Courtesy of iogi / Ippei Ogiwara (CC-BY-SA). Bomb squad shuts down Times Square.
What are the primary lessons of last weekend’s bomb scare in New York’s Times Square? First, citizens going about their daily routines know their environments best, and they are essential in detecting and deterring acts of terrorism. Second, getting the suspicious activity report to the appropriate parties and taking immediate action is critical. Third, an attack can come at any time, in any location, and in any form, so each citizen must make it their duty to remain alert to their surroundings.
The heroes in this case were the pushcart vendors who noticed the vehicle, and the mounted patrol officers who took immediate action on the information. While New York is a vast and diverse city, amid the hustle and bustle there is a sense of neighborhood and community, and the mounted patrol has a strong relationship with the cart vendors. To those regularly on the street, the patterns and anomalies are clear.
The Washington Post reports the Obama administration is now saying the Times Square bomb attempt is looking to be a plot carried out by several persons who have overseas terrorist links. If this proves to be the case, then once again we have proof positive that the government does not have complete knowledge of all threats and potential perpetrators in our midst, as many public figures would have the citizenry believe over the years.
Perhaps this is why the arrest of Najibullah Zazi, also a cart vendor in lower Manhattan, was particularly unnerving. Zazi pleaded guilty in February 2010 to terrorism charges in what he said was an al-Qaida plot to detonate a bomb in the New York subway.
Ultimately as citizens, our security is in our own hands, and our relationships in our community cannot be underestimated. New York takes these threats very seriously. Are we in the rest of the country as diligent, or are we still ambivalent about buying in to the “see something, say something” philosophy?
Joan Neuhaus Schaan is the fellow in homeland security and terrorism at the Baker Institute, coordinator of the Texas Security Forum, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Transborder International Police Association. She has served as the executive director of the Houston-Harris County Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council and on the board of Crime Stoppers of Houston, Inc.