By David Cruz
Correspondent
So many targets: landmarks, underground transit systems, ferries, business centers. If a terrorist group — or an individual — wanted to strike somewhere in the metropolitan area, experts say they probably could, so the purpose of the increased security measures — announced earlier this week by Govs. Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo — are intended both as deterrent and assurance.
“It’s about anticipation; it’s about preparation; it’s about cooperation; it’s about coordination and that’s what we’ve been working on since day one,” said Cuomo at a press conference in New York this week.
The threat this time is the group calling itself Islamic State. Iraqi officials this week warned of a threat from the group to the subway systems in Paris and New York. U.S. officials say they can’t confirm those specific threats, but police from New York and New Jersey — including NJ Transit, Port Authority and local cops — have amped up security to the point that it feels like 2004 all over again.
“I have noticed an increase and I think it’s good,” said Jersey City resident Michael Grant. “It’s good to have police presence, especially in the transportation hubs because that’s probably where, if anything were to happen, that’s what would be targeted.”
Gov. Christie said the two states will work closely to coordinate efforts, even while the theoretical threat is non-specific. “Even without a specific threat being in place, we need to make sure that we do everything we can to give assurances to the people of both our states that we are going to do everything we can to provide for the most important thing that government provides, which is for the public safety of its people,” he said.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop was deployed with the Marines in Iraq back in 2004 when color-coded terror threats were the norm. But he says he knows that there is as much danger in underselling the threat as there is in over-selling it.
“The scariest thing from the public standpoint is that they’re at a point some of them seem to kind of totally disregard any sort of threat that they just say it is what it is,” said the mayor. “Ninety-nine percent of the time that’s proper. But the fact that people get very comfortable is concerning because that’s also the time that potentially something bad can happen so we don’t want people to change their daily course of life but we want them to be aware of their surroundings and that’s what we’re trying to do as well.”
One big question, of course, is how will all this increased security be paid for? Cities like Newark and Jersey City are still trying to recover from budget crises that slashed their police departments. It’s a good question, says Fulop, one for which there is no good answer at the moment.
No specific threat, no specific target, but increased security, across the board, for the foreseeable future, as officials try to strike a balance between vigilance and security excess.