Lissa
November 5, 2003, 11:09pm
21
Good idea, but what if you don’t have one?
A smart robber won’t let you out of his sight to go get the tape. He’ll go with you to get the tape from the machine.
*Originally posted by Larry Mudd *
The possibilty of terrorists’ use of emergency vehicles was already on the table, because it had already been established that that’s something terrorists do , and NYC officials were warning the public that they had concerns baddies were planning something similar in NYC. It was the talk of the town already.
The NYP article led almost immediately to tighter controls being placed on the over-the-counter sale of official-looking decals for emergency vehicles, because public awareness helps get things like that moving. Even with all the security warnings , Manhattan businesses were quite happy to hand over these items for a few hundred bucks, with practically no questions asked. That’s clearly an intolerable situation that you want to correct as soon as possible.
The NYP did not name the store that provided the decals, or the dealer who supplied the roof-rack so it’s not like they were advertising for them. Is pointing out that you can buy replica police gear in Times Square a security risk? Anyone who desired to have such things would have no trouble finding them-- You know-- advertising. The article provided no intelligence or ideas that would not already be obvious to a potential car-bomber – only a fire under the ass of the people who needed to change the situation.
You’ve got a situation that needs to be changed immediately in the interest of public safety. At the same time, no laws are apparently being broken. People are generally resistent to voluntarily act in such a way as to reduce their income. You think that the responsible thing to have done would have been to write a couple of letters and phone a few people and just hope that everything worked out before someone got killed? Direct pressure from the public works a lot faster, sometimes. A business-owner who knows that sixteen million people are concerned that he might be putting them at risk may drop his “It’s a free country – I ain’t breakin’ any laws” attitude a bit quicker. **
Good post, makes sense. Luckily the papers make a buck by sensationalizing this shit though, or we wouldn’t be getting any PSAs.
*Originally posted by Sauron *
There is NO reason to tell the media how much money was stolen. None. Doing so just puts a big “Rob me” sign on your front door. There’s a reason many robbery reports in the media say “escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash” or something similar.
Nor is there a reason to tell the media that a manager on-site can open the store’s safe. In fact, most convenience stores around here make it a point to post little “Time-lock safe/Manager cannot open” stickers in plain sight on the door. Even if that isn’t true, at least it’s a deterrent.
The news stations shouldn’t have broadcast the bit about the cameras. But they were apparently given a ton of information about the store that they never should have received in the first place. **
Not all of this was told to the news stations. The amount stolen was not disclosed, and none of the employees (including the managers) gave interviews. All the info came from the police & their reports
Sauron
November 6, 2003, 5:01pm
24
Color me flabbergasted.
Either the police in your area have a much, much friendlier relationship with the media than anyplace else I’ve seen, or they’re freakin’ morons.
Apparently they’re just turning over complete copies of their reports to the media. Someone needs to explain the concept of “redaction” to them.