July 25
...serving up your daily dish.
Another Sunday in the city, from the Daily News. Here's hoping there's no one who looks suspicious on your DeCamp bus today:
In a dramatic sign of the city's edginess since the London transit bombings, cops evacuated buildings, shut midtown streets and forced about 60 terrified tourists to march off the double-decker bus, with their hands up, in the heart of Broadway.
Cops in riot gear handcuffed a group of apparently harmless South Asian-looking men with British accents after a jittery tour bus worker reported they seemed suspicious.
The men were forced to kneel on the sidewalk, with their hands bound behind their backs, between 50th and 51st Sts. in front of the Winter Garden theater on a sunny summer Sunday with the city packed with tourists.
"People were really scared," said Jill Sully, 29, of Saskatoon, Canada. "There were sharpshooters with guns pointed toward our bus."
"I was scared out of my mind," said another passenger, Amanda Pesanello, 20, of Coventry, R.I. "We don't have things like this in Rhode Island."
July 25, 2005 in Paranoia Beat | Permalink
[Police eventually gave the allclear and the tourists were ushered into a nearby Applebee's restaurant for lunch.]
Man! You come allll the way to NYC for a visit and then you have to eat Applebees for lunch!?!
Posted by: butchcjg | Jul 25, 2005 10:05:01 AM
another smile from the terrorists--better however to be scared and go home--albeit unnecessarily cuffed or as a tourist watching terrified--then to be disfigured for life or your body parts flown on an airplane home for your family to bury--
do i have an answer well of course i have my own ideas but ....Again when your dealing with a group who will glady blow themselves up along side of you-the answers are hard if not impossible to employ.
it is hard for us to phanthom and inconvienant to our freedom that to win the war we must try to blow the bomb up before it is detonated with as few casualties as possible.
u can bury your head in the sand but this is war in the homeland and it was just a matter of time (a time that goes back before the Bush Sr., Bush Jr. and Blair's administration)
a line in the grocery store sends us popping paxil (and i am not criticizing since i have been known to walk out of starbucks on numerous ocassions muttering obscenities) just saying that things have changed and our philosophy must change too-
because they are counting on the fact that it won't.
random searchs-computer monitoring--to name just a few--infringemnet of some of our freedoms might be necessary in order to secure our freedoms----and our children's safety-
--green tea frap anyone?
Posted by: cstarling | Jul 25, 2005 10:34:28 AM
> Man! You come allll the way to NYC for a visit and then you have to eat Applebees for lunch!?!
Notice that the tourists were "ushered" into Applebee's. I believe they were forced to eat there. It's the only explanation.
(Though I had a tasty chicken wrap at the Clifton one recently.)
Posted by: Chris | Jul 25, 2005 11:26:37 AM
Poor guys. It's a scary time to be brown these days.
Posted by: Seriously Though | Jul 25, 2005 12:17:25 PM
seriously though mohammad a man of color called in the threat--
Posted by: cstarling | Jul 25, 2005 12:22:08 PM
"It's a scary time to be brown these days."
Unless your name is Fareed Zakaria.
Posted by: walleroo | Jul 25, 2005 12:51:28 PM
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
And brown people can be just as irrationally afraid of other brown people (especially if they are a different brown people). The detainees were "South Asian" and the driver does not appear to be.
Posted by: eleVate | Jul 25, 2005 1:00:56 PM
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Does anyone actually *read* that quote?
Essential liberty = no random bag search ?
Temporary safety = Not being killed on the M46 bus?
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Jul 25, 2005 1:33:17 PM
cstarling -- does it matter who called in the threat when there's a gun to your head ? i didn't say "white people are evil", i said it is scary to be brown. trust me, i know.
Posted by: Seriously Though | Jul 25, 2005 1:34:50 PM
Essential Liberty:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Temporary Security:
http://www.baristanet.com/barista/2005/07/to_search_or_no.html#comments
There is no demonstrated basis to say that we are even slightly safer this week with the bag checks? As the argument that there's no evidence "because we've scared the terrorists away" I still say it doesn't pass the smell test. We got rid of terrorists by making them walk 10 blocks to the next station? Or making them get on the train at Bay Street (or any other suburban station) and ride it into Penn before exploding their sucide bomb? No way.
Posted by: eleVate | Jul 25, 2005 3:00:09 PM
(Man! You come allll the way to NYC for a visit and then you have to eat Applebees for lunch!?!)
I mostly agree with Butch's post, BUT, have you EVER tried the chocolate molten dessert thing? My D loves A'bees and 'forced' me to have lunch there once. I had this dessert and it could match anything at any fine NYC establishment. The rest of the lunch, however, was mediocre...
Posted by: Pam | Jul 25, 2005 3:09:22 PM
