ARMED GUARDS TO PATROL NY SUBWAYS

[Orwellian_Ghost]

New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways

By AL BAKER

In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.

Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Officials said the operation would begin in March.

Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.

Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the grants at a news conference on Friday at Grand Central Terminal, where Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly outlined his plans to add a layer of security to the city’s 24-hour transit system.

Mr. Kelly’s plan to heighten security and monitor a subway system that carries nearly five million people a day along 656 miles of tracks reflects the city’s continuing concerns about a possible attack.

....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/nyregion/02machinegun.html?ex=1359694800&en=0190dc1754bf64b0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[tekisui]

1. God damn. Automatic rifles! That's seriously messed up.

Keep the fascist shift going.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

3. Welcome to the Homeland

This is seriously F'ed up.

[alarimer]

2. Nice looking Gestapo we have here

Fuck this fascist shit.

This country is starting to scare the shit out of me, not because I think it is dangerous but because the Nazis in our government have clearly gotten the upper hand over freedom. Guess there's another place I will not be visiting. I don't need to see Blackshirts every where I go.

[tekisui]

4. Blackshirts are bad enough. But, Automatic rifles?? I will aviod at all costs.

[Pavulon]

15. What is the diff in auto rifle vs shotgun

they both kill. You cant tell an issue M4 from the civilian replicas from 3 feet.

A sidearm kills as well. Just does not reach as far.

Basically the problem is that these things do not really prevent someone from detonating a bomb.

Could be useful in a gun attack like used in Saudi on compounds.

[Steven_S]

5. Oh, yeah, that'll stop them....

If and when someone wants to blow up something in NYC or the area these guys won't be able to stop anything.

This is meant for the rightist to feel secure and to piss of the normal people.

[MADem]

6. This idioitc idea isn't about 'fascism' or 'fear' or ANY of that shit.

It's about another F word--FUNDING. It's the way for Blue New York to get a piece of that Homeland Security Cash Cow Pie.

Gotta make it LOOK LIKE you MEAN IT....

But more broadly, he said, linking security plans for the disparate rail systems in the metropolitan region was “key in securing additional funding from the Department of Homeland Security.” He said that Mr. Chertoff praised the state for collaborating across geographic regions, since transit systems in New Jersey and Connecticut would also be affected.

[originalpckelly]

7. So, someone gets on a train. They have a bomb hidden. They detonate it.

How is it possible for these officers to do shit about it?

[Berry Cool]

8. Oh boy, I smell a comment from Keith Olbermann coming on.

As a regular user of the subways, he will no doubt have an opinion on that. Subways bristling with armed officers, just as a means of getting funding from DHS.

[Junkdrawer]

9. So...you think that the Terror Card will be played in this election?

( For our young lurkers: The above is what is known as a "rhetorical question". That's a question that answers itself.)

[annabanana]

10. The only appropriate response is laughter... They look so damn stupid

standing around like GI Joe around the subways... (Probably hung like GI Joe too).

May all of NY's pretty girls roll their eyes and cling to the arms of their artistes dressed all in black..

[NNN0LHI]

11. I feel safer already

What country is this again?

Don

[RL3AO]

12. I kinda figured they already did that.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. I live in a suburb of NYC and watch the local news out of the city, and in the scroll on the bottom

of the screen this morning, they mentioned this. It gets me sick to my stomach. I'm from the city originally and to think that it has come to this.

They are getting us used to living in a prison society, plain and clear. Even my son's high school. You need to be buzzed in to get inside. In reality, they buzz everyone in, but it gets the students used to being locked in.

I also want to add on that in the city they are making plans for "congestion pricing", which means if you drive during the week in certain areas of the city, you have to pay a fee. It is being floated as a way of easing air pollution in the city BUT I don't know about know, but the original plan was to PHOTOGRAPH everyone's license plate in order to send them the bill. Hello Big Brother!

[gateley]

18. I think you make some very valid observations -- they're conditioning us. nt

[Pavulon]

14. I see Police in NYC with MP5 regularly..

The MP5 is more appropriate in an enclosed crowded space than a rifle firing 5.56 nato. The argument has been made that 9mm penetrates more than the 5.56 round but a SMG is better suited.

It is smaller and easier to move around than say an M4. Definite pain in the ass in a vehicle.

This is pretty common in places like Germany.

[ThatsMyBarack]

16. They look like Action Figures!

Each sold separately.

[Subdivisions]

17. The Federales. Juuuuuusst great. We need armed

guards to protect us from terrorism.

The more this government does, the more I think they orchestrated 9/11 for just this purpose.