State of Alert (NY needs funding not just terror warnings)

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5650422/site/newsweek/

Quote:
Look, nobody understands better than New Yorkers the difficulty in balancing “better safe than sorry” with the urge to yell “wolf!” every time someone finds a picture of a skyscraper on some arrested Pakistani’s hard drive. But being a New Yorker makes me preternaturally incapable of taking something at face value. How can I? The very morning that the enemy was supposed to be attacking, Laura Bush and the twins showed up at one of the five supposed Al Qaeda targets for a photo op with the brave workers there.

(snip)

See, the point in all this color-coded terror talk is not only to prevent the next attack–and I’m not questioning the Bush administration’s sincere desire to do that–but to give the appearance that something is being done. That’s why the government hysterically releases three-year-old information and that’s why the Citigroup building was ringed on Monday with cops toting menacing machine guns (which is no doubt a deterrent to a truck bomber, who would only be mildly inconvenienced by having to drive a block uptown to find another suitable target).

-----

There are many more good quotes but I don't want to copy too much!

[JPZenger]

1. NYFD Has to Rent Ryder Trucks

This was a story on Channel 11 News from New York this morning. NYFD is using rented Ryder trucks while they wait for new trucks to arrive. They look just like any other Ryder trucks except "NYFD" stickers are attached in a few places below the Ryder logos.

Some of the firefighters are concerned that people will not believe they really are fire department vehicles - especially with all the Ryder logos all over them. They are afraid of being mistaken for terrorists (such as the Ryder truck full of ammonia nitrate that was used to destroy the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.)

(Actually, I worry about the opposite - that terrorists will just add "NYPD" letters to a standard Ryder truck.)

[JPZenger]

2. More on NYFD's Ryder Rental Truck

www.nypost.com
August 8, 2004

"A Brooklyn FDNY Emergency Service truck used to carry heavy equipment to building collapses and major disasters has been replaced by a cost-cutting Ryder rental truck, enraging the head of the firefighters union.

In addition, the truck, which is white, now requires a police cruiser to escort it to the scene because the truck has no emergency lights, siren or radio, said Uniformed Firefighters Association president Stephen Cassidy.

He said that adding to the confusion is that the FDNY logo is overshadowed by the Ryder logo. Cassidy said that because of the double markings, the truck was searched by cops on the Triborough Bridge as it was being driven to its new home at Rescue 2 in Crown Heights Friday evening. "They didn't believe it was an firetruck," Cassidy said.

" Tom Ridge said terrorists might try to pass themselves off as Emergency Service workers," he said. "They were right to search the truck.