My advice to anyone planning to be in the area (especially on that Saturday) is to wear an NYPD hat and some sort of mask that will mitigate the effects of tear gas.
ECON SUMMIT BRINGS OWN TERROR THREAT
By STEVE DUNLEAVY --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bad guys coming.
January 18, 2002 -- YOU can take the cop out of New York, but you can't take the cop out of John Timoney, former deputy police chief of this wonderful town, and former police commissioner of Philadelphia. Over a light beer at Langan's, he was extremely worried about the dates of Jan. 28 to Feb. 5, when the World Economic Forum will be hosted, in part, at the Waldorf-Astoria.
"There are some very serious bad guys out there, and I am not talking about Osama bin Laden. We are talking about pretty sophisticated bad guys," he was saying.
Timoney, like most cops, has been beaten and shot at by punks all his life. In his new job as CEO of BDA Security and Investigations, he has 500 people working under him, "mostly former NYPD who are very well trained to look after punks and people who wish to do us harm."
I have seen John in action, in New York City, the Republican Convention in Philadelphia, and while he gives everyone the Miranda, don't throw a punch at him unless you have gone to confession.
"There is an element out there - Seattle, Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Democratic Convention - which is threatening. I don't have to tell Police Commissioner Ray Kelly what to do. He is an exceptional professional. The best."
But private big shots have hired John, who left the Philadelphia police commissioner's job two weeks ago, to make sure they don't wear broken egg on their suits from numskulls - or toe tags in the morgue.
"It is quite serious what might take place, and let's hope the word 'might' is the operative word," he said.
"I think New York was given the host city because the world felt sorry for us all. And that is a grand gesture for business which I applaud.
"But the truth is, it is going to cost the city a fortune in security."
And then, out came the real cop.
"It costs the city of New York about $50 million a year in paying cops to host security for the United Nations and presidential visits and all the other heads of state to be here," he said.
"We get $7 million as a cap in return. And the cops here make terribly low wages. I mean terrible."
Timoney had to be the only member of the police brass who actually gave evidence for the working cops to get a raise when the case came up in 1996.
"After 29 years in the department and having a lot to do with handling the operation of 50,000 people in the NYPD, I left for Philadelphia to be the police commissioner, and I was in debt. I mean debt," he said.
We are now looking at a potentially scary scene, promised by little nasty twits, when the Economic World Forum comes to our front door.
Timoney and Kelly know what they have to do.
But I don't. Because who in this bloody world knows how we are going to pay the cops for what they are about to face.
Oh, they will get their pay, but is it what they are worth?
You work it out, I can't.