Category Archives: NYPD

NYPD Shield Assessment for Occupy Wall St, Nov 17

| | Tweet |NYPD Shield, NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau, Terrorism Threat Analysis Group, “Countering Terrorism Through Information Sharing” sent me an email:

RE: NYPD SHIELD – Plans for All-Day “Mass Non-Violent Direct Action” On November 17th, 2011

Demonstrations are scheduled to take place in multiple locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City on Thursday, November 17^th, 2011. To view a copy of our assessment containing information regarding these demonstrations, please log into our website at secure.nypdshield.org and click on the Plans for All-Day “Mass Non-Violent Direct Action” On November 17th, 2011 PDF file under “Features.”

Regards,

NYPD SHIELD

I logged in. Downloaded the PDF. Here’s the text of the assessment:

Plans for All-Day “Mass Non-Violent Direct Action” on November 17th

Executive Summary

Demonstrations are scheduled to take place in multiple locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City on Thursday, November 17th.

Stated locations for mass demonstrations include the New York Stock Exchange and Foley Square.

Goals of the demonstrations include occupying subway trains, bridges in New York City, and Foley Square.

Advertisements for the demonstrations are being disseminated on various websites, online forums, social media groups, and blogs associated with the hacking group Anonymous, and the event has already received coverage in mainstream media sources.

Background

Recently, posts appeared on websites associated with groups engaged in protests in New York City and other cities announcing all-day citywide public demonstrations opn Thursday, November 17th. The demonstrations, labeled the day of Mass Non-Violent Direct Action!, are being heavily publicized and have three goals: 1) Shut Down Wall Street; 2) Occupy the Subways; and 3) Take The Square (referring to Foley Square). Organizers of the planned demonstration hope that many thousands of people will participate. Although the planned demonstrations call for non-violent direct action, in recent weeks protests in other cities in the United States and Europe have led to riots, clashes with law enforcement, physical assaults, and property damage.

Schedule of Public Actions on November 17th

Shut Down Wall Street

Time: 7:00 AM

Location: New York Stock Exchange, Lower Manhattan

Description: This demonstration is planned to begin at Zuccotti Park and lead to a mass-gathering in front of the New York Stock Exchange prior to the opening bell of the market.

Occupy the Subways

Time: 3:00 PM

Description: This demonstration is planned to involve multiple groups protesting on subway platforms and trains.

Take The Square

Time: 5:00 PM

Location: Foley Square, Lower Manhattan

Description: This demonstration is planned to follow Occupy the Subways and to involve large groups gathering and then marching to “the bridges.”

I agree with the many of the Occupiers, and with members of the Tea Party, that there are profound systemic challenges facing the United States, and humanity; however, the goals noted above, along with Tea Party solutions as enunciated by Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Paul Ryan, etc., are patently absurd. While the Tea Party can shut down the Federal Government – many are members of Congress – the Occupiers cannot “Shut Down Wall Street.” They are unarmed. They wear t-shirts, sweat-shirts, and jeans. The NYPD officers surrounding Zuccotti Park are heavily armed and wear riot gear. Similarly, based on my personal observations and my reading news accounts, primarily in the NY Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, it seems that most of the physical assaults and much of the property damage described in the analysis portion of NYPD Shield’s “Threat Assessment” was committed by members of the police and directed against the protesters; including, for example, clearing Zuccotti Park and destroying the property of the occupiers, beginning 1:30 AM local time, Tuesday, November 15. (Note comment 19, to the NY Times Editorial “The Mayor Confronts the Occupiers“. The Mayor DIDN’T confront the occupiers. The Mayor sent in the police who arrested many and destroyed whatever property was left.)

Having said that, I must note that the writers and editors of Popular Logistics are not associated with the hacking group “Anonymous.” And I also would like to respectfully point out that NYPD Shield is, ironically, one of the “online forums, social media groups, and blogs” that is disseminating information – essentially advertising – the demonstrations. (Obviously, Popular Logistics is another.)

NYPD_Shield.Assessment.Mass_Nonviolent_Direct_Action_11_17_2011

Oyster Creek To Close in 2019

Oyster Creek, courtesy of Nukeworker.com

Chicago, Illinois based Exelon Corporation recently announced that it will close the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 2019. (NY Times, NJ.com AP). Oyster Creek, in Lacey, New Jersey, is the nation’s oldest operating nuclear power plant. It’s roughly 75 miles south of New York City and 60 miles east of Philadelphia. Exelon was recently granted a 20-year extension on its operating license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission despite the wishes of local environmentalists, environmental groups, and people concerned about evacuations in the event of an emergency, and public concerns from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.

The plant uses a single pass cooling system which sucks in 500 Billion gallons of cool water each year (click here) from Barnegat Bay, heats it 20 to 30 degrees, and returns the heated water to the bay. This kills billions of adult and juvenile fish, clams, crabs, and shrimp, and hundreds of billions, if not trillions of hatchlings, less than a centimeter in length. This has had a negative effect – possibly a disastrous effect – on the fish and wildlife populations of Barnegat Bay during the 40 year operating life of the plant to date. The NJ DEP demanded that Exelon retrofit the plant with cooling towers.

Exelon claims the cooling towers would cost $600 million, roughly $1.00 per watt for the 610 megawatt reactor. Other estimates for the cooling towers range from $200 million to $800 million. Exelon decided to close the plant rather than spend the money on the cooling towers and other maintenance. This is a gain for current Exelon shareholders as they defer a hundreds of millions on capital improvments, and corresponding hundreds of millions of liabilities, while they collect revenues and realize profits from the sale of electricity for the next nine years.

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Con Ed Urged to Improve Its Response to Gas Leaks/P.S.C. gently applies pressure to Con Edison

Ken Belson of the Times reported in June that state investigators had “suggested … ways that Consolidated Edison and the New York City Fire Department can better coordinate their response to gas leaks.”

After a seven-month investigation, the Public Service Commission is recommending that the utility ask firefighters to remain until safe conditions are restored, improve the way information about gas leaks is shared and set parameters for ordering evacuations.

The Fire Department and Con Edison were criticized for how they handled the deadly explosion, at a house in Sunnyside, on Nov. 21. The Fire Department said it did nothing wrong when it left after checking a report of a gas odor because Con Edison officials had taken control of the situation. The utility said it acted appropriately because it did not have information suggesting that any of the people in the houses in the area were in danger.

A 69-year-old woman, Kunta Oza, who lived at 48-19 41st Street, died a day after being burned in the explosion.

Con Edison, which said it followed its established procedures for dealing with gas leaks on the day of the explosion, has since improved its protocols, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

“We’ve worked closely with the Fire Department with respect to improving procedures for responding to gas complaints, maintaining emergency personnel presence on site and coordinating evacuations when necessary,” said the spokesman, Michael Clendenin.

Con Edison has already implemented some of the “actions to improve safety” that were recommended by the Public Service Commission. On Wednesday, staff investigators discussed their findings from the explosion at a commission meeting in Albany. The investigation is complete, but the report has not yet been released.

But Kenneth P. Thompson, a lawyer who is representing Mrs. Oza’s family in a civil suit against Con Edison, said the investigators’ findings showed that “Con Ed was negligent and caused Mrs. Oza’s death.” The report, he said, includes details about rusted gas pipes.

“Con Ed had a duty to fix that pipe, and that it wasn’t on their priority list shows they were negligent,” Mr. Thompson said. Mrs. Oza’s family is seeking $100 million in damages from Con Edison.

Officials for Con Edison said the utility did not comment on pending lawsuits.

Councilman Eric N. Gioia, who represents Sunnyside, said the commission had ignored the destruction caused by the explosion and should penalize Con Edison. (The commission did not assess penalties as part of the investigation.)

“The Public Service Commission continues to confirm our worst fears that they are little more than a public shield for Con Ed’s behavior instead of being the watchdog they need to be,” Mr. Gioia said. “Whether it’s getting electrocuted, steam pipe explosions or this, at most, the Public Service Commission gives them a slap on the wrist.”

Con Ed Urged to Improve Its Response to Gas Leaks, June 19, 2008 .

Interestingly, the Public Service Commission entitled its press release

GAS DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES IMPROVE SAFETY RECORD
-Effort Underway to Further Improve Safety Performance–

On the same day that it expanded the definition of “major” system failure so that it means a system failure for 10% or more of Con Ed’s customers a maximum fine of $10 million, and a maximum of three

incidents per year. ” PSC Redefines Major Outages for Con Edison.” Have three major incidents – and the fourth, fifth and sixth – and every later one – are on the house. – Con Ed admits to having 3.176 million customers (SeeCon Ed Fact Sheet here) – so the message here is – try to keep the system failures to 300,000 customers or less – but if things get very bad – you’ll never have to pay more than $30 million in fines.

This doesn’t seem like a particularly effective deterrent.