So, NY had a hurricane
Queens residents arm themselves against looters, with bows an arrows. And in Brooklyn, they’re taking up baseball bats. These people need guns. But it’s OK as Bloomberg says: I don’t think we’ve had a murder in two or three days. That’s comforting. Other than the looting, it’s fine.
Also, this one is a head-scratcher. Bloomberg won’t let the national guard in because only the NYPD should have guns. And it could lead to a police state. Uhm, have you been to NYC?
November 4th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
I’d be a Police State *he* didn’t control.
November 4th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Dammit, Jack beat me to it: the Guard wouldn’t take orders from him, so of COURSE he doesn’t want them armed. And he’d probably be happier if they weren’t there at all.
November 4th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Exactly
November 4th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
I thought so.
It was Boomberg who proudly proclaimed, “I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh largest army in the world”
Scary scary dude.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2068428/Bloomberg-I-army-NYPD-State-Department-New-York-City.html
November 4th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
When I moved to NY in ’04 there were still Guardsmen in Penn Station. Far as the interwebs tells me they are still there as part of Joint Task Force Empire Shield.
So it’s a-okay to have the Nat’l Guard patrolling the train stations, but not helping out after a hurricane.
November 5th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
I think they should probably refine that statement of 0 murders to 0 murders reported.
November 5th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
No headscratcher…
I would ordinarily agree, but as a self-serving urban politician, he’s probably thinking more about the votes he would lose if the guard actually shot a bunch of looters (choirboys on the way home from church) than about protecting the innocent and the shopkeepers’ businesses…and after all, it’s only merchandise, and those poor disadvantaged souls really deserve a new flat screen and some sharp new Nike’s…in his view. Think of the lawsuits against him and the city for wrongful deaths of folks jus’ takin’ what they need from those who have too much…kinda like redistribution.
And those stores full of bling and stuff, they just create an “attractive nuisance” and tempted those “folks” into taking the stuff…
I actually think he has a (cynical) rationale for holding back the Guard even though they could bring in shelters, heat, beds, generators, kitchens, and mobile field hospitals…you know, trivial luxuries that Staten Island doesn’t really need…he doesn’t want potential voters being killed while redistributing themselves some wealth.
If they’re stealing food and water and diapers and such, it may be because his disaster recovery effort is, how you say, inadequate.
Kalashnikat