The Bloomberg Collection

 

Tired of drab gunmetal blue and black dominating your arsenal? Do a fashion makeover on your weaponry with The Bloomberg Collection of designer gun paints and camouflage.

Wisconsin-based Lauer Custom Weaponry is honoring our hoplophobic mayor with a line of brightly colored paints for each of the 5 boroughs — Manhattan red, Bronx rose, Brooklyn blue, Queens green, and Staten Island orange. They even include a stencil of Mayor Mike’s face for the barrel of the gun.

If urban camouflage is more your taste, Lauer also offers the Bloomberg Collection EZ Camo Kit with a brick-wall-and-graffiti motif for only $129.

Not surprisingly, our ingrateful mayor doesn’t appreciate the tribute. “By coloring these guns, a real one looks like a toy, and a police officer won’t be able to tell the difference,” the mayor huffed.

That’s the same excuse Bloomberg and his nanny-state allies used in 2003, when they tried to ban all toy guns from New York City — until the Manhattan Libertarian Party rode to the rescue.

Of course, it’s a total urban myth that cops are shooting innocent kids because they mistake toy guns for real ones. There’s been exactly one documented incident in NYC since 1994 of a truly innocent child playing with a toy gun and mistakenly being shot. That was in the case of a deaf child playing in a darkened hallway who couldn’t hear the police order him to drop the weapon. The other “children being shot while playing with a toy gun” are inevitably gang-bangers using a fake gun to commit a real robbery.

On the other hand, the police do sometimes mistake a wallet or a cellphone for a gun, with deadly consequences, but so far they haven’t called for a ban on wallets and cellphones.

As of 2006, anyone who uses, buys or sells a gun-coloration kit in New York faces a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Here’s a modest proposal: How about the police refrain from shooting their own guns until they have positively identified a lethal threat? And by threat I don’t mean the mere presence of something that may or may not be a gun. Like say, oh I don’t know, a gun barrel pointed at person, the suspect refusing an order to drop the weapon pointed at a person, or bullets emerging from the barrel.

Paterson Too Good to be True? (Probably)

I know he hasn’t even officially assumed the governorship yet, so it’s way premature to judge him. Still, I just assumed I’d easily find a lot not to like about David Paterson, but honestly I’m having a very hard time of it. Turns out he supports reforming the Rockefeller drug laws, reining in trigger-happy cops, and even voting for non-citizens. Now it turns out he is (or at least was very recently) a big opponent of eminent domain:

If David Paterson as governor displays the opposition to eminent domain that he showed as a state senator, several high-profile development projects in New York City could be derailed or delayed, including a Columbia University expansion, the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, and the transformation of Willets Point in Queens.As a state Senate leader, Mr. Paterson in 2005 held a rally with Council Member Letitia James and state Senator William Perkins on the steps of City Hall during which he called for a statewide moratorium on the use of eminent domain.

Mr. Paterson said a decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Kelo v. City of New London case could lead to a “gold rush” of eminent domain use across the state, The New York Sun reported at the time. He said he would gather legislators and introduce legislation to impose a moratorium on its use.

I’m sure he’ll go along with whatever tax hikes Sheldon Silver proposes (but then again he might surprise us), and all his talk at his press conference yesterday about campaign finance reform made me nervous, but so far we could do a lot worse. Heck, we have done a lot worse — in each of the last three gubernatorial administrations.

Do any of our readers have any dirt on Paterson? Leave a note in the comments.

Warrantless Door-to-Door Gun Searches — Coming Soon to a Police State Near You

 

I usually try to keep local stories on this blog confined to New York City or New York State. But this new program in Boston is so mind-boggingly fascist and ingeniously evil, I had to share. Plus, it’s only a matter of time before a similar program makes its way to New York, so you can say you read it here first.

So the stormtroo–um, I mean police officers–in Beantown have initiated a new “voluntary” program where they knock on doors of private houses and ask if they can come inside without warrants to search for illegal guns. Presumably they are counting on the sheeple being too intimidated to just say no, and naturally they are preying on minority and immigrant communities first.

And woe be the minority or immigrant who has the courage to refuse entry. Think they won’t be targeted for a little extra “community policing” surveillance and enforcement?

New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways

http://www.nytimes.com/…

In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.

Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Officials said the operation would begin in March.

Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.

Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.

Wasted money on the illusion of safety and enhancement of the police state.

Yeah, This Will Reduce “Unwarranted Anxiety”

The NYPD wants you to have to come to them for “permission” before you can own a machine to detect biological, chemical and radiological weapons:

And it’s not just devices to detect weaponized anthrax that they want the power to control, but those that detect everything from industrial pollutants to asbestos in shoddy apartments. Want to test for pollution in low-income neighborhoods with high rates of childhood asthma? Gotta ask the cops for permission. Why? So you “will not lead to excessive false alarms and unwarranted anxiety,” the first draft of the law states.

Ah yes, so research scientists and community groups will soon have to seek the blessing of cops before doing their work. Everybody sing, “I Looove New Yorrrk!”

Boo-Hoo in Blue

I love this site Cops Writing Cops. As we’ve documented before, cops don’t even try to hide the fact that they consider themselves above the law. Those renegades who actually think the law should apply to everyone get nominated by their “brothers” for the Dick of the Month Award. Naturally, many of New York’s Whiniest share their sob stories at CWC:

I am an active police officer in the NYPD and was driving down to Florida on March 4th 2007 which was the first time I have driven to Florida, not realizing in time the sign changed 65 to 45 i was slowing down and was nailed doing 61 in a 45 by Officer Brown 2416 (the summons copy is light) of LAWTEY PD Bradford County FL. I had to pay $185 which I didn’t have on this avoidable summons. This officer could have cared less that he was writing another active police officer, I go out of my way to take care of other cops no matter where you may be visiting from.

Gee, he thinks a speedtrap is unfair — but only when it catches a fellow officer.

Here’s another gem:

While employed with the NYPD I was traveling on I-10 in the Florida panhandle in May of 2003 and I was accompanied by my wife and at the time 2 year old son. There was no traffic and it was a bright sunny day. I was pulled over by a Florida Highway Patrol Officer named Trooper Love. I’ll never forget that name because of the love he showed me. when he got to my car I identified myself as a New York City Police officer… As we walked back I asked him if he collected patches because I had a NYPD patch from the detail that I worked for. He said that he doesn’t need that he just needs my driver’s license. I obliged and he began to write the summons in front of me. At this point I asked him if perhaps he could lessen the speed, to which he replied “Can’t do that. Judge round these parts frowns upon that.” … Trooper Love definitely belongs in the Hall of Fame for Dick Cops!!

In other words, Dick Cop = Cop Who Actually Has Some Integrity.

Hat tip: Hit & Run

Cops Grudgingly Give Transgender Group “Permission” to Exercise 1st Amendement Rights

Just in time for Gay Pride Week, the NYPD has backed down and reached a settlement with the Audrey Lorde Project, a transgender group, onNYTurf is reporting. The cops had denied the group a parade permit for a second year in a row, so the trannies dragged the cops into court. (I just got a funny visual image of some transgender folks literally dragging some cops by their ears.) Anyway, they’ve apparently reached a settlement, and despite the NYPD’s better judgment, the transgender group will be allowed to peacefully assemble tomorrow.

Arrest of the Bumblebee

 If you decide to wear black and yellow, better not show up at any events that could be designated as “Latin.” This past weekend’s Puerto Rican Day Parade proved that cops will look for just about any excuse to make arrests. A high school senior was singled out for wearing black and yellow sneakers, which are the colors of the Latin Kings gang. According to NY1, the aforementioned student was only one of 208 people arrested; 198 of whom were classified as gang members.

The New York Times admits that the number of arrests have increased significantly since last year’s parade, and even included a 55-year-old New Jersey postal worker this time around.

How Government Causes Traffic Jams

The New York Post raises an excellent point with respect to Mayor Mike’s controversial congestion pricing traffic plan. Before we start charging ordinary motorists $8 for the privilege of driving into midtown, we could probably go a long way toward relieving traffic congestion by simply revoking some of the 47,000 special parking permits that allow government bureaucrats to park pretty much wherever the hell they want with impunity. As the Post notes:

The parking placards clearly make driving to work attractive: While 14 percent of private-sector workers come in by car, 27 percent of government staffers do, a 2006 study found. That translates to 20,000 extra drivers a day.

In other words, thanks in large part to parking passes from Mayor Mike - and his bureaucratic friends in Albany and Washington - Gotham must put up with 20,000 more cars on its streets.

The Post goes on to note that “some of these drivers have legitimate reasons for using cars - and getting to park free. Some 8,500 city placards went to the NYPD this year, and about 15,000 to the disabled.” I don’t know why the cops, of all people, should get a pass. Yes, on-duty officers responding to an actual crime in progess probably shouldn’t have to find a meter, but why should they get special privileges just for commuting to work by car? Let the police get a taste of the arbitrary parking rules they enforce on the rest of us and the draconian penalties (typically $115 for a violation below 96th Street) that go along with them, and maybe they’d be a tad more sympathetic before whipping out the ticket book when someone stops momentarily in a no-standing zone to pick up dry-cleaning.

The Post also points out that many of the privileged bureaucrats don’t even adhere to the few simple rules they are theoretically expected to observe. It’s never legal to park next to a hydrant, for example, regardless of any parking placard, but you’ll see Sheldon Silver vote against a tax hike before you ever see one cop ticket another.

Much of the credit for the recent attention on parking-permit abuse goes to UncivilServants.org, a nifty website that helps citizens track illegally parked bureaucrats. Matthew Roth, the editor of Uncivil Servants, will be the guest speaker at the next Manhattan Libertarian Party meeting one week from tonight, on Monday, June 11th.

Libertarians Under Surveillance

All right, the Manhattan Libertarian Party made the big time! We were officially one of the suspicious groups that the NYPD was keeping an eye on prior to the 2004 Republican Convention, thanks to our subversive Unauthorized Protest. On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the police department to declassify its secret surveillance reports. The obvious lefty groups were in there, of course. But the New York Times is surprised at who else Big Brother was looking at:

And the concern was not just over left-wing groups. In a June 30, 2004 digest, the police noted plans by a group calling itself the Manhattan Libertarian Party to protest the convention without a permit. “The group contends that the First Amendment guarantees the right to peaceful assembly,” an officer wrote, noting the obvious.

I wonder what the NYPD would contend the First Amendment says. On second thought, maybe I don’t want to know.

But at least we made it easy for the cops to watch us:

UPDATE: Here’s a snapshot of the actual surveillance report:

NYPD Surveillance Report