FAKE-BADGE ALERT AT NEW YORK CITY'S TERROR TARGETS

NY Post ^ | 1/28/07 | JASON MARCHI

[Libloather]

FAKE-BADGE ALERT AT CITY'S TERROR TARGETS
By JASON MARCHI

January 28, 2007 -- Hundreds of bogus badges have been turning up at some of the city's top terrorist targets, The Post has learned.

Authorities have confiscated 243 fake police badges and some 21,000 weapons and made 164 arrests or citations at city federal buildings since May 2005, according to sources and documents obtained by The Post.

Sources said most of the busts came at 26 Federal Plaza, home of the FBI's New York office, considered a prime terror target.

They added that one arrest turned up an individual suspected to have terrorist ties, and that other fake-badge arrests have nabbed criminals with outstanding warrants and lengthy records, including a convicted child molester.

A children's nursery is located at 26 Federal Plaza.

One elderly man confessed after his arrest that he was using an old badge to sneak a brick into a federal building and assault a Social Security Administration employee whom he believed had bilked him on a payment.

A source with intimate knowledge of the Federal Protective Service's crackdown - dubbed Operation Stinking Badges after the often-quoted line from the Humphrey Bogart flick "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" - said it was initiated in part after police "noticed a spike in people coming in with badges."

In May 2005, the Federal Protective Service, a Department of Homeland Security agency that protects government buildings, changed its policy and started verifying every badge.

Prior to that, it was possible for someone to flash a shield and walk into a federal building unchecked.

**SNIP**

Multiple sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all kinds of bogus or misused badges are discovered at federal buildings - from concealed firearms badges to tow-truck-driver shields to MTA track-inspector credentials.

[Abcdefg]

Nothing to see here. Move along.</sarc>

[Oldexpat]

They made dry runs for the hyjacking of the 911 planes in Nepal to Afghanistan of an Indian Airlines plane.
The recent incident in Iraq where terrorists arrived in big tinted window SUV's and may have impersonated US security contractors may be a dry run for the next attack in the West with badge carrying imposters leading the raid.

[coloradan]

from concealed firearms badges

People from Vermont and Alaska don't need no steenkin' badges.

And for those who have the badges, federal buildings are the one place where no citizens, only Lords, can carry firearms. (So much for the argument that the Second Amendment only constrains the federal government, and not the States ... if that were true, federal buildings couldn't ban guns.)

[MDspinboyredux]

I don't think there are 'official' firearms 'badges' that are recognized ANYWHERE.

Vermont and Alaska don't require concealed handgun permits, which are a license.

As a matter of fact, people who routinely exercise their 2nd Amendment right to self defense are urged NOT to carry one of these un-official badges lest they be confused with a police officers.

Then you'd be in a whole new world of trouble.

[freepersup]

Has anyone been taken into custody wearing one of these?

[colderwater]

21,000 weapons but only 164 arrests? Something does not add up. Something in this "news" story smells like bovine excrement. They have 10 guns, one spiked bat(?) and a brick listed. I wonder what the other 20,988 weapons were.

C.W.

[ishabibble]

The elections in November were a victory for the Muslim terrorists. They sure are getting ready to try it again.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236337,00.html

[Sender]

No doubt pocket knives and scissors, etc. They don't arrest you for those, they just confiscate them.

[Oorang]

Ping

[FixitGuy]

"One elderly man confessed after his arrest that he was using an old badge to sneak a brick into a federal building and assault a Social Security Administration employee whom he believed had bilked him on a payment."

What was the crime, the badge or the brick?

[SweetCaroline]

BUMP

[TXnMA]

When I was entering a MA courthouse, the guard impounded a small (1" long) flint arrowhead that I happened to have in my pocket...

[mugs99]

Something in this "news" story smells like bovine excrement.

Yeah, it's right up there with the 5,000 terror cells operating in America we were warned about in 2003. Have they captured even one of those terrorists?
.

[Sender]

I had to go into the Fulton Co Justice Center last week, they emptied our pockets of everything metal, ran us through the detectors. I knew not to have my usual pocketknife with me. However I had forgotten my necklace with a very small damascus steel knife about 1" long total. The guards gave me a look but didn't take it. This shows some common sense...no, probably just apathy.

[FairOpinion]

This article doesn't mention it, but FoxNews said that several of these were indeed terror related.