NYPD, Now With More Machine Guns

The cops will also step up video surveillance of the city that never sleeps without somebody watching.

In announcing the creation of a new unit tailored for a fearful modern age, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said 350 police officers will be detailed to the Strategic Response Group. The unit will have responsilbility for "disorder control" and "counterterrorism." It will also have neat-o toys.

"They'll be equipped and trained in ways that our normal patrol officers are not," Bratton said. "They'll be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns—unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances."

The NYPD will also step up video surveillance of the city that never sleeps without somebody staring.

What could go wrong?

Comments

[sarcasmic]

Looking more like soldiers and less like cops.

[BardMetal]

Is the average New Yorker really so fearful of his neighbor that he is willing to turn their police into an occupation force?

[Drake]

Yes

[d3x / dt3]

Uh huh.

[Bardas Phocas]

'The average New Yorker' will, if the power even flickers, let alone go out for a couple of hours - will begin rioting and smashing in the heads of their neighbors and feasting on the goo inside.

[Free Society]

Multiculturalism requires it.

[BardMetal]

"They'll be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns?unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances."

Wait a sec I thought New Yorkers were anti-gun?

[Vulgar Madman]

Cops are special bard, real special.

[Pope Jimbo]

Is that why the SWAT vans are just short buses painted black?

[Vulgar Madman]

Don't lock eyes with em.

[UnCivilServant]

The Democratic People's Republic of New Amsterdam is not 'New York' and contains zero actual New Yorkers.

Also, New Yorkers are pro-gun and suing the Governer of the DPRNA over the abuses they've inflicted as an occupying power.

[UnCivilServant]

Umm, Billy, Crime is down in spite of your best efforts to terrorize the city. The fact that you have 350 spare officers to do this with means you can now begin layoffs.

[sarcasmic]

Correlation is causation!

[Vulgar Madman]

The cops need to start having soviet style parades, people would love that.

[sarcasmic]

When the city down the street from where I live got a MRAP, someone (not me) wrote a sarcastic letter to the editor asking for just that.

The mayor responded with an angry letter talking about how it's a war out there with drug dealers using fully automatic weapons on cops. So I did some research and found that three of the city's cops have been killed in the line of duty in the last century, with the most recent being in the 90s.

[Vulgar Madman]

You can't tell them that! "You want cops to die!"

[Pope Jimbo]

The reason our heroes in blue haven't suffered more casualties is because those gang bangers go for the spray and pray.

Luckily they don't have the elite training that the cops do and thus can't bring the deadly accurate fire that the cops are so well known for.

[Charles Easterly]

Didn't they try something like that in Boston a couple of years ago?

[Rich]

The changing face of terror threats, including ... October's ax attack on police in Queens, make it necessary for a new NYPD response, Bratton said.

Yep, nothin' quite like 350 machine guns mowing down a guy with an ax.

[dantheserene]

It's awesome for the cops involved. They get all the cool toys and the chance to play Delta Force, only without the overseas deployments and rule of engagement. Heck,they'll probably have even less oversight than patrol officers despite the ability to do exponentially greater harm.

[UnCivilServant]

I know, since they want to 'fight terror' so much (or at least give that excuse a lot), we can send all these big city PDs to arrest ISIS.

[Rich]

Excellent. "First responders" and all that.

[sarcasmic]

Oversight? What's that?

/average cop

[UnCivilServant]

"Isn't that what the guys who get to ride the choppers have?"

/other cop

[Doctor Whom]

OT: The effects of government policy on Venezuela's economy are too big for even the NYT to ignore:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01.....sContainer

But have a prime cut of derp from the comments:

All the commenters who leap to blame socialism: we bought the oil. In fact we guzzled it, when the price was higher than it is now. And in return, we probably flooded Venezuela with cheap food, undermining the country's ability to feed its own people.

This is the Resource Curse in a nutshell.

[sarcasmic]

we probably flooded Venezuela with cheap food, undermining the country's ability to feed its own people.

More proof that Peak Derp will never be reached.

[Rebel Scum]

They'll be equipped and trained in ways that our normal patrol officers are not...

Uh huh...

They'll be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns?unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances.

What is a "Police State"? (rhetorical)

Also, I lack time to watch the vid or visit the link. Do they define "disorder" as it pertains to "disorder control"?

[Vulgar Madman]

Mega city one, here we come!

[sarcasmic]

Looks like the Mourning Lynx is late again.

[sarcasmic]

Or not.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They'll be trained to wet themselves in the face of an entirely different set of false scenarios. And as an added bonus, they'll be able to hit a whole lot more innocent bystanders with their panic fire.

[Agammamon]

. . . police officers will be detailed to the Strategic Response Group.

Was it because 'Special Patrol Group' had already been taken?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Patrol_Group

[Roger the Shrubber]

A full time SWAT Team looking for reasons to justify their existence. This will not turn out well.

[Pope Jimbo]

Maybe this is just a clever ruse to smoke out the most sociopathic of the the cops?

You announce that you are creating a special detail dedicated to shooting civilians with machine guns. Then you fire anyone who applies?

That is the only thing that makes sense to me.

[Vulgar Madman]

If only that were true, Jimbo.

[Adans smith]

What did they do,watch the Avengers and say,'yeah that could happen,we need to be ready'? What should we call this group,STEAL TEAM 6?

[R C Dean]

How we doin' on that "it doesn't matter how we arm and equip our cops" thing that roiled the commentary recently?

[FUQ]

Ban body armour

[JW]

unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances."

Al Capone could attack at any moment with his Tommy Gun hit squad!

[Steve G]

Strategic Response Group

'Strategic': when you've moved wayyy beyond Tacticool.

[Nwallins]

Oper8r status: full retard

[SharonDCollins]

my roomate's mother makes $63 /hr on the internet . She has been unemployed for 10 months but last month her check was $18498 just working on the internet for a few hours. read the full info here...............
????? http://www.cashbuzz80.com

[Nwallins]

I dare Occupy Wall Street to try their shenanigans again in the face of long rifles and machine guns. *shakes fist*

The next time I have to come in here, I'm cracking skulls!

[Alan@.4]

Re What could go wrong? All together to damned much, all together to many things. Given that some officers have shown that they can't handle a simple semi-automatic pistol properly, to entrust them with automatic weapons, light or otherwise strikes one as just plain dumb. As to the "special training", from whence does it come,and who would be charged with supervising it? Who would pick the trainees is also an interesting question.

[LarryA]

NYC is so dangerous that it needs a "Strategic Response Group" of 350 machinegun-toting police officers, but living there is not sufficient reason to have a concealed handgun license.