the Feds to defend it or respond adequately to its emergencies, you are living in a dream world.

GalBklyn

Agree that Bloomberg has a responsibility. But it is to operate within the confines of the law.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that MB and the NYPD think they are above the law.

The ends never justify the means.

Guest

Actually all this anti-terror stuff is completely within the scope of the law.

FU Boy

Well, of course our police department should be more cloak and dagger than the FBI! I'm sure they have capabilities we don't know of, because if we did there'd be a lawsuit of roughly 8 million people against the city.

People complain that our rights are being taken away, what do you want to bet that one of the NYPD's 'capabilities' is completely ignoring individual rights under certain circumstances (like, say, by order of the Mayor)?

Post 9/11, it doesn't sound too out of the question to let a Mayor impose martial law in the event of another attack.

randomtransplant

so...they will blow up an aircraft taking off from JFK over a residential neighborhood if thats what it takes to defend a business district?

EIther they are bluffing, which would be totally warranted, or they are monsters.

theevilerone

It's no different than when they scrambled F-16's to take out United 93. It's not like they were going to launch kittens at them. Actually, those planes didn't even have time to arm, so they would have done a kamikaze mission. It's a last resort.

If you look at the flight that crashed over Belle Harbor in 2001, only 5 casualties were from on the ground. So yeah, I think they'd take that gamble versus ramming into a fully occupied skyscraper.

theevilerone

The NYPD's number one weapon: making vague statements about unknown capabilities to deter people from even trying.

Roger_the_Shrubber

The NYPD will do whatever it takes to stop terrorists - good news.

Bad news: everyone is now considered a terrorist.

Online

What's the over/under on how long it takes before some random gay, black man above 125th street gets rocket launchered for reaching for his comb?