Yesterday, Police Commissioner Bratton announced plans for a new anti-terrorism program which would empower a team of NYPD officers to roam around the city carrying machine guns. He said that the 350 cop unit, called The Strategic Response Group, would be dedicated to "disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities," which would be used to investigate and combat terrorist plots and your garden variety political protests. But the NYPD has now walked that last bit back today after a fiery backlash.
According to the Daily News, Chief of Department James O’Neill made the announcement today at a press conference after an NYPD promotions ceremony. "They will not be involved in handling protests and demonstrations. They'll have no role in protests. Their response is single-fold. They'll be doing counter-terror work. They’ll be assigned to different posts throughout the city."
Previously, Bratton made it crystal clear that this heavily-armed new unit was initially intended to police protests, such as those that came about because of grand jury decisions in Ferguson and Staten Island: "The officers will have the dedicated mission of protecting locations (and) being able to assist us in dealing with demonstrations," Bratton said yesterday.
So...that's comforting? Now instead of machine guns, political activists just have to worry about deafening sound cannons, pepper spray, police batons, circulation-cutting handcuffs, and regular ol' handguns.
The pilot program will start in two precincts in Manhattan and two in Queens, though it's unclear when they want to launch it. Officers will be outfitted with "extra heavy protective gear," long rifles and machine guns. Bratton thinks the specter of heavily armed police officers in neighborhoods will improve relations between cops and citizens ("I truly believe when cops embrace their neighborhoods, their neighborhoods will embrace them back"), which sounds a bit like the plot of Robocop, but hey, we'll find out soon enough.
