The city will “always have a long ways to go” to protect its citizens from terrorism, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.
Speaking a day after Vice President Dick Cheney warned of the near-certainty of another terror attack in the United States, the mayor said the government is now in a position of having to protect against “things, in some senses, we could never foresee.”
“I don’t think anybody thinks we can have 100-percent protection against all eventualities,” Bloomberg told a three-day conference of emergency management officials at the Sheraton New York.
“Obviously, we always have a long ways to go . . . What you can do is to train your people as well as you possibly can. Get them all the best equipment. You can sit back and think what’s likely to happen and then you can educate the public.”
Later, the mayor suggested that New Yorkers go about their daily lives so terrorists don’t win a war of intimidation “without firing a shot.”
If a credible threat emerges, trained professionals would deal with it, Bloomberg said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a Harlem juvenile court .
Military and law enforcement officials will try to combat the threat of terrorism during this week’s Fleet Week celebration using a blimp equipped with cameras so powerful that they can reportedly read a newspaper from a thousand feet up.
A 197-foot FujiFilm blimp on loan to the Navy will conduct the surveillance, which will be beamed to security stations on the ground, Navy officials said.
During the anti-terrorism conference, former city officials pointed to one painful lesson learned from Sept. 11 – the need for improved communications equipment.
Former Police Chief Allan Hoehl said radios and cell phones proved useless after the Twin Towers fell, forcing police brass to use messengers on scooters to relay messages.
Richard Sheirer, the city’s former emergency management chief, said the city is currently testing devices that allow agencies on different radio frequencies to communicate.
Sheirer also warned that New Yorkers are letting their guard down as months go by without a second attack.
“The complacency level is rising,” he said.
Former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen lashed out at Washington politicians for bickering instead of focusing of taking further steps to make the United States safer from terrorist.
“They’re a disgrace,” said Von Essen. “What I see now is all the politicians going back to normal, criticizing each other . . . They’re full of it.”
As a result, public confidence is slipping. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 46 percent of Americans – down from 66 percent after Sept. 11 – are confident that the government could stop another attack.
The national phone survey also found slippage in President Bush’s approval rating, which is still high at 76 percent. It is down from 92 percent on Oct. 9.
Panelists said emergency agencies nationwide should establish procedures for when communications technology fails, as it did often on Sept. 11, when radio and telephone signals were spotty.
“No matter how smart we are, we can always learn something more,” said Edward Jacoby Jr., director of New York state’s Emergency Management Office.