NYPD Seeks an Air Monitor Crackdown for New Yorkers

NYPD Seeks an Air Monitor Crackdown for New Yorkers

Damn you, Osama bin Laden! Here's another rotten thing you've done to us: After 9/11, untold thousands of New Yorkers bought machines that detect traces of biological, chemical, and radiological weapons. But a lot of these machines didn't work right, and when they registered false alarms, the police had to spend millions of dollars chasing bad leads and throwing the public into a state of raw panic.

OK, none of that has actually happened. But Richard Falkenrath, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, knows that it's just a matter of time. That's why he and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have asked the City Council to pass a law requiring anyone who wants to own such detectors to get a permit from the police first. And it's not just devices to detect weaponized anthrax that they want the power to control, but those that detect everything from industrial pollutants to asbestos in shoddy apartments. Want to test for pollution in low-income neighborhoods with high rates of childhood asthma? Gotta ask the cops for permission. Why? So you "will not lead to excessive false alarms and unwarranted anxiety," the first draft of the law states.

Last week, Falkenrath made his case for the new law before the City Council's Public Safety Committee, where Councilman Peter Vallone introduced the bill and chaired the hearing. Dozens of university researchers, public-health professionals, and environmental lawyers sat in the crowd, horrified by the prospect that if this law passes, their work detecting and warning the public about airborne pollutants will become next to impossible. But Falkenrath pressed on, saying that unless the police can determine who gets to look for nasty stuff floating in the air, the city would be paralyzed by fear.

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Efforts like this one make my blood run cold...

Aside from yet another ridiculous example of the government 'fixing' a problem that doesn't exist, you can't help but wonder why it was approached in this manner.

Unbelievable.

:shk:

relentless persuit of control......

reply to post by last time here


But why control this?

Think about it. Legislation like this keeps you at the complete mercy of the government for this type of information.

No accountability.

Morons.

this all just reminded me of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. We couldn't believe our chemical alarm systems. They went off when we didn't expect them too and then didn't go off when they should have gone off. What the f?

Someone needs to take some readings there and publish them, or even a video to rub in their noses.

My uncle (a transit detective) became deathly ill not too long after the search and rescue effort at the WTC. he died the following year. They said the air was safe to breathe, but evidently not so. I think it has less to do though with the air and is more due to a radiation source.

The way I see it is that if there is no problem, there should be no problem with anyone monitoring air quality, or whatever else have you. There are a lot of people doing a lot of strange things in Manhattan at any given time. it's just the culture, so providing there was nothing to hide I think this wouldn't be treated out of the ordinary.

Of course I wouldn't know being in Detroit, but I also have a cousin in the transit Authority and an Uncle in the NYFD who were both also there. They are adamant that everything that happened there was deliberate. Ihave to believe them and everything I have seen lends their stories a lot of credibility.

But anyway, to hell with them banning anything. I say someone does it anyway and documents the results so they can be published. Enough is enough.