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Coming around Barclays and other major venues: more NYPD cops, with new rifles

MSG, Barclays to get ‘Commando’-equipped cops amid terror concerns, the New York Post reported last night:
Specially trained NYPD officers armed with high-powered rifles will soon be assigned to every event at the city’s major stadiums to combat potential terror, The Post has learned.
In the coming weeks, Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center will each be stocked with more than a dozen officers from their local station houses — Midtown South and the 78th Precinct — during any sports games, concerts or other events, law-enforcement sources said.
The newly assigned officers recently underwent a two-week training course, then a second instructional session, to familiarize themselves with the semiautomatic Colt M4 Commando rifles that they will carry while on-duty, sources said.
They'll also be wearing special tactical uniforms, the Post reported. The question is how long this will continue, and how many officers will be deployed.

And if the cost isn't assigned to the venue, well, shouldn't it be calculated as part of the public cost of the arena? And if the NYPD is focused on counterterrorism, doesn't that mean even less of a chance to focus on quality of life issues, like illegal parking, that plague the neighborhood (but pose much lower overall risks)?

The Post reported, "More than a dozen officers from each local precinct will be assigned to the venues through the start and end of events," and that's aimed to get them better prepared for a possible attack.

Sure, that would help, but if someone has smuggled a gun into an arena, that's already a security fail.

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