|
Police have tech tools ready for rnc august 2004 { August 20 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/nyregion/20nypd.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/nyregion/20nypd.html
August 20, 2004
Police Show They're Ready for Convention Disorder
By MICHAEL WILSON
High-definition cameras that photograph the undercarriages of trucks. A shiny new Italian-made helicopter with its "night sun" floodlight. Little handsaws straight out of auto-body shops that can cut through chains linking protesters. A metal barrier that will stop a truck cold. Dogs that signal they have smelled explosives by simply sitting down.
The New York City Police Department rolled, flew, marched and trotted out demonstrations of its arsenal yesterday against violent protesters, civil disobedience and the threat of terrorism at the Republican National Convention.
There are gadgets meant to be seen, like the "sally ports" surrounding Madison Square Garden resembling the fortified medieval castle doors for which they are named. And some are meant to be heard: the department's new Long Range Acoustic Device is a 45-pound mega-megaphone that can shout announcements to crowds several blocks deep.
The speakers - never used by a civilian department - are equipped with a shrieking feature for dispersing crowds with painful blasts of noise, but police officials said that feature would not be used during the convention.
The technology is both old and new, and as basic as the clusters of plastic handcuffs that will dangle like garbage-bag ties from the belts of the police.
"I think you'll see that we're prepared, that we've been planning for quite a while, we've been doing a lot of training," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told reporters at the show-and-tell in Brooklyn, his back to a helicopter and assorted black bulletproof trucks. "We're prepared."
The department is expecting hundreds of thousands of protesters in the city for the convention, and while repeating over and over their expectations for a mostly peaceful week, chiefs are preparing for the worst.
For example, one concern involves protesters storming a bus full of delegates on the way to or from the Garden and effectively blinding the driver by slapping signs - coated with glue - against the windshield and windows.
In a situation described in recent briefings to officers, the protesters would then begin shouting that someone has been run over, in an effort to scare delegates and get the driver to leave the bus, said a police spokesman, Paul J. Browne.
"We're prepared to deal with that tactic," he said.
Officers will be placed aboard all delegate buses.
On a wide parking lot of Floyd Bennett Field yesterday, police officers dressed in uniform and others as angry protesters played out four situations, beginning with the "sleeping dragon," a disobedience tactic involving protesters' linking themselves with PVC pipes.
The protesters - young police cadets with blue jeans and crew cuts - sat cross-legged on the asphalt, as if blocking a road, and shouted vague bits of unhappiness like, "No justice, no peace."
Three times as many police officers in riot helmets responded. "Isolate! Isolate! Isolate! Isolate! Isolate!" an officer shouted. Another used a small saw to cut through the plastic pipes.
One by one, each protester was handcuffed, lifted by four officers and taken away.
"Protesters are not, oftentimes, violent," said Inspector Thomas J. Graham of the department's Disorder Control Unit.
In another situation, protesters rushed a bus filled with delegates, pounding on the sides and blocking it from moving forward. The destination sign on the front of the bus changed to "Emergency. Call Police." Officers arrived, gave the protesters one last chance to leave peacefully, and when it was not taken, began the arrests.
One exercise seemed aimed at a peaceful demonstration, with protesters marching in an orderly fashion and holding up signs demanding "no more bloodshed" in the nonexistent country of Upper Grahambia, named for Inspector Graham. The marchers were practically shrouded in a police escort, with patrol cars and officers on foot in front and back and officers on bicycles and motorcycles on the sides.
"These officers have been training on this since last October," Inspector Graham said.
Eight sally ports will be created around Madison Square Garden. As a truck approaches, a knee-high metal barrier lowers, allowing the truck inside a walled-off area blocked on the other side by a second barrier. Officers use the undercarriage camera, mirrors and bomb-sniffing dogs to search for explosives while another officer checks the identification of the driver.
As trucks pass inspection, the second barrier drops, and the truck leaves.
In one drill yesterday, the dog alerted its handler to the presence of explosives, and the officers quickly arrested the driver and his passenger and called the bomb squad.
"The sally ports are part of our efforts to thwart the kind of terrorist attack that has been used many times overseas," Mr. Kelly said.
The acoustic devices cost $35,000 each, and the department bought two, The Associated Press reported yesterday. They were not included in yesterday's demonstrations.
The devices were developed after the 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole as a means of warding off enemy sea craft. This year, models were sent to troops in Iraq. The shrieking tone has been compared to a smoke alarm, only louder. The manufacturer's Web site describes "influencing behavior with a highly irritating warning tone."
Mr. Browne said the devices were brought in as a response to protester complaints after the February 2003 antiwar rally in Manhattan that they could not hear instructions from the police. He said the shrieking function would not be used on convention protesters.
"We're only going to use them for safety announcements and directions," he said.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
|
|
