Last month The Daily Beast published a a profile of New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The report slavishly praised Kelly for his anti-terrorism track record and for the city’s success in stopping terrorist plots. The article also repeated the often-cited claim that since 9/11 the NYPD has foiled 14 separate deadly plots against New Yorkers. There is only one problem with this claim. It isn’t true.
An investigation by the public interest group ProPublica has found that in many of the cases cited the NYPD didn’t really play a role in the arrests (or a very tiny one). In some cases the plots were pretty much manufactured by law enforcement or informants and the suspects were incapable of dangerous behavior on their own. The NYPD even takes credit for stopping the Times Square bomber even though the plot was actually stopped by a street vendor. Here’s the breakdown:
TA review of the list shows a much more complicated reality — that the 14 figure overstates both the number of serious, developed terrorist plots against New York and exaggerates the NYPD’s role in stopping attacks.
The list includes two and perhaps three clear-cut terrorist plots, including a failed attempt to bomb Times Square by a Pakistani-American in 2010 that the NYPD did not stop.
Of the 11 other cases, there are three in which government informants played a significant or dominant role (by, for example, providing money and fake bombs to future defendants); four cases whose credibility or seriousness has been questioned by law enforcement officials, including episodes in which skeptical federal officials declined to bring charges; and another four cases in which an idea for a plot was abandoned or not pursued beyond discussion.
While some political grandstanding on these issues is perhaps inevitable, the dishonesty of city officials about these issues is troubling. Exaggerating anti-terrorism successes makes it difficult to evaluate which strategies actually are effective and make it impossible for the public to calculate if anti-terrorism dollars are being well spent. It also further creates mistrust of the NYPD at a time when stop and frisk and Occupy Wall Street are already straining relations between the police and city residents. Terrorism is a real threat to New Yorkers; but it will be impossible to effectively manage that threat without honesty from city officials.
Via Wonkette.
Image via Wikipedia.
