America’s war against the Islamic State may be coming to New York. Question is, will the NYPD be prepared?
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton warned Tuesday that while there may not be any specific threat, “we are quite concerned with the capabilities of ISIS, much more so than al Qaeda was ever able to project.”
It’s a disturbing admission — given that the less capable al Qaeda managed to topple the city’s two largest skyscrapers and murder 2,753 innocents in the process. Bratton’s warning, moreover, is underscored by two other menacing developments.
First, Islamic State supporters have used an ISIS Web forum to urge “lone wolf” attacks on US targets — specifically citing Times Square. The message also provides detailed instructions for making pipe bombs.
Second, an upstate man has just been charged with attempting to provide support to ISIS by purchasing firearms as part of a plot to kill returning US soldiers.
Those who dismiss pipe bombs ought to look at what Boston’s homegrown terrorists pulled off with pressure cookers.
Together these developments strike us as a strong argument for the NYPD’s “mapping” program, which collected information on local Muslim communities so police would know where to look in the event of a threat.
In other words, the mapping program was about what we’re always told is the decisive weapon in the fight against terror: collecting good intelligence and connecting the dots before terrorists can make their attack.
Unfortunately, Bratton scrapped the mapping program last spring in the face of a political barrage led by the Associated Press, which disingenuously labeled the program “racial profiling.” This, even though the courts have upheld the program.
In short, Bratton is saying terrorists have not given up their goal of bringing death and destruction to New York. If he really believes what he says, doesn’t it suggest his first response should be to revive a key NYPD counter-terror effort he shut down?