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Impeach George Bush
Feel Safe Yet?
For three years, George W. Bush and the Republican Congress, Senate and Supreme Court have waged war against Afghanistan, Iraq, Terror, and the American Constitution. Anyone feel safer yet?
Source: The TIP, etc, 2004-08-26
Candidate: Big Government
In particular, I wonder if the folks in New York feel safe today.
The RNC is coming to town in a four days. Ordinarily, any city would put out the Red Carpet to welcome the conventioneers. Not this year. Roll up the Red Carpet and roll out the Long Range Acoustic Device.
That's only one of many new high tech war machines New York and the Republicans have in store for the First Amendment practioners of Free Speech.
Here's the Story:
Police Turn Up Volume for GOP Convention
Thu Aug 19, 7:08 PM ET
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Forget the megaphones. Police will have a much more high-tech — and louder — option to make themselves heard over the din of Manhattan traffic and noisy protesters outside the Republican National Convention.
It's called the Long Range Acoustic Device, developed for the military and capable of blasting warnings, orders or anything else at an ear-splitting 150 decibels.
Authorities on Thursday unveiled a mini-arsenal of devices and counterterrorism equipment they're getting ready for the convention, which opens a week from Monday.
The sound machines are being tested at an airfield in a remote section of Brooklyn along with other devices such as hand-held radiation detectors — for a possible "dirty bomb" — and mechanical barriers strong enough to stop a moving vehicle in its tracks.
At the Brooklyn training site on Thursday, police practiced disarming a truck bomb at a checkpoint. Scores of officers also made mock arrests of police academy cadets who posed as protesters.
Chanting "no justice, no peace," the cadets surrounded a bus full of "delegates" before officers in riot gear raced in, slapped on plastic "flex cuffs" and led them away to vans.
The demonstration was intended to show how the nation's largest police department hopes "to put a comprehensive security net over Madison Square Garden and the rest of the city," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
"I think you'll see we're prepared."
The department recently bought two of the 45-pound acoustic sound machines for $35,000 apiece, and plans to mount them on Humvees posted outside Madison Square Garden. It would mark the first time the instrument — which can beam sounds for 300 yards or more — has been used by a civilian force.
"We believe we'd be able to use them in a number of scenarios," said Paul Browne, the police department's chief spokesman.
Two possible uses cited by Browne: directing crowds to safety following a terrorist attack or other calamity, and reminding protesters where they're allowed to march and rally.
The military, which has used the machines in Iraq (news - web sites), bills them as a "non-lethal weapon" designed to disperse hostile crowds or ward off potential foreign combatants by delivering prerecorded warnings in several languages and, if needed, an earsplitting screeching noise. But police insist the latter feature won't be used at the convention.
"It's only to communicate in large crowds," Inspector Thomas Graham of the department's crowd control unit said Thursday.
Graham said police had tried out the device in Times Square, and found it delivered clear, even sound over four blocks. Decibel readers will be used to keep the volume at a safe level, he added.
Still, Bill Dobbs of United for Peace and Justice, which has planned a massive anti-war demonstration on the eve of the convention, called the sound system "a potential Big Brother nightmare."
Police "are trying to use technology and machinery to control every aspect of life on the street, rather than relax a little and let a part of democratic society unfold," he said.
Mobile metal barriers — a variation of those installed outside government buildings, courthouses and embassies — will form a series of checkpoints around the arena. Once a bus, truck or car is secured between two barriers, it will be screened for bombs or other contraband by cameras that provide real-time video images from underneath.
The department also will deploy a new fleet of motor scooters to cut through gridlock should trouble arise. Hand-held radiation detection devices will help officers patrolling the streets and subways to guard against a "dirty bomb."
Heightened Security: New York Prepares for Republican National Convention
By David Brody
Congressional Correspondent
With the convention just days away now, final security plans are being firmed up to make sure President George W. Bush and thousands of Republican delegates stay safe here at Madison Square Garden.
CBN.com – (CBN News) - NEW YORK CITY - The Republican Convention is now just 11 days away, and the site will be Madison Square Garden in New York City. There will be plenty of security in place to try and thwart off any potential terrorist attacks.
But it is what lies beneath the Garden that has many really worried. The hustle and bustle of New York is about to get cranked up a notch.
With the convention just days away now, final security plans are being firmed up to make sure President George W. Bush and thousands of Republican delegates stay safe here at Madison Square Garden.
One of the big security concerns during the convention is right on the Amtrak train, which stops directly below Madison Square Garden. Transportation officials are not going to close Penn station, and that has many wondering if that is really the smartest thing to do.
That is because Penn Station is one of the busiest transportation hubs in the entire country. To give you an idea of the setup, there are numerous rail lines that converge together under the Garden. You have trains coming in from Long Island and from New Jersey. Then there is Manhattan's subway line, as well as Amtrak, which has trains coming in from all over the country. All of it amounts to more than a half-million people going through Penn Station everyday. Chris Falkenberg is a former secret service agent who is helping with security planning for the convention.
He comments, "The city is such that you simply can't preclude people from New Jersey and Long Island, our two major suburbs, from coming into New York and getting to work. I mean, you can't stop people who work here from using the subway system to get around, because it's the most effective way to doing it."
There is no doubt that the inconvenience to New Yorkers is a main reason Penn Station is not closing, but it is not the only reason. Howard Safir was New York's Police Commissioner during part of Mayor Rudy Giuliani's years. And he says closing down Penn Station sends the wrong message.
"I think the view here is that you don't let the terrorists disrupt your life," Safir said. "You use reasonable security, but you let things continue to operate. Otherwise, we are basically surrendering to the terrorists."
Here in New York, there is a certain swagger to all of this security talk. Officials here say they are ready. As a matter of fact, they have assigned about a third of the entire police force just to monitor the trains alone. At Penn Station, they are about five floors underground of Madison Square Garden, so officials say a suitcase full of explosives is not really going to do any damage at all to Madison Square Garden. They're going to need two or three tractor-trailers to do anything substantial."
Still, police here are not taking any chances. Kevin King is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority commander for Penn Station.
"Our normal security plan, [plus] we've increased uniformed presence. We've also added different levels of security besides uniformed presence."
The cops are pretty tight-lipped about just what sort of surveillance they will be doing. What they have said is that there will be police officers on every train. Some of them will be undercover. Every bag will be checked. And the dogs will be out too. We met Hudson, a bomb-sniffing dog trained to look for explosives.
Doug Joseph of the MTA Police Department K-9 unit said, "It's all a game to her. So she's highly motivated to play. So she gets on and checks up, down, and sideways, looking for an explosive odor -- which to her means she'll get a reward."
Her reward is a tennis ball. The reward to travelers will be far greater than that.
Inside the station itself, the National Guard will be everywhere, and so will local and federal officers, patrolling the station with guns ready at a moment's notice.
Once the convention starts, the uniform presence will be even greater. Plus, officials here say normally there are eight exits in and out of the station. During the convention, that number gets cut down to two. With all of this planning, the security chief of the MTA is confident about the decision to not close Penn Station.
MTA Security Chief Bill Morange remarked, "We feel like it's not necessary to close down. The security plans that we have in effect… [make us] feel it's going to be one of the safest places you can be, and we don't want to inconvenience anybody."
The fact that this is New York may also have something to do with the decision. It is safe to say that New Yorkers aren't shy about speaking up, and the security chief is banking on commuters doing just that.
Morange said, "Some of these people ride the same train at the same time, some of them sit on the same seat. If there's something wrong, they'll be the first one to let you know."
But Commissioner Safir said that, as for potential problems out there, he sees a major one when it comes to Amtrak trains. He said he rides Amtrak all the time, and the security there is less than desirable.
When asked to explain his comment, Safer responded, "Well, basically, they say you need [a] photo ID. I can go to a kiosk and get a ticket, and be on a train in a heartbeat. Baggage is not checked. Tracks are virtually open to attack. So that concerns me, and what we saw in Madrid could certainly happen here."
That seems to be the biggest concern. Not so much a huge attack that will topple the Garden, but something on a smaller scale.
Chris Falkenberg said, "A perpetrator wouldn't be able to get a significant-size explosive device on a train and into Penn Station without, number one, being noticed, and number two, it's a question as to whether they could carry the thing actually onto the train."
He added, "The biggest danger is an event similar to what happened in Madrid, where you have multiple smaller events which would total in a large loss of life. That's probably the greatest danger."
Because, no matter how good the security plan is, in a place like Penn Station there is always a risk.
Safir remarked, "I believe everything that's possible to be done is being done. Is that a guarantee? It is not, because as long as people can move around freely, there's always the possibility that somebody's going to get through."
But with a police force that is by far the largest and most experienced in the country, and with vivid memories of 9/11 etched in their mind, officials here are betting that 'New York's finest' will be up to the task.
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