This Scares the Hell out of me

[Just Plain Ruff]

http://www.emsresponder.com/article/articl...n=1&id=4724

Not only do we have crappy security which we've always known but now we've just truly broadcasted this to the terrorist masses out there.

It's like saying - HEY come on over to the railyard, drop a dirty bomb on a unwatched unsecured train car and watch it go BOOM

[emt322632]

It's true that we've broadcast to the terrorists the problems that apparently litter the railway and chemical industries, but this may also be the only way to get the attention this issue truly deserves. Look what happened in the 1900s when Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, about the meatpacking industry, vast sweeping changes in regulations governing food, it lead to the creation of the FDA even.

Granted we're airing our dirty laundry, but sadly maybe this is the only way to get the laundry cleaned.

[Richard B the EMT]

I have somewhat similar a question, especially after a recent daytime assault with a shoulder launched missile on an embassy in the middle of a european city, where the perpetrators have not been caught.

There's a toll-bridge connecting the Rockaway Peninsula and the community of Broad Channel, operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Bridge and Tunnel operations. There's a walkway, which during the warmer months, used to be where dozens of fishermen and women would attempt to communicate with a fish, by dropping them a line. (Bad joke, but I'm just being myself) Following the 9/11/01 Attack, the walkway was closed to all foot traffic and fishing. The bridge has a more or less clear view of Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The walkway has been reopened, but the Bridge and Tunnel "Officers" forbid photography from the walkway, fishing, or simply standing (Keep walking, no resting!).

A few miles further north, on the same roadway, there's another (free) bridge, this one operated by the NYC Department of Highways, connecting Broad Channel with Howard Beach, and the rest of Queens County, New York City. On the south end of this bridge are 2 small parking lots, under the combined coverage of the NYC Department of Parks, and the National Park Service, as this is a small part of the Gateway National Recreation Area (NPS).

At no time following the attacks, and to this day, has any Law Enforcement agency forbade anyone from fishing, walking, photographing, or even sleeping on the Highway Department bridge, and other than a quick looking at you by the NYPD, the Federal Park PD, or the NY State Environmental Police, as they pass you on patrol, nobody questions anybody in the 2 parking lots.

This area is so close to JFK, you sneeze, a pilot can ask about your health!

A shoulder launched Stinger missile, and a quick getaway north to the "Belt" Parkway, or south to then travel east to Long Island or west to another bridge to Brooklyn...

I, myself, have shot an airplane from this parking lot, but that was a friend's videocam, of the final takeoff of Air France flight 002, the Concorde Supersonic Transport, from JFK.

Obviously, there should be some kind of law enforcement observation, but it is too far from midtown New York (translation: Manhattan), and the closest the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police usually come to the bridge and lots is (stereotype, perhaps) the Dunkin' Donuts, a half mile from the north end of the bridge.

Other than when all the alphabet agencies questioned people in the lot if they might have seen or videoed anything when American Airlines Flight 587 flew over the lots on the way to crashing in Belle Harbor, I rarely, if at all, see any LEOs there.

Someone explain to me how the bridge further away from the airport gets the better security?