Citing Danger, Schumer Calls for Scrapping New Screening Plan for Statue of Liberty
Source: NYT
Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the National Park Service on Monday to scrap what he called a dangerous new security plan for the Statue of Liberty, saying that it could leave visitors to the tourist attraction vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
For nearly two years now, the New York Police Department has opposed the Park Services plan to screen visitors to the statue at central points on Liberty and Ellis Islands, which were badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy and are scheduled to reopen on July 4. In early 2011, Ken Salazar, then the secretary of the interior, intended to announce the change, but he held off because of stiff objections from the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly.
Prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Park Service had for more than a decade conducted airport-style security checks at tented pavilions in Battery Park or in Liberty State Park in Jersey City before passengers boarded ferryboats to the statue. The people who run Battery Park, the Battery Conservancy, wanted the pavilion removed because it was unsightly and clogged the park with tourists.
The Park Service tried to find a nearby alternative, considering Pier A, then a Coast Guard building, but could not reach a deal and so decided to move the screening to Ellis and Liberty Islands.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/nyregion/schumer-opposes-new-security-plan-for-statue-of-liberty.html
PSPS
(13,516 posts)Perhaps it could be moved to a new wing at some museum as is done with other relics of bygone eras. I have to laugh, though, at the absurdity of "airport-style security checks" to get into something with the name "liberty" in it.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)Took the kids there a couple years ago. The screening was so intrusive, we almost turned around and left before entering. This after waiting for a couple hours on line.
Liberty my ass.
Princess Turandot
(4,784 posts)... removed because it was unsightly and clogged the park with tourists."
The tent (seen here: http://goo.gl/maps/A3zXQ) is in/near the place where visitors always clogged queued up for the ferry. The park is geared towards tourists: there are a variety of memorials/statues and a fort in and around it (and not that much else).
(edited to add map link)
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)without the intrusive tourists to bother them...
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)RC
(25,592 posts)There is no sane reason for the United States to have a military presents in so many places around the world.
I wonder how many generations it would take for terrorism to go away if we didn't keep manufacturing more of them on an almost daily basis, in so many places around the world, both directly and indirectly?