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This attack was aimed at the heart of Manhattan. The suspected terrorist detonated his primitive pipe bomb not in Times Square, but in an underground passage below. December 11, 2017. New York, which boasts of being the safest major city in the USA, has hit.
Hit again after being attacked by a pickup truck just six weeks earlier. The security of the city is once again under scrutiny.
“The reality here in New York is: We are a target. For many who are against democracy, against freedom. We are a target – with the Statue of Liberty in our harbor.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo describes a reality. And a counter-reality: New York not only has the best police force in the USA, but on the entire planet. Or so he says.
Uniformed and uninformed
Maki Haberfeld may not have seen the whole planet, but he has seen a lot of the world. Born in Poland, she worked in an anti-terrorist unit in Israel and later for drug investigators in New York. She is now a professor at the John Jay College criminal law university and helps the New York police with their training. Her class has just been about a potential attack on the subway with suspicious packages. A police officer’s suggestion, and I wasn’t joking, kick it off with your foot.
The expert was appalled by so much uniformed ignorance. At the same time, the professor acknowledges that New York has made progress in its fight against terrorism.
“Two years ago a new unit was created. The Strategic Defense Group. All these police officers get a completely different training. They have different weapons. They get more training in the use of force. Of weapons, in self-defense.”
Prominent places well secured, other places less so
New York is a target for attacks because it is a stage in the world, says Maki Haberfeld. And the police send their officers to the most prominent places on this stage: Times Square, Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center.
“There are areas of the city that are safer – like around tourist attractions. But once you get past those high-level attractions, I don’t think the city is necessarily as safe as it likes to say it is.
Brooklyn or Bronx call them, and there above all Projects, a kind of social housing construction. Police chief James O’Neill knows these areas, of course – but it’s just about a small universe of criminals, as he describes it:
“It’s very few, just a few thousand people. We’ll get them off the streets with laser precision.”
Crime statistically decreased
In early December, Police Chief and Mayor Bill de Blasio invited to the latest press conference on crime statistics.
“The bottom line: if trends continue through the end of the year, our residents will have experienced the safest year in over half a century.”
Murder rate: down. At the beginning of December there were 263, in the previous year 314. The use of firearms fell by a quarter. Overall crime has fallen by seven percent. James O’Neill turns out to be a happy police chief.
263 murders – in 1990 it was almost tenfold: 2245. But Professor Haberfeld is not impressed by these numbers either. At least they are not solely due to police work. But also for better medical care, for example. And first of all, a coroner has to certify a murder before it gets into the statistics.
“It takes. Sometimes months. That’s how you can shift the numbers. That doesn’t just apply to New York, but in general. I’m skeptical about such numbers.”
Decentralized police structure
The city has 35,000 police officers. An army in police uniforms. In addition, there is the National Guard, State Troopers, station police, and and and.
“I don’t think much of this decentralized police force in the USA,” says Haberfeld. “No one else even comes close. There are 18,000 police units across the US. New York State has almost 600. So what you experience in New York is just a fraction of a fraction. I don’t think that works well. “
Coordination, communication, responsibilities – none of this will get any easier.
According to Maki Haberfeld, the police chief’s laser precision involves three tactics. First: the anti-terrorist units you mentioned earlier. Secondly, courting the citizens’ trust – they should be the eyes of the police. Mayor de Blasio therefore wants an accessible police force that is as diverse as their city:
“When a local resident reports a drug dealership, an illegal club, illegal gun ownership. All of that helps the police to do more and more.”
“We have so many eccentric people”
And then there’s the age-old slogan: If you see something, say something. If you see something, say something.
But – one already suspects it – Maki Haberland also finds this police strategy inadequate.
“‘Say something if you see something’ – that doesn’t mean anything in a city like New York. We have so many eccentric people. That has to be more specific. You have to tell me exactly: what is this ‘something’ that I’m paying attention to target.”
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