cops on the beat

There is a certain plausible logic to expanding and exaggerating the implications and threats of radical Islam. The tragedy of 9-11 is being milked dry the way some have ingeniously invoked the holocaust to justify and serve as pretext certain forms of behavior damaging to both aggressor and victim. Albeit there is no shortage of kooky, psychopathic Salafist and fundamentalists willing to take a shot at their fifteen minutes of fame, but whether they are central or incidental to really influencing events is of legitimate debate. It’s either a Sam Huntington clash of civilizations where the moderate Muslims are potentially more dangerous than the wackos, or a kind of brave new world that turns the page and economically wants more butter than guns.

(see link at end)…What is often lauded as the best police department in the world, and possibly the most controversial, has made another bold move and opened a local office in Israel.

The NYPD Israeli branch will be housed within the Kfar Saba police station in the Sharon District and was opened after officials decided the department needed to maintain a close working relationship with the Israeli police force, Al-Monitor reported Wednesday….

But, maybe its all about the brand. Security as a branded commodity associated with industrial age Veblen style considerations of conspicuous waste. This branding of the NYPD is a great scheme of dubious benefit, ostensibly of no value. Underlying it however, is a giant industry. The expansive budget, the material needs and the salaries provide a massive amount of economic stimulus and they operate in a murly zone, similar to an NGO and not really under the purview and surveillance of national laws or the regulations that codify the parameters of their behavior and actions.

The branch is currently staffed by only one man, Charlie Ben-Naim, a former Israeli citizen and veteran NYPD detective.

Israel isn’t the department’s only international outpost.

In his bid to fight terrorism, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has overseen expansion into London, Lyons, Hamburg, Tel Aviv, and Toronto, according to New York Magazine.

Back in New York, the department has been facing increasing criticism for what the public sees as a series of missteps.

A New Jersey-based Muslim group su

he department in June over its surveillance of Muslims and Muslim student organizations.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-nypd-is-moving-to-israel-2012-9#ixzz27sRkq2ot

ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)….Corey Robin:In Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt famously argued that one of the hallmarks of Nazism was the supremacy of the police over the military, even in—especially in—occupied territories. Nothing quite signaled totalitarianism’s obliteration of the distinction between the domestic and the international, its aspiration to world rule, as this….

Above the state and behind the facades of ostensible power, in a maze of multiplied offices, underlying all shifts of authority and in a chaos of inefficiency, lies the power nucleus of the country, the super-efficient and super-competent services of the secret police. The emphasis on the police as the sole organ of power, and the corresponding neglect of the seemingly greater power arsenal of the army, which is characteristic of all totalitarian regimes, can still be partially explained by the totalitarian aspiration to world rule and its conscious abolition of the distinction between a foreign country and a home country, between foreign and domestic affairs….Since the totalitarian ruler conducts his policies on the assumption of an eventual world government, he treats the victims of his aggression as though they were rebels, guilty of high treason, and consequently prefers to rule occupied territories with police, and not with military forces.

So what, oh what, would she have made of this?

The New York Police Department opened its Israeli branch in the Sharon District Police headquarters in Kfar Saba. Charlie Ben-Naim, a former Israeli and veteran NYPD detective, was sent on this mission….

…Behind the opening of the branch in the Holy Land is the NYPD decision that the Israeli police is one of the major police forces with which it must maintain close work relations and daily contact.

Ben-Naim was chosen for the mission of opening the NYPD branch in Israel. He is a veteran detective of the NYPD and a former Israeli who went to study in New York, married a local city resident and then joined the local police force. Among the things he has dealt with in the line of duty are the extradition of criminals, the transmitting of intelligence information and assistance in the location of missing persons, both in the United States and in Israel.

It was decided, in coordination with the Israeli police, that the New York representative would not operate out of the United States embassy but from a building of the Sharon District Police headquarters, situated close to the Kfar Sava station. The NYPD sign was even hung at the entrance to the district headquarters, and Ben-Naim’s office is situated on the first floor of the building. One of the walls bears the sign: “New York Police Department, the best police department in the world.”

It’s true, as Nathan Newman has pointed out to me, that the FBI already has offices around the world. But in the US, it has always been state and local police that truly wield the coercive power of the state. Only ten percent of all prisoners in this country are in federal jails; the rest are in state and local cells.

“New York Police Department, the best police department in the world.” Oh, the field day Arendt would have had with that! Read More:http://coreyrobin.com/2012/09/06/nypd-in-israel-hannah-arendt-on-the-best-police-department-in-the-world/
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(see link at end)… The NYPD’s drive to destroy terrorism has led it to control its own airspace, adopt a version of the Pentagon’s civilian surveillance program, and develop an independent foreign policy. Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that the Department has the capability to shoot down airplanes that threaten the city while Jessica Tisch, the 30 year old Director of Planning and Policy in the Counter-Terrorism Division, a Harvard graduate with no background in police work or intelligence, recently unveiled a surveillance program called the Domain Awareness System. It enables thousands of police surveillance cameras to continuously monitor in real time anyone in south Manhattan based on facial characteristics or even what they are wearing. Meanwhile, the busy bees at the NYPD Counter-Terrorism analysis section have issued a report blaming Iran for nine recent terrorist acts directed against Israeli targets, none of which has actually been demonstrated to have any Iranian involvement. They have also completed a secret assessment of the worldwide activity of Hezbollah, a report which may or may not have any connection to reality,

The Demographics Unit operates inside the United States, but the International Liaison Program (ILP) works overseas, in at least eleven cities. Apart from Israel where the program appears to have some quasi-official status, none of the NYPD liaison officers has any legal standing for dealing with the local authorities. The detectives travel on tourist passports, stay in hotels, and do not report to the US Ambassador, nor to the CIA Chief of Station. The FBI would like to see all the offices shut down as they confuse foreign police forces regarding whom they should be speaking to. The Bureau also notes that the NYPD already has 100 officers linked by secure communications to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington. They are fully cleared and able to review all information coming into US intelligence and law enforcement, making the ILP completely redundant. Kelly and Cohen have responded to the criticism of their individual enterprise by complaining that the FBI in particular is unable to protect New York City. One retired FBI agent has reported that Cohen once delivered in his presence a profanity filled diatribe damning the Bureau.

There have been some memorable gaffes as when NYPD officers show up at the scene of a terrorist attack, start waving their badges in the air and demand access. They are generally shown the way out. In one notable case after the 2005 London bombings, Kelly and Bloomberg held a press conference after several NYPD detectives had been asked to leave the sites of the attacks. They boasted of New York’s ability to protect its citizens, unlike London, producing a furious reaction from the British who subsequently asked that the New Yorkers leave the UK….

…The ILP is partially funded by the private New York Police Foundation, which is largely endowed by the city’s financial services industry. It has not been completely open about what if pays for and why. It apparently supported ILP through a targeted $1.5 million fundraiser in 2010, but it is to be assumed that infrastructure expenses for the program come out of the general NYPD budget or from the intelligence division funding. The Foundation has been criticized for picking up the tab for Commissioner Ray Kelly’s $12,000 bill at the New York Harvard Club and also paid $400,000 for a public relations firm to improve Kelly’s image.

The NYPD’s intelligence division is all a big waste of money, an egregious violation of the civil rights of many Americans, and an affront to friendly foreign police forces that want to cooperate with Washington. But the NYPD cops themselves go with the flow, most of them probably recognizing nonsense and bureaucratic posturing when they see it. And there is otherwise plenty of “business as usual” to keep everyone busy. If you are walking down the street and look suspicious you can be questioned and searched in New York City. A record 685,724 New Yorkers were on the receiving end of “stop and frisk” by the NYPD in 2011.

To make sure that everyone understands who the enemy is, an anti-Muslim training film, The Third Jihad, including gruesome footage of terrorist attacks, was used recently by the NYPD to train new officers with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly actually appearing in the film to underline its message. But, propaganda aside, when you want to insure the loyalty of the praetorian guards, you pay them handsomely. A NYPD officer earns more than $90,000 a year after five years, exclusive of overtime. If he is promoted to sergeant or detective he earns considerably more. His pension after 35 years is roughly two thirds of his final salary plus full health care benefits for the rest of his life. There are more than 40,000 policemen in New York City. You can do the math….Read More:http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/09/26/the-ubiquitous-new-yorker/