Superbowl Means Time For Spy Cams, Hazmat Squads and Bomb-Sniffing Dogs 75
Toe, The writes "The New York Police Department has quietly installed about 200 temporary surveillance cameras in midtown Manhattan to help spot trouble along 'Super Bowl Boulevard,' a 13-block street fair on Broadway that's expected to draw large crowds during the windup to the game. The temporary cameras for the Super Bowl festivities will supplement a system of thousands of permanent cameras covering midtown and Wall Street that the NYPD monitors from a command center in lower Manhattan. The department has pioneered analytical software that allows it to program the cameras to detect suspicious activity, such as a bag or other objects left in one place for a long time. Hazmat and bomb squads will be on standby. Others officers will patrol with bomb-sniffing dogs. Still more will watch from rooftops and from police helicopters. At a recent security briefing at the stadium, police chiefs and other officials said success will be measured in part by how well authorities conceal all the concern over potential threats." Now it's a proven tradition: Superbowl crowds are a good place to test people-watching gear.
"Temporary" (Score:5, Insightful)
Temporary until they decide they really like them.
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There is no temporary. We have always been at war with The Terrorists.
Temporarily, it's the Terrorists (Score:4, Insightful)
some other group will pop up to unite our hatred until our eyesight is clouded.
Re: Temporarily, it's the Terrorists (Score:3)
So who was it in the 80's hijacking planes and killing elderly Americans on Italian cruise ships?
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Well, we don't hear "Disco Duck " on the radio anymore, perhaps someone has a nonexistant source of evil dryer.
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It doesn't have to even go that far. We're already going after on-line avatars of dead people. We can keep that going forever.
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Re: Temporarily, it's the Terrorists (Score:2)
Re:"Temporary" (Score:4, Interesting)
With a conflict that has always been going on, people will accept it. But they'll be apathetic about it too, so you can get less money out of it.
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With all the ridiculous security required for major events like the Superbowl, New Years eve in Times Square, marathons, Olympics, I'm starting to think that we are only a few years away from the day when spectators will no longer be allowed to attend. The events will be staged for television audiences only. The police will decided that having so many people all congregate in one place is just too high of a security threat.
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JUst Curious (Score:4, Insightful)
why would some terrorist have to set up the big fireworks anywhere near the day of the game?
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They wouldn't, and they haven't, because there are no terrorists. The police are fear mongering scum.
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Well the earlier you put something like that in place the greater the chance someone happens upon it before the main event so to speak.
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You could acquire a concrete manufacturer and bake explosives into construction long ahead of time, like when a new football stadium is being built five years ago
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Bane, is that you?
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Re:JUst Curious (Score:5, Informative)
Explosives, especially homemade explosives, degrade over time and with exposure to moisture and weather. So do control electronics, and organic poisons. The stability of C4 is the exception, rather than the rule. Documented cases of old mines and artillery going off at unexpected times are common in the aftermath of military conflicts around the world. Maintenance in buildings that large, occupied by the pubic on a frequent basis, absolutely require maintenance crews to do thorough inspections to avoid collections of far more mundane materials. Some of the relevant regulations can be found at http://www.fifa.com/mm/documen... [fifa.com].
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Rock and a hard place... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Rock and a hard place... (Score:5, Funny)
. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. So they're just covering their asses, like any employee
So, you are saying the road to hell is paved with covered asses?
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In their defense they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. So they're just covering their asses, like any employee.
If they don't step up "security" they'll be lampooned for inaction and complacency, if they do install cameras and add extra patrols they get call "fear-mongers" and "fascists". But the professional cost of not adding extra security, particularly in light of an (highly unlikely) attack, is greater than if they don't.
No, I'd say the crushing weight of an overly oppressive government hell-bent on taxing us to death with FUD (mixed in with a few lies to keep the hype going) is the true greater cost, considering what it feels like to be "free" these days.
I fear no foreign faceless terrorist directly. I fear named, titled, domesticated ones far more.
What I really want to know is who is paying (Score:3)
Are local tax payers footing the bill for the enhanced police presence? Is every America paying to have TSA goons and FBI thugs swarming about? Or are the NFL and TV broadcasters picking up at least some of the tab?
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Well, as the NFL is classified as a not-for-profit business, I'm gonna go with one (or a combination) of the first two.
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Yes, tax payers cover the costs. And they are significant. New Jersey (where the superbowl isn't even happening) is spending something like $20m just to accommodate extra transportation for the super bowl. Nobody will give exact numbers, so they all just say that the revenue brought in from visitors during the super bowl should offset the cost to the taxpayers. I'm not sure how that works, since if *I* pay *my* taxes and *my* taxes cover the cost of the super bowl transportation, security, amenities, and so
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New Jersey (where the superbowl isn't even happening) is spending something like $20m just to accommodate extra transportation for the super bowl.
Umm ... This year's Superbowl will be played in MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Welcome to your police state (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, holy shit, when police are smothering every angle of a peaceful gathering just in case by default, that's when you know it.
America has had it so good for so long that one act of mass violence happens and they lose their shit (not to mention their rights). There are other countries where such things have historically been the norm, yet haven't resorted to police state tactics.
Has anyone up there even stopped for a moment to think that, just maybe, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy? That all the rights-abridging, war-mongering, imperialistic atrocities committed by America's for-the-government-by-the-government system in the name of "spreading democracy" (AHAHAHAHAHAHA...) is causing certain people to react in such an extreme manner? Or am I being too naive in thinking that they haven't considered this and decided they want it this way?
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And the 100,000+ at the event will gladly accept it, because "better safe than sorry" and "you gotta give up a little freedom and convenience for security durp durp".
Even if that were true... all these resources to protect so many of the most disposable.
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Oklahoma City, Boston, Aurora.... One act? I just counted three, and I'm not even halfway through my first cup of coffee.
No, you just need to adjust your tinfoil chapeau, it's a little tight and the resulting lack of bloodflow to the brain is causing hallucinations.
Well of course. They have to make sure that (Score:4, Funny)
the fans coming in from Washington and Colorado didn't bring any weed with them....
Superbowl??? (Score:1)
What the fuck is a superbowl? Is that like the Super Bowl?
A "superbowl" is what gets packed (Score:3)
when the 2 states that recently legalized weed meet for a championship football game...
That's what allowing muslims free reign brings you (Score:2)
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I can't decide which is more disgusting: your blatant bigotry or your improper use of the word 'reign'. You should be ashamed of yourself, and I'm sure you would be if you were capable of it.
I apologies for the misuse of "reign", and thanks I did not realise that "free rein" and "free reign" have different meanings. On the other matter if you consider it bigoted to point out that a group who are obliged to convert or subdue and use terrorist activities are to blame for increased security - then I'm glad that you weren't in government during WWII.
Superbowl? You mean the "Big Game"? (Score:2)
You can't use the word Superbowl or even Super Sunday without the NFL wanting some money. People have been calling it the the "Big Game", although the NFL is now trying to trademark that term as well.
http://www.techdirt.com/articl... [techdirt.com]
Unless you pay the NFL money, if the NFL has their way, we might have to call it
"that game that happens at the end of the season that determines the champion in the sport that uses the brown oblong ball in the US"
Fuck American Football (Score:1)
Fuck this shit it's not real football, just a bunch of homos touching each others asses and stopping every ten seconds to catch their breath because they are pussies.
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Just call it the Handegg Bowl.
http://www.augmentedplanet.com... [augmentedplanet.com]
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Shouldn't the use of "The Big Game [wikipedia.org]" by Cal & Stanford for *their* football game since 1900 interfere with that?
Yawn (Score:2)
The Super Bowl was at Stanford once, in 1985. The local attitude was "yawn". Nobody cared. I was on the Stanford campus at the time, but on the other side of campus at the time, and it had zero impact over there.
Advance notice (Score:1)