Central New York an armed fortress for Republican convention

NEW YORK (AFP) - New York authorities are turning central Manhattan into an armed security fortress for the four-day Republican National Convention that opens next Monday to nominate President George W. Bush (news - web sites) for a second four-year term.

"The city and the state as well as many agencies and thousands of individuals have come together in partnership to provide an unprecedented, comprehensive level of security to protect this great city and the convention," said US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

Ridge's declaration of both the Republican convention, and the Democratic convention held in Boston last month -- the first political conventions since the September 11, 2001 attacks -- as "National Special Security Events" cleared the way for heavy federal participation in what would otherwise have been a security headache for the Big Apple's 37,000-strong police force.

"Working in partnership with the New York City Police Department and other local and state organizations, the Department of Homeland Security has invested substantial resources and personnel to ensure a safe and secure event," said Ridge.

Some 50,000 participants are expected at the convention, including delegates, journalists and elected officials, including Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites).

"New York is protected by land, sea and air," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, adding that the security cordon around Madison Square Garden, the convention venue, would be so tight that, "If you aren't in the area around the Garden, you probably won't even know the convention is in town.

"Unless a delegate asks for directions," he added. "In that case, do as Ed Koch says, and 'Make Nice'," referring to a television commercial in which the former mayor urges New Yorkers to welcome the delegates.

Police say the area around the Garden will be sealed off to an 18-block radius, and only vehicles with special police permits will be allowed to enter.

That security perimeter will be patrolled around the clock by a 10,000-strong security force including New York City police, New York State police, FBI (news - web sites) agents, SWAT teams and attack dogs.

The city security force will be reinforced by the US Coast Guard, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, US Secret Service agents and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Security will be doubly tight along the three streets and three avenues abutting the Garden, access to which will be strictly limited to local residents and those accredited to the convention.

Inside that perimeter is the west side's Pennsylvania Station, to which a transit corridor has been set up to accommodate the half million workers who commute into and out of the city through the huge railway station each day.

"We are prepared," declared New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "Our officers have been trained to respond in a disciplined and effective way. The coverage will be more than adequate. We will be using in essence the entire department."

To illustrate the enormity of the security nightmare facing New York, Los Angeles police Lieutenant Peter Durham wrote in the National Journal:

"The Los Angeles Police Department can escort a presidential motorcade through the city with fewer than a hundred officers. My counterpart in New York uses 2,500 police officers to get the president from the Riverside helipad to the United Nations (news - web sites)."

The NYPD says it has purchased two high-tech non-lethal response weapons called long range acoustic devices, at 35,000 dollars each, capable of beaming incapacitating sound up to 150 decibels to distance of 274 meters (yards) to deal with demonstrators.

To those concerned lest civil rights be trampled in the interests of convention security, Wendell Shingler, director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Federal Protective Service, assured that, "We are great supporters of the First Amendment."

Judge Denies Central Park Protest Request

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/gop_convention_protests

By SAMUEL MAULL, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A judge rejected a last-minute plea from anti-war activists seeking to hold a massive rally in Central Park the day before the Republican convention, saying they were too late.

The group said it would cancel the rally, but still planned to march to Madison Square Garden, the convention site.

State Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann ruled Wednesday that United for Peace and Justice was "guilty of inexcusable and inequitable delay" in bringing the case to court after months of back-and-forth negotiations over plans for the Sunday demonstration.

Large numbers of protesters still are expected to flock to the park.

The anti-war coalition sued the city last week after pulling out of a deal to hold the rally on a west Manhattan highway following a march from 23rd Street to the Garden. The event is expected to draw 250,000 people, and the Parks Department said that would ruin the park's lawn.

United for Peace and Justice had sought an order prohibiting the city from denying its use of the park, noting that the area has been used for events including a Dave Matthews show that drew more than 70,000 spectators and performances by the New York City Opera and the New York Philharmonic attended by tens of thousands.

The group said the city violated the state Constitution by allowing cultural but not political events.

Silbermann disagreed, saying the Parks Department "appropriately applied content-neutral regulations while leaving (the protest group) with a reasonable alternate site." She said the city had shown "the Great Lawn was not an appropriate venue for a demonstration of this magnitude."

The organization's leaders said they had changed their minds about demonstrating on the treeless West Side Highway because they couldn't resolve such issues as access to drinking water and projection of sound along the long, narrow space.

In her ruling, Silbermann said the anti-war group's lawsuit was an "11th-hour attempt to renege on an agreement" to use that space.

1) There is no "central Manhattan". It's called Midtown. West Midtown, to be exact.

2) Most New Yorkers don't live or work in West Midtown. East Midtown (near Grand Central) is much larger. And some work Downtown.

3) Penn Station won't be closed as a result of the convention. New Jersey transit trains will be rerouted to Hoboken. But the LIRR will run from Long Island.

4) The last week in August is one of the slowest in New York. Kids are back from camp and waiting to go back to school. So many families are on vacation anyway.

5) I'd take the NYPD over the LAPD any day. L.A. is a spread-out freeway city. New York is not. You don't need as many cops to take a motorcade down a freeway than down city streets.

6) The convention's just another large event happening in New York. We can handle it.

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