Raymond W. Kelly’s remarks Thursday to The New York Young Republican Club started out sounding very boilerplate – like a speech by any of the City’s mayors, police officials, and tourism execs: “Crime is down, tourism is up, come to Times Square and see a show.” So why had the NY Post’s Maggie Haberman announced his appearance as “unusual” and “surprising”?
By the time it was over, it was clear why. We had witnessed this politically independent, world-class police commissioner quietly employ a few dry statistics and facts to slide an anvil off a ledge, allowing gravity to deliver its full weight upon Barack Obama’s head.
New York, “a shining city upon a hill,” has just surpassed Orlando as the number one tourist destination in America, we learn from Mr. Kelly. It is a city so increasingly safe that when crime is rising elsewhere, we are setting new low records for murders-per-million. But it is still under such a severe and constant threat that its streets are crawling, at any given moment, with 1500 to 2000 highly sophisticated radiation detectors, and crammed with live-monitored surveillance cameras downtown (and soon to reach to 60th Street).
A city evidently so safe, prepared, and teeming with carefree tourists that the President of the United States has unilaterally decided it should – no, must – play host to terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s upcoming “criminal” trial in lower Manhattan. Obama, hiding behind the singularly unserious Eric Holder, has recklessly painted an enormous target on NYC’s back, and feverishly directed the attention of our most lethal enemies to its bull’s-eye – against the wishes of its residents and leaders.
“We were not consulted,” Kelly said tersely of the decision. He stated that the trial “will raise the threat level of this city,” a threat that “will not fade any time soon.” And it affects more than lower Manhattan, we learned. “We will have to look at the entire city as a potential target.”
The audience was stunned. Then Kelly opened the floor to questions.
Every audience response which followed – if my memory and others’ is correct – was about terrorism in general and the KSM trial in particular.
One man asked about neighborhood block-watching, especially in light of the unmarked van that recently went unnoticed in Times Square for at least two days. We were assured such strategies are still relevant, and that Kelly and the City are tuned into citizen input. A woman in the audience confirmed the City’s credibility in this regard. She related that after witnessing suspicious activity, she was greeted with ho-hums (and zero follow-up) by every Federal agency she notified, but was taken very seriously by NYPD, and assured that her report was being sent straight to intel. It was obvious who is listening to 3 a.m. calls, and who is snoozing.
The evening’s high point occurred when Marion D.S. Dreyfus rose to her feet and literally begged Kelly to advise the crowd what we could all do – in addition to our unheeded calls and letters – to force Obama to scrap his KSM & Co. showcase in lower Manhattan. Her question sparked thunderous applause from the young professionals.
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