Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

[proud2BlibKansan]

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.

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

[Mind_your_head]

1. I'll feel like I'm in Israel! HallalejuH!!!!! eom

[TheMightyFavog]

8. Or London.

When I was in London last year, I stopped in this little store on my way back from my Internship to pick up a bottle of Irn Bru, and a Crunchie bar. I was walking to the counter, and in walked these two London police officers, one holding a MP5 subgun. It really freaked me out at the time. I thought they were going to raid the place, but it turns out they were ther for the same reason as me. To pick up a drink and a candy bar. I was later told that these officers were part of a special division tasked with VIP and sensitive area protection.

Scared the shit out of me at the time.

[Thothmes]

13. Or Paris

in the mid 80's French military personnel patroled Orly and DeGaulle air ports.

[DFW]

21. They still do.

I don't know if they have intimidated any terrrrists by doing so.

[sir pball]

24. And Geneva

When I was there in 2003 there were uniformed soldiers (I think they were, they were wearing camo not black or blue, looked much more mil than LE) walking up and down the row of banks on the lake, carrying Sig 550 assault rifles.

[saigon68]

2. Its a Fascist Place

I'm staying away from there

It is like cowering in the Darkness.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. Submachine guns are a sure deterence to suicide bombers.

[Aristus]

28. Yeah. Look how well that's worked in Israel.

A guy with a bomb strapped to his chest is gonna be TERRIFIED of a machine gun... :eyes:

[alittlelark]

4. While travelling through S America in the early 90's I saw many

machine gun toting 'police'. It made me feel soooo fortunate to live in the USA - we would never do that..................................

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. And so it ends...

:cry:

[Xenotime]

31. yup. This is now a police state.

[thunder rising]

6. Gotta keep the fear level up ya'know. FEAR FEAR and more FEAR!

[Union Label]

7. I saw that shit and posted it

This is some scarey shit. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3201912

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Sorry I didn't see that

And yes this is some scary shit alright.

[DFW]

9. I guess I'm lucky to be alive

I was just in New York City last weekend, and took the subway a lot, including the
crosstown shuttle between Grand Central and Times Square.

Despite the frequent dastardly attacks by Al Quaeda, Iranian Revolutionary guards,
Hamas, the Al Aqsa Martyrs, the 'N'Drangheta, Jaws and Dr. Doom, I managed to survive
without a scratch. I didn't even carry a machine gun. I must lead a charmed life.

[LynnTheDem]

18. Ignorance really can be bliss, huh? If you'd known about the lurking terrors

in NY's subways, you'd probably have been shot up, blown up, beheaded, and forced to kiss the Qur'an!



:rofl:

[DFW]

22. And in that order! LOL!! n/t

[aquart]

10. Why?

I rounded a corner at Penn Station and walked right into one of those guns. So not pleasant.

[lostnfound]

11. Will they still have time to evaluate permits for air testing?

How disturbing. Whose brainchild is this I wonder.

[Snarkturian Clone]

12. Fuck NYC, bring those guys to Philly's subways!

We've been having a rash of teenagers beating up people at random in subway stations... one person has died from it... a couple of hundred feet from the subway police HQ! WE need those machine-gun toting officers HERE!

And for the record, Fuck NYC.

[Dorian Gray]

15. Sort of like the airport in Rome

I know that I probably will not be with the group in this, but I don't have much of a problem with this. It'll seem creepy a little bit, but the officers who carry the machine guns will be seriously trained in their usage and vetted. I'd trust them more with a submachine gun than a lot of other officers with their standard issue.

[KamaAina]

23. Much like the three cops in the Bell case were vetted?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3283568&mesg_id=3283568

one of whom RELOADED after he had emptied his semiauto into an UNARMED suspect?

Good thing Mom's and Repuke Stepdad's place is far enough from the subway that we generally use buses (or cabs)... :scared:

[LynnTheDem]

16. Must gently get Americans used to the sight.

Military dictatorship has a slightly different look than democracy.

[sir pball]

25. While I'm not saying we aren't heading that way fast

Across the pond, submachine-gun toting body-armored SWAT-looking cops are the norm, I got some directions from a very nice youg guy in Geneva who looked like he was ready to storm a hijacked plane, and the cops in Prague weren't much different. I don't have any inherent problems with LE being like this, but as part of the bigger picture and absent credible threats it's worrisome for sure.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

17. Hey?

Have you ridden the subways in NY?

I always carry a submachine gun....

:sarcasm:

I feel sort of like I may be sick - NYC Cops with machine guns.... Sounds like a testosterone extravaganza to me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. And yesterday I was worried about the state of MO

buying tasers for security guards in casinos in MO.

That's NOTHING compared to this. LOL

Here is the article about the stun guns.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3204634

[Laughing Mirror]

19. Terrorism begins at home

We've run out of countries to occupy and terrorize, so we bring it back home to our own streets.

Land of the Free is truly and plainly over.

[devilgrrl]

26. Careful when you reach for your wallet down there.

:sarcasm:

[TheWatcher]

27. We simply can't get any more free or safer than this.

:sarcasm:

[NeedleCast]

29. Having Submachine Guns in Areas With High Ricochette

is a bad idea. They did this same stuff in DC for awhile after 9/11 and I remember thinking that if an officer cut loose with a weapon designed for quantity over quality of shot that a lot of people (and probably not the person they were trying to stop) would get hurt. The DC subway stations, esepcially those underground, have a lot of rounded concrete surfaces, bullets would be pinging around everywhere.

[benEzra]

30. As I mentioned in the other thread, it's all "security theater"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater

Security theater has been defined as ostensible security measures which have little real influence on security whilst being publicly visible and designed to demonstrate to the lesser-informed that countermeasures have been considered. Security theater has been related to and has some similarities with superstition.

FWIW, to show you just how seriously the NYPD does, or doesn't, take this, here's a photo from a prior "antiterrorism team" deployment after 9/11:



The scope on his rifle (an Aimpoint) is on backwards. Here's what it's supposed to look like:



That NYPD rifle has apparently never even been fired in that configuration (never mind sighted in), or else somebody would have noticed...

Hope the officer never needs that rifle. But that's not really the point. The point is to make the ill-informed think "something is being done to protect us," with maybe a little intimidation thrown in the mix as well. The rifle is merely a stage prop for the security show.