Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

[Demeter]

http://wcbstv.com/local/machine.guns.subway.2.707398.html


M4 Carbine Rifles, MP5 Submachine Guns & Bomb Sniffing Dogs Part Of New "Torch Team" Anti-Terror Efforts

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The NYPD is pulling out all the stops to beef up safety of the subways. On Thursday it launched a new anti-terror effort called "Operation Torch," but the cost of the program is raising some eyebrows. The NYPD's new firepower consists of cops with Mp5 submachine guns, rifles, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Starting Thursday, five or six teams a day will patrol the major transit hubs in the city in the new program, all thanks to a 50 percent increase in a Homeland Security grant.

"Times Square, Grand Central, Penn Station … the locations you would expect, but not only those locations. The assignments will vary and will be following no discernible pattern," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Many straphangers were thrilled to see the city going all the way to protect its citizens.
"It's a very good idea," Patricia Knight Williams said. "It's like a deterrent. It's going to make me feel safer, much safer, yes it will. It's a good idea."....Similarly equipped NYPD units known as "Hercules" teams have been patrolling the ground on Wall Street, the Empire State Building and other city landmarks.

[hedgehog]

1. How does a machine gun deter a suicide bomber? How does a

machine gun help in the event of a chemical attack?

[Demeter]

2. I'd Be Deterrred From Using the Subway

or even thinking of living in New York, city or state.

[Warpy]

3. No kidding, THINK of the crossfire!

[madeline_con]

4. Sounds like a good idea. n/t

[Doctor_J]

5. Since the NRA insists on letting every Tom, Dick, Harry, Jane, Spot,

Darnell, Isaac, Beyonce', Muhammed, and Kareem have one, I don't see anything wrong with the cops having them.

[hedgehog]

6. Given the 50 shots fired into Sean Bell, what do they need machine guns for?

My impression is that once any cop opens fire, he or she continues firing until the gun is empty. That may be a reasonable response if the cop fires because the target is a threat, but always has tragic consequences when the cop misjudges the situation.

[colonel odis]

7. the thought of the same police force that murdered sean bell and amadou diallo

having machine guns should send chills up the spine of every new yorker.

[ixion]

8. because it's just not a police state w/o some thugs with guns on the street corner

land of the free my a**. :grr:

[ogsbee]

9. Wait a minute. Didn't they say al Queda was going to hide bombs in baby carriages?

Or was that frogmen pushing baby carriages? It's all about fear, inducing fear. You often see 15 to 25 police cars chasing this way or that. It's just theater, to condition the masses. The police themselves say essentially that.