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Ray Kelly: NYPD Could Take Down A Plane If It Needed To

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» 38 comments

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly has built himself quite the counter-terrorism unit. Appearing last night on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Kelly broke down some of the changes he’s made in the wake of September 11th. “I knew that we had to supplement, buttress our defenses,” he told Scott Pelley. “We couldn’t rely on the federal government alone.” And so he put his 50,000 employees to work devising a heavy-handed anti-terrorism unit on par with any military’s, complete with nuclear radiation detectors, an extensive network of surveillance cameras and, most awesomely, the ability to shoot down rouge aircrafts.

Interviewer Pelley pressed, “Are you satisfied that you’ve dealt with threats from aircraft, even light planes, model planes, that kind of thing?”

“It’s something that’s on our radar screen. In an extreme situation, we have some means to take down a plane,” Kelly replied coyly. “I’d prefer not to get into the details, but obviously this would be a very extreme situation.”

Wired explains that that Kelly is most likely referring to a simple sniper rifle that can be attached to NYPD helicopters and aimed at the engines of small planes. And as Tom McGeveran at Capital New York points out, this isn’t exactly revelatory: New York Daily News reported on the NYPD’s aerial capabilities back in 2005. But nonetheless, New York media has been gripped once more by the NYPD’s staggering expression of power.

CBS’s survey of the $3 billion system also explored the NYPD’s sensitive nuclear radiation detectors (which can even pick up hints of radiation left in a body after medical treatment), their use of officers operating internationally (“Is there anything going on there that can help us better protect the city?”), and their extensive, state of the art surveillance network.

“Nobody has a system like this,” said Jessica Tisch, the department’s director of policy and planning for counterterrorism, explaining that it would be impossible to walk a block in lower Manhattan without being caught on camera. Not addressed were recent AP investigations of NYPD surveillance targeted specifically at muslim communities. Although they did make mention of an NYPD cricket league intended to win the affection of South Asian New Yorkers.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    They can also take down peaceful protesters with pepper spray and strong arm tactics. But MSM won’t cover that.

  • Pablo

    You have to actually watch to find out what they’re covering. Even nasty old Fox covered the arrests this weekend.

  • Anonymous

    FK those protesters. They were duly warned and still broke the law. You right to protest does not give you the right to break the law.

  • http://www.facebook.com/seansolidsnake Sean Dunlap

    what law were they breaking?…………. Protesting?

  • Anonymous

    Take time to watch the videos.

    I’m not your mother.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    Not So Fast, Barack Must Go. Get a job.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    Thank you for not answering the question notsofast. I know why you didn’t because you can’t. The cop maced three females for absolutely no reason, even a fellow cop in the video couldn’t hide his outrage.

    Watch the video BarackMustGo.

  • Anonymous

    You get a life- and the FACTS!

    Cops said they began making arrests when the march strayed into the streets and blocked traffic, and protesters ignored their orders to stay on the sidewalks.

    “Those arrested were engaged in disorderly conduct, namely impeding vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic, and in some instances resisting arrest, inciting to riot, obstructing governmental administration, and assaulting a police officer,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/09/25/2011-09-25_wall_street_protesters_jailed_after_union_square_scuffle_vow_to_keep_fighting_fo.html#ixzz1Z52JIDB2

  • Anonymous

    See below; I just ate your lunch, boy!

    And it was so funny that you could not discuss the topic of this post and had to change the subject!

    LOL

    BTW, tell me who I am again?

    I love it so!

  • Anonymous

    You mean the “hippies gone wild” demonstrators?

  • burkem

    Um, I think you mean rogue aircraft, not rouge–unless terrorist are following the old Homeland Security color system.

  • Kairho

    We simply MUST shoot down those rosy cheeked airplanes.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    You are a joke nutsofast. Not to mention a tool of the elites. Enjoy your tyranny.

  • Anonymous

    I can’t read your mind- where did ya say you wanted it- the stomach or the face?

  • Charley James

    The entire segment was disturbing, not the least of which was the Commissioner’s boast that he can take down an airplane. Uh, isn’t that the job of the Air Force acting on the order of the President?

    What Kelly has set up in New York is the prorotypical police state. What was unfortunate is that Scott Pelley never asked Kelly about the on-going surveillance of neighborhoods where people whose skin color is anything other than white. In the segment, Kelly boasted of the NYPD sponsoring a cricket league in a heavily-Pakistani neighborhood. What he didn’t say – and, for some reason, Pelley never asked – is that the underlying purpose of the cricket sponsorship by PAL is to infiltrate the neighborhood and, in effect, gets kids to spy on their families and families to spy on their neighbors.

    At what point will New Yorkers say “enough is enough.” Safety is one thing but turning all of the boroughs (and other cities around the world) into Kelly’s Commando’s is something entirely different. The 60 Minutes fluff piece was disheartening.

  • Anonymous

    Are you referencing the young women who were behind a police net and were not engaged in any illegal activity?

    You tell people to watch the videos.  I have.  Those women were on the sidewalk and behind a corral net.  They were following police orders.  As such they were maliciously sprays with pepper spray at point blank range. 

  • Anonymous

    By all means, let’s take the word of an official from the entity that is being accused of undue violence.

  • Anonymous

    No, you can watch the videos, troll!

  • Anonymous

    Try again.

  • Anonymous

    An unoriginal, juvenile response with absolutely no substance. 

    That does not negate the fact that you’re wrong and that any person with eyes can easily see that the pepper spraying of those women was malicous and unjustified. 

    As I said, they were standing on the sidewalk and behind a corral net.  They were following police orders and not breaking any laws. 

    What laws were they breaking?

  • Anonymous

    Those women were not arrested!

    Try again!

  • Anonymous

    I have watched the videos.  And more so, I live in NYC and have seen how aggressive the police have been with these protesters. 

    Sorry, I’ll have to rely on my own two eyes over your precious NYPD-issued statement.

  • Anonymous

    Yet another response without substance.

    I did not say they were arrested.  I said they were pepper sprayed, which they were and unjustifiably so.  Not to mention that the blue collar cops holding the net were also victims of this malicious act.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    I know the irony is completely lost on you, someone with the word freedom in their name and yet embrace the tyranny of the elites. You deserve the boot of the elite on your neck. You welcome it.

  • Anonymous

    Read my 1st. comment on this “OT” subject.

    You are the one without any substance.

  • Anonymous

    Read my 1st. comment on this “OT” subject.You are the one without any substance.
    LOL

  • Anonymous

    Once again, the women that were pepper sprayed were on the sidewalk.

    Funny that you’re calling me the one without substance when you copypasted your own insult twice.

  • Anonymous

    Who, in your narrow little mind, do you consider to be the “elites” that are being so tyrannical?

  • Guest

    Big deal. A bird can take down an airplane. 

  • Colonel Lingus

    The N.Y.P.D. will shoot someone for parking in front of a club with tinted windows, do we really want them to have this kind of power?  This sounds like a bad episode of 24.

  • Anonymous

    And a pair of shoes! maybe that’s what they have!

  • Incitatious

    “…to shoot down ROUGE aircraft…”. Really? Are they more dangerous than fuschia aircraft?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-A-Kirkland/1082430232 Brian A. Kirkland

    “Aircrafts”? Why do they print so many grammatical errors on this site? Does anyone proof read submissions?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    Mediaite writers are a lazy bunch, this website is full of spelling and grammatical errors. Probably doesn’t help things that the average age of a Mediaite “journalist” is 22.

  • Anonymous

    Military. 

    Industrial.

    Complex.

  • Anonymous

    Try again!

  • Nature Freak

    When will NYC join the “nuclear club”?

    Will this start an arms race in major urban cities across America?

  • Nature Freak

    Will the next city that beats the New York Yankees in the World Series get annihilated?
    Or at least the plane carrying the rival team?
    This could bring inter city sports rivalries with NYC to a whole other level.

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