Is New York City Safe From Terrorism

Coping With Fear Of Violent Attacks And Terrorism

Sometimes it seems like the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. We hear about bombings in public places, random shootings, and other reports of unpredictable, senseless violence against innocent people. Its made us more aware of our vulnerability. Our fears are renewed with each report of yet another violent attack.

As a result, many of us have increased anxiety and fear as we go about our daily lives. If this sense of fear is ongoing, it can make it difficult to concentrate at work. It can result in stress-related illnesses and affect our quality of life.

This article offers some coping strategies if you are feeling increased fear as a result of violence being discussed in the media or happening in your community. Those who have been directly impacted may want to seek professional help or support services. These services can be accessed through your Employee Assistance Program . Check with your employer or human resources department for more information.

List Of Terrorist Incidents In New York City

New York City, the largest and most populous city in the United States, has been the target of numerous acts of terrorism throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The city, in particular, was one of the targets of the , the single deadliest terrorist attack in history, which saw the destruction of the World Trade Center and the loss of 2,753 lives. The most recent fatal terrorist incident was a vehicle-ramming attack in Lower Manhattan, which killed eight people and injured eleven on October 31, 2017.

How Many People Are Killed By Terrorists Worldwide

In 2017, an estimated 26,445 people died from terrorism globally. Over the previous decade the average number of annual deaths was 21,000. However, there can be significant year-to-year variability. Over this decade the global death toll ranged from its lowest of 7,827 in 2010 to the highest year of 44,490 in 2014.

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What Share Of Deaths Are From Terrorism

Terrorism often dominates media coverage. We are informed about attacks as soon as they happen and many attacks claim the headlines. Whilst our attention is drawn to these events just as the terrorists intend such intense coverage can make it difficult to contextualize the true extent of terrorism. This is because the availability heuristic: our perceptions are heavily influenced by the most recent examples of it. Were biased to recent events in the news because we can recall them quickly.

How many people die from terrorism relative to other causes?

In this chart we see global terrorism deaths in the context of deaths from all causes. The size of the big rectangle corresponds to the number of deaths in 2017. The share of deaths from terrorism are shown in red. A very small fraction.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio

The mayor was among the first people to raise concerns over potential threats and attacks directed toward the city. Late Thursday evening, Hizzoner tweeted that he, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Sheaand Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence & Counter-terrorism John Miller have already spoken about protecting key NYC locations.

Have spoken with Commissioner Shea + Dep Commissioner Miller about immediate steps NYPD will take to protect key NYC locations from any attempt by Iran or its terrorist allies to retaliate against America. We will have to be vigilant against this threat for a long time to come.

Mayor Bill de Blasio

And on Friday, de Blasio, Shea and Miller held a press conference to discuss efforts to keep the city safe amidst these threats.

“What you will see going forward in New York City in the wake of the news overnight is that heightened vigilance in terms of uniformed officers many with long guns,” Shea said at the conference.

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How Do Estimates Of Deaths From Terrorism Vary

In terrorism research, there are multiple databases available which attempt to record and detail terrorist incidents across the world. Some of the most well-known databases include International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents and the Global Terrorism Database .

In our research on terrorism we present data from the Global Terrorism Database for several reasons: its the most comprehensive in terms of the number of incidents covered it is the most up-to-date and is open-access, so widely used in academic research.44 RAND, for example, only extends to the year 2009 and ITERATE is copyrighted, and not open-access for external users.

Nonetheless, estimates of the number of terrorist incidents and fatalities vary across these databases. Understanding why these differences exist is important for how this data is interpreted, and what we can conclude about the prevalence, causes and consequences of terrorism. Our understanding of the sources and frequency of terrorism can have a significant impact on many areas of society and policy, including immigration, counterterrorism efforts, and international relations.

In the chart we see a comparison between estimates of terrorism fatalities from the GTD and RAND datasets. Both sources go back as far as 1970 , with GTD extending to 2017 whilst RAND was discontinued in 2009.

The largest difference between the datasets is therefore that:

How Many People Were Killed In The September 11 Attacks

The exact number of victimsparticularly the number of those killed at the World Trade Centeris not definitively known. However, the official death toll, after numerous revisions and not including the 19 terrorists, was set at 2,977 people. At the World Trade Center in New York City, 2,753 people died, of whom 343 were firefighters. The death toll at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., was 184, and 40 individuals died outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

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Governor Hochul Announces More Than $251 Million In Federal Funding For Prepardness And Counterterrorism Efforts

Funding Will Help Communities Statewide Prevent, Respond to, and Recover from Manmade and Natural Disasters and Emergencies

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced more than $251 million in federal funding to support counterterrorism and emergency preparedness efforts across New York. The funding, provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through its FY2021 Homeland Security Grant Program, supports regional homeland security preparedness efforts, including planning, organization, equipment, training and exercise activities which are critical to sustaining and improving community prevention, protection, response, and recovery capabilities. The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services manages these programs in close coordination with local stakeholders.

“Keeping New Yorkers safe is one of our most critical responsibilities, and this funding will help localities and institutions prepare to defend against a variety threats, from natural disasters to threats of terror,” Governor Hochul said. “I thank the Biden Administration and our partners in Congress for working with us to make the necessary investments that will help us protect against the impacts of climate change, as well as those posed by the appalling hate-based acts of violence we have seen unfold across the nation.”

Investments were required to support the following priority areas to build statewide capabilities:

Award amounts are listed below:

In Argentina We Usually Feel Safe From Terrorism Not After New York

BUENOS AIRES Nobody in Argentina seems able to come to terms with the way a group of 40-something men who had traveled to the United States to celebrate their friendship since school days 30 years ago died at the hands of a terrorist during a bicycle ride on the banks of the Hudson River.

Inconceivable was one of the most-used words by relatives and former classmates of the alumni of the Instituto Politécnico Superior San Martín of Rosario, whom Argentine media have been interviewing and featuring constantly since Halloween. Eight of them went to New York five died in last weeks attack. But that incredulity wasnt limited to the inhabitants of Rosario, Argentinas third-largest city. The attack was a shock for the entire country. Argentines usually figure that the chances of dying at the hands of hooligans during a soccer match are greater than becoming a victim of terrorist slaughter.

Living more than 4,300 miles away from the southern border of the United States and twice as far from Europe sometimes has its benefits. Every time the great military powers rejoin battle in Arab countries or the Middle East, or some neighborhood of Paris or London is shaken by a terrorist attack, many Argentines heave a cliched sigh of relief that global violence is hardly likely to reach a territory much closer to the Antarctic than it is to New York.

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What We Can And Cant Know About Terrorism From The Global Terrorism Database

Summary

In our research on terrorism we rely on the Global Terrorism Database as a key source of data on incidents and fatalities from terrorism across the world. Its the most comprehensive database of incidents to date. It does, however, have limitations which we think should be clear before making inferences from trends or signals represented by the data.

In summary, this is our assessment of what the GTD should and should not be used for:

• Recent data particularly over the past decade is likely to be sufficiently complete to infer the distribution of incidents and fatalities across the world, and how they have changed in recent years
• The complete series, dating back to 1970, for North America and Western Europe we expect to be sufficiently complete to infer trends and changes in terrorism over time
• GTD data as its authors acknowledge undercounts events in the earlier period of the database the 1970s and 1980s in particular. We would caution against trying to infer trends in terrorism globally since the 1970s
• We would also caution against trying to infer trends in terrorism across most regions with the exception of North America and Western Europe in the earlier decades of this dataset.

The GTD is therefore well-respected and highly-regarded as a comprehensive data source on global terrorism. It does, however, have limitations which we think should be clear before making inferences from trends or signals represented by the data.

What About Blm Protests

Some Republican lawmakers in Washington and political pundits have accused the city of showing more effort in arresting people tied to the Jan. 6 insurrection, than in the days and weeks surrounding criminal acts carried out during some Black Lives Matter protests.

Miller denounced those claims Thursday, saying the department made hundreds of arrests tied to those riots in the city.

“We made hundreds and hundreds of arrests over those days,” Miller said. “If they’d like a list of those numbers we’d be happy to provide them. They may have missed that.”

2021 Staten Island Advance, N.Y.

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Mayor De Blasio: New York Is Best

Mayor de Blasio vowed Tuesday to keep New York City safe from terrorist attacks, even as the White House issued a vague global travel warning just hours earlier.

“This is the best-prepared city in the county” to prevent terror and respond to attacks, de Blasio said during a brief appearance on CNN’s “New Day.” “Terrorists can’t succeed if we refuse to be terrorized.”

De Blasio touted the New York Police Department’s 500-person counterterrorism unit, which on Sunday successfully carried out a day of high-level drills in preparation for a potential attack.

“They are the best of the NYPD,” de Blasio said of the team.

Hizzoner also played up the state’s new “See Something, Send Something” app unveiled a day earlier by Gov. Cuomo.

The app allows citizens who believe they’ve witnessed something suspicious to take a photo with their smartphones and send the image to the proper authorities.

“People should feel empowered,” de Blasio said. “If they have information, they can actually help fight terrorism.”

The mayor’s comments came as the city, and world, remain on high alert 11 days after ISIS militants terrorized Paris with a series of attacks that killed at least 129 people and left scores of others dead.

On Monday, the State Department issued a global travel alert to U.S. citizens, warning of the increased likelihood of terror attacks across the world.

Nypd’s William Bratton Tells New Yorkers They Are Safe From Terrorism

Heavily armed New York City police officers with the Strategic Response Group stand guard at the armed forces recruiting center in Times Square, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. Credit: AP

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio had a message for New Yorkers in an unusual late-night news conference in Times Square last night: Keep going about your business.

Bratton and de Blasio addressed a new ISIS propaganda video in which images of Times Square were shown, and both men underscored the assessment that there is no “specific, credible threat” against New York City.

“We cannot be intimidated, and that’s what terrorists seek to do,” Bratton said as he addressed reporters and a crowd that gathered about 11 p.m. “They seek to create fear, they seek to intimidate, and we will not be intimidated and we will not live in fear.”

John Miller, assistant NYPD commissioner, acknowledged earlier on CNN that the department has been stepping up its anti-terrorism activity in response to heightened tension after the Paris attacks.

“We’re getting more calls. We’re going on more runs . . . that’s what we do,” he said.

At the news conference, de Blasio called the video “an obvious attempt to intimidate New York City . . . the people of New York City will not be intimidated.”

“We will not submit to their wishes,” de Blasio said. “I want to encourage all New Yorkers to go about their business normally.”

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Center For Prevention Programs And Partnerships

Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships accomplishes a prevention mission by engaging and collaborating with local communities to enable education, awareness, and training programs that work to build a whole-of-society prevention architecture. Ultimately, the core goal of CP3s prevention efforts is to equip and empower local effortsincluding peers, teachers, community leaders, and law enforcementto prevent individuals from mobilizing to violence before it becomes a law enforcement matter.

Letters To The Editor Oct 22 2021

Thomas Jefferson is no longer in the room where it happens.

Art handlers packed up an 884-pound statue of Jefferson in a wooden crate Monday after a mayoral commission voted to banish the likeness of the nations third president from City Hall, where its resided for nearly two centuries because he owned slaves.

About a dozen workers with Marshall Fine Arts spent several hours carefully removing the painted plaster monument from its pedestal inside the City Council chambers and surrounding it with sections of foam and wooden boards.

They then lowered the massive structure down the stairs leading to the buildings first-floor rotunda with a pulley system and ushered the Founding Father out the back door.

The 1833 statue will be on a long-term loan to the New York Historical Society, which plans to have Jeffersons model survive in its lobby and reading room.

Keri Butler, executive director of the Public Design Commission that voted to banish the statue, at first tried to block the press from witnessing its removal. Butler relented after members of the mayors office and City Council intervened.

The commission also attempted to vote on the statues removal without a public hearing on the controversial move until The Post revealed the plan.

Thompson said the removal could spark a broader understanding of history.

Members of the City Council were split on the statues removal from its chambers.

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How Citizens Can Protect Themselves And Report Suspicious Activity

It is important for people to protect themselves both online and in-person, and to report any suspicious activity they encounter. The simplest ways to accomplish this are to:

• Remain aware of your surroundings.
• Refrain from oversharing personal information.
• Say something if you see something. The insular nature of todays violent extremists makes them difficult for law enforcement to identify and disrupt before an attack. Many times, a persons family or friends may be the first to notice a concerning change in behavior that may indicate a person is mobilizing to violence.

Additional information regarding how to report suspicious activity and protect the community is available via the resources below.

• Nationwide SAR Initiative : The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative is a joint collaborative effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and law enforcement partners.
• Community Preparedness Tools: The Department of Homeland Security offers security resources for businesses and communities.
• The Contact Us section of fbi.gov provides detailed contact information for the FBIs local and international offices. You can also submit a tip online.
• Learn about the behaviors that could mean someone is mobilizing to violence by reading the Homegrown Violent Extremist Indicators booklet.

New York Today: Can The City Prevent Terror Attacks

• Read in app

Good morning on this frigid Wednesday.

Its becoming a familiar procedure in New York: Prosecutors file charges against an accused terrorist with local ties days, or even hours, after an attack.

Yesterday, it happened in the case of Akayed Ullah, who told investigators that he had built a bomb, strapped it to his chest and detonated it in a subway corridor on Monday. I did it for the Islamic State, he told them. It was the citys second attack in six weeks.

In an era when attacks often spawn not from inside terrorist groups, but from people inspired or guided by them from afar, how can law enforcement keep the city safe? We asked Mike ONeil, a former commanding officer of the New York Police Departments counterterrorism division and the chief executive of MSA Security.

How can we prevent lone-wolf attacks in New York City?

The scary part about a homegrown, lone-wolf radical threat is that its hard to deal with, Mr. ONeil said. Because attacks are increasingly carried out with vehicles and homemade bombs, preventing them calls for a collective effort between law enforcement and the community, he added. The only way you can really attack it is by having an informed public who sees and reports suspicious behavior, and law enforcement thats present on location that hopefully can engage attacks before they happen.

What is a realistic goal?

How can members of law enforcement improve their counterterrorism operations?

Heres what else is happening:

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