Tuesday, January 22, 2008

NYC detector bill

This will probably be my last comments on the proposed New York City bill to regulate detectors, hopefully because it sounds like some people realize the inanity of the bill; two very insightful sentences in this article from the Downtown Express
:

(NYPD Deputy Commissioner for counter terrorism)Falkenrath would not commit to publishing a list of approved devices or approved device specifications, because he said that list could give terrorists information about what the city is capable of detecting.

Vallone replied that the council normally does not pass bills with such broad language, but that he would defer to the Police Department’s judgment in this case.


So in other words, you need a permit for your detectors, but they won't tell you which detectors you'll need a permit for. Nor could manufacturers build devices to specifications for sale in NYC, because they wouldn't be able to know what those specifications were.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Let me guess, they're going to make a big show of wanting to take it on a case-by-case basis, and then they'll be so swamped with cases that it'll take forever for you to get your permit. Something like that?

Dean W. Armstrong said...

Probably, since they've refused to publish what things are exempt, what "standards" they want, or how the whole process works in detail.

Village Voice has a good article about some of the hearings.

I think people proposing this sort of nonsense need to be voted out of office. I've never heard such blatant police state mentality before.