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...
