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March 30, 2010
The illusion of subway safety
After Monday's terrorist attacks on the Moscow metro, the New York papers reported that the NYPD was stepping up security on our own subway: "Deadly Moscow subway suicide bombing triggers security alert in New York".
Phew! Way to stop those Chechen separatists from attacking us.
While we probably don't need to worry about the Black Widows riding the A C E line, there are real threats on our own subway system: early Sunday morning, two guys were stabbed to death on the No. 2 train over a tossed Duane Reade bag that accidentally hit the killer.
As of today, the killer still hasn't been caught. The Times points out that the Christopher Street station, where the stabber got off the train, doesn't have any security cameras in it. And of the 4,000+ surveillance cameras installed in the subway system after 9/11, about half of them don't work.
The Daily News reports that the Christopher Street station didn't have an agent at the token booth that night, because it was closed last year due to budget cuts. So there's no good description of the killer; the Times says he is "described only as Hispanic."
In other MTA security news, the Daily News reports that the MTA has eliminated the cops stationed at the exit of the Midtown Tunnel and the towers at the Verrazano Bridge on weekends. Instead, the bridge and tunnel will be monitored by, you guessed it, surveillance cameras.
So today we've got cops from the NYPD Hercules unit with M16's riding the 6 train to provide the illusion of security against terrorists in Russia, while the guy who actually stabbed real people on our own subway is still out there.
A couple of great quotes from subway riders questioning yesterday's heavily armed cops:
Torey Deprisest, 23, who was vacationing from Ohio, said he was stunned at the show of force.
"I think it's ridiculous," Deprisest said. "The attack happened in a different country and had nothing to do with Americans. I'd be nervous seeing cops with machine guns on the train. It makes people afraid when they don't need to be."
categories:
Crime, International, NYC, War and Security
posted by amy at 12:16 PM | #
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Right on. Security Theater hurts all of us by wasting resources on the illusion of safety instead of allocating them towards basic solutions.
I'm not thrilled with the thought of security cameras all over but can't think of anything more effective; perhaps an officer at each station would help more than three heavily armed men in a single train car.
The research has to be out there on what will work- interviews with plane personnel showed one of the few effective changes post 9-11 was simply locking the cabin door for the flight duration.
Posted by: rarerborealis at March 30, 2010 6:21 PM