Posted on 08/04/2004 11:04:19 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
It's about time that the Times connects the dots.
Agreed, we need to maintain confidence in our financial markets. And if this necessitates a heightened cop presence in the streets, so be it.
However, random searches of trucks entering Manhattan cause terrible traffic jams, with little to show for the effort. Having police look for the proverbial "needle in a haystack" is putting a real drag on the economy.
Beyond that, these terror alerts subvert a sense of security. They give us a vague sense of unease, without a sense that the feds are totally on top of things. Perhaps I am unduly cynical, but I regard them as a bureaucratic CYA, so that if we are hit again, they can say "well, we warned you"
I'd prefer the gov't behave more like the Brits did, during the IRA terror bombings of London in the 1970s. Scotland Yard said comparatively little, as it systematically went about the business of annihitalting Irish terror cells.
I escaped from New York Tuesday morning after helping my daughter move to Brooklyn. While I was ther I was internet deprived and only knew about the terror alerts from the tabloid headlines (Jitter City). No one there even mentioned it.
Leaving Brooklyn by car was a nightmare. The BQE expressway was parked solid Tuesday morning while trucks attempting to enter Manhattan were routed to a single bridge and inspected.
I noticed there have been some interesting changes at the interstate highway truck weigh stations. At some stations the trucks aren't even required to stop, but they are routed past a science fiction array of devices that could be cameras, radiation detectors, or anything you could imagine.
Major bridges have signs saying no cameras, no video.
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