Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

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_You_ are the one that linked your income and taxes to the $180 ticket.

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I linked the issues as an illustration of how the entire NYC revenue system is corrupt--it soaks the taxpayers through confiscatory income taxes, steep sales taxes (which I mind less), then at every turn tries to collect more money through thinly disguised additional taxes such as revenue-generating traffic traps, insanely effective meter enforcement, so-called "surcharges" put on top of tickets, etc. (A reasonable response might be that these are "use" taxes, but in truth, they are not. They are designed as revenue enhancing items.) I would have less objection if NYC actually enforced traffic rules that mattered, such as blocking the box or double parking. Zealous enforcement of such rules would improve the quality of life in the city by reducing congestion. However, NYPD Traffic never appears to enforce these rules, and instead spends all morning writing hundreds of tickets (Im not exaggerating here) to motorists who make a left-turn where absolutely every "normal" rule of the road would have permitted it. (In fact, I cant think of a single intersection on a small street in which a left turn on a green light isn't permitted. Obviously im excluding things like lefts across big streets like 42, 23, etc.) The signs were put up, and the trap was set, solely for revenue generating purposes, not for traffic enforcement/flow control. This is hidden taxation, and its outrageous.



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Spare us. You choose to live in the city. You could live right accross the Hudson and commute in on the Path in 15 mins and save your precious $50k subsidies of the "shiftless". You don't like it, move. There is no NYC commuter tax (contrary to lehighguy's post).

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This point is totally valid. I have voted with my feet, so by staying in the city, Im voluntarily subjecting myself to its irrational taxation schemes.

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Have you ever bothered to research how underpaid NYC cops are? To give you a hint, I'd estimate conservatively that Long Island cops make 30-40% more on average, and they're in much less danger, higher tax base notwithstanding. Take the subway once in awhile. See who the real hard workers are in New York.

Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

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NYPD is a much less effective law enforcement organization. Its officers are less professional. It has lower physical fitness standards and academy qualifications than LAPD. NYPD's policing doctrine is much more about "standing post" than actively fighting crime.

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The NYPD is the only police department in America that doesn't need or use the Secret Service to help protect the President when he visits, so I think it's blatantly wrong to say that they are anything less than one of the most effective police departments in the country.

Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

Believe me, I know how poorly paid NYPD cops are. My example of NYPD was really meant more as a dig at city government, and less at the department per se.

That said, it is pretty clear that although NYPD has been influential (particularly with east coast agencies such as Philly, Boston, even Chicago), it is generally agreed that LAPD is by far the better department. In fact, the leaders of most "west coast" influenced departments like LV Metro, LA County, San Jose, Ft. Worth, etc. originally came from the senior ranks of LAPD.

In general, LAPD is credited with "professionalized" policing. East coast departments like NYPD can take credit for some interesting experiments like community policing, and crime pattern analysis, but for the most part, NYPD is a laggard.

The other major influence is the feds, particularly FBI/DEA/ATF, but mostly in the area of investigations (and to a lesser extent, tactics). Feds aren't really "police".

Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

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The NYPD is the only police department in America that doesn't need or use the Secret Service to help protect the President when he visits

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You are 100% wrong.

The NY office of USSS handles protection for POTUS when he is in town. As with all Presidential details, they coordinate with local PD for things like perimeter and route security. When the President visits the UN, USSS coordinates with DSS. However, the advance planning, motorcade security, sniper cover, and close protection details are all handled exclusively by USSS.

Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

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The NYPD is the only police department in America that doesn't need or use the Secret Service to help protect the President when he visits

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You are 100% wrong.

The NY office of USSS handles protection for POTUS when he is in town. As with all Presidential details, they coordinate with local PD for things like perimeter and route security. When the President visits the UN, USSS coordinates with DSS. However, the advance planning, motorcade security, sniper cover, and close protection details are all handled exclusively by USSS.

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I'm curious as to where you got your information from, as mine came from members of the NYPD who are repsonsible for exactly what you attributed to the USSS.

Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

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After the train bombing in Spain last year the first US government organization to start investigating the scene was the NYPD. Yes, even before the FBI.

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I find this difficult to believe. Anything terrorism related goes through the NY JTTF. Maybe NYPD dispatched investigators to the scene who arrived before the feds, but this had to have gone through JTTF.

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NYPD must be doing something right, total crime is down 8 percent in the last year.

"The City’s murder rate of 7 per 100,000 of population in 2004 was half that of Los Angeles and Chicago which were 13.5 and 15.5 respectively"

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Crime is definitely down in the city, and the NYPD deserves some of the credit for that. (Although declining drug usage and an increasingly healthy economy were principally responsible for the turnaround.) Los Angeles remains a very violent city, by comparison.

Im surprised you didnt mention that the current LAPD chief, Bratton, is an ex-NYPD and Boston chief, and is credited with a decline in crime rates during his respective tenures. (LAPD had historically had a tradition of choosing insiders for the Chief position. Problems with Ramparts, Rodney King, etc., and a federal consent decree forced the introduction of outsiders.)

However, you cant just compare crime rates in LA and NY. LA just faces different issues, principally illegal immigration, and Hispanic/Black gangs, which in turn drive a violent drug trade. NY doesnt have this problem nearly as much as LA.

Re: HEY COLA ADD A STAR PLEASE
 

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I'm curious as to where you got your information from, as mine came from members of the NYPD who are repsonsible for exactly what you attributed to the USSS.

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I have my own personal contacts within law enforcement, principally through prosecutor offices, although also with various police departments and federal agencies. I also have a good friend who works as a top-tier private security contractor, both inside and outside of CONUS. He has worked protection details with the Marshals service, for private sector clients, and is currently doing convoy protection for a PMC in Iraq.

You could also look at this to see how presidential security in New York is handled: DHS press release

Re: NYC sucks (rant)
 

Ok, let me get this straight:

You made an illegal turn and got ticketed for it, so now you're whining that New York city must be a "communist state"?

Christ, you Bush voters are a stupid and whiny lot [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


q/q

Re: NYC sucks (rant)
 

Well since you asked

[censored] me? [censored] you! [censored] you and this whole city and everyone in it. [censored] the panhandlers, grubbing for money, and smiling at me behind my back. [censored] the squeegee men dirtying up the clean windshield of my car. Get a [censored] job! [censored] the Sikhs and the Pakistanis bombing down the avenues in decrepit cabs, curry steaming out their pores, stinking up my day. Terrorists in [censored] training. SLOW THE [censored] DOWN! [censored] the Chelsea boys with their waxed chests and pumped up biceps. Going down on each other in my parks and on my piers, jingling their dicks on my Channel 35. [censored] the Korean grocers with their pyramids of overpriced fruit and their tulips and roses wrapped in plastic. Ten years in the country, still no speaky English? [censored] the Russians in Brighton Beach. Mobster thugs sitting in cafés, sipping tea in little glasses, sugar cubes between their teeth. Wheelin' and dealin' and schemin'. Go back where you [censored] came from! [censored] the black-hatted Hasidim, strolling up and down 47th street in their dirty gabardine with their dandruff. Selling South African apartheid diamonds! [censored] the Wall Street brokers. Self-styled masters of the universe. Michael Douglas, Gordon Gecko wannabe mother fuckers, figuring out new ways to rob hard working people blind. Send those Enron assholes to jail for [censored] LIFE! You think Bush and Cheney didn't know about that [censored]? Give me a [censored] break! Tyco! Worldcom! [censored] the Puerto Ricans. 20 to a car, swelling up the welfare rolls, worst [censored]' parade in the city. And don't even get me started on the Dom-in-i-cans, 'cause they make the Puerto Ricans look good. [censored] the Bensonhurst Italians with their pomaded hair, their nylon warm-up suits, their St. Anthony medallions, swinging their, Jason Giambi, Louisville slugger, baseball bats, trying to audition for the Sopranos. [censored] the Upper East Side wives with their Hermes scarves and their fifty-dollar Balducci artichokes. Overfed faces getting pulled and lifted and stretched, all taut and shiny. You're not fooling anybody, sweetheart! [censored] the uptown brothers. They never pass the ball, they don't want to play defense, they take fives steps on every lay-up to the hoop. And then they want to turn around and blame everything on the white man. Slavery ended one hundred and thirty seven years ago. Move the [censored] on! [censored] the corrupt cops with their anus violating plungers and their 41 shots, standing behind a blue wall of silence. You betray our trust! [censored] the priests who put their hands down some innocent child's pants. [censored] the church that protects them, delivering us into evil. And while you're at it, [censored] JC! He got off easy! A day on the cross, a weekend in hell, and all the hallelujahs of the legioned angels for eternity! Try seven years in [censored]' Otisville, J! [censored] Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and backward-ass, cave-dwelling, fundamentalist assholes everywhere. On the names of innocent thousands murdered, I pray you spend the rest of eternity with your seventy-two whores roasting in a jet-fueled fire in hell. You towel headed camel jockeys can kiss my royal Irish ass!

Re: NYC sucks (rant)
 

You have a great eye for the city. You should be a writer.