The following is via the Weekly Standard:
New York City police chief Bill Bratton is worried about ISIS. So worried, in fact, that he’s going to assign 450 New York Police Department cops to fight terrorism that may come from the Islamic State.
“We need to be very concerned about terrorism … The significantly increased threat from ISIS using social media to recruit people not only to go to Syria to fight, but encouraging people … to attack police, to attack government officials, to basically brainwash them under their screwed-up ideology. That threat has expanded significantly in the now 16 months I’ve been police commissioner,” Bratton said on the John Catsimatidis radio show.
“We’re treating that threat so seriously, I’m going to put another 450 police officers – if we get the approval to increase the size of the police force – and I need to do it very very quickly – into our counterterrorism operations to increase the ability of our officers to protect critical sites around the city. Or, if we were to have an incident, so I’d have a lot more officers in the streets with the appropriate equipment to deal with active shooters or hostage situations.
“We are entering a new era where we cannot live in fear, but we have to live increasingly aware of our surroundings … This crazy hijacking of the Muslim religion by these fanatics, twisting it into an ideology that’s all about hate and murder and killing.”
Bratton said he’d work with the New York City mayor on getting the cops he needs to do the job. “I’m making a case for a very specific number of officers to support the initiatives that the mayor has indicated he wants us to focus on: counter-terrorism, improved training, improved responsiveness and trust to the various minority communities, in particular, in the city. So, we have presented to him numbers that, I think, will deliver what he is indicating he is looking for,” he said.
“Politics is the art of negotiation. I think there’s going to be common ground that we’ll hopefully get most of what we’re looking for to implement the mayor’s plans.”
(Source: Weekly Standard)
2 Responses
Wait a second.
If a policeman on “ISIS patrol” sees a non-terrorist murderer or mugger or rapist on the loose, he’ll let him go? And if a regular cop sees a terrorist, he’ll say “not my problem”? And will the “ISIS patrol” check the ID on all terrorists to make sure they are affiliated with ISIS before shooting them (heaven forbid they should waste their time arresting someone from a different terrorist group)?
Why doesn’t he just say “Give my department more money so we can hire more cop”?
The fight against terrorism in general and ISIS in particular cannot be won when the security has to be approved by a liberal mayor such as ours. When the mayor thinks that peace can be won with speeches and news conferences, there is no doubt in my mind we are losing the fight against terrorism.