They are up there watching!
Welcome to the totalitarian police state known as AmeriKa, reader:
"Copter patrol raising police effectiveness" by Maria Cramer/Boston Globe August 29, 2007
The helicopter that has patrolled the city since May was instrumental last weekend, police said, in quelling gang violence during the Caribbean Festival, an annual bash that has in the past been the occasion of deadly shootings.
The helicopter hovered above the festival Saturday and monitored the crowd with cameras, zooming in on suspected gang members and anyone carrying weapons.
[Or anyone else they damn well felt like]
At police headquarters, about a dozen officers watched the images on a large screen and radioed and e-mailed the locations of suspects to the officers patrolling the festival. Using the capabilities of the high-powered cameras, the monitors were also able to notify patrol officers when rival gangs were about to run into each other.
Superintendent Daniel P. Linskey said in an interview yesterday: "It was like calling a football play."
[Yeah, it's all like football! You like football, right, Amurkn?
You against football, you against Amurka!!!
Set Hut! Sig Heil!]
By late Saturday night, Boston police had arrested about 12 people, six on charges of unlawful gun possession. Four people were stabbed near the event and were expected to survive. Police said that without the helicopter helping officers on the ground, the violence could have been deadly.
Lieutenant Jack Watts, who patrolled the festival along with 500 city officers and 70 state troopers:
"The feedback I'm getting . . . from 20-year police veterans is that they were so impressed with how we were able to identify, go after, and prevent violence."
[Gee whiz, how many people went to this thing?
That a heavy police presence or what?
See how they sell you your enslavement as good?
Protecting you from violence -- unless it is the violent terrorism of the fascist police state!
Ask Iraqis about our commitment to peace]
Police said they combined technology like the helicopter, cameras, and e-mail with detective work to prepare for Saturday's festival, which drew 200,000 to 300,000 to the parade route along Blue Hill Avenue and the celebration in Franklin Park.
[Holy crap! That is a lot of people!]
In the weeks before the festival, police gathered information on gang activity in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan, analyzing shootings, stabbings, and arrests to find connections. They learned the names and obtained photos of gang members, which they provided officers at the event.
By Saturday, police said, they had learned that as many as 11 gangs from around the city might show up at the festival.
Linskey said: "There were several gangs that we knew were there to settle beefs."
About 5:30 p.m., Boston police Officer Luke Holbrook, who was patrolling the festival from the helicopter, saw a teenage boy in a white T-shirt clutching his waist, as if he were holding a weapon. Through the camera, he then saw the boy run toward Warren Street. He told the officers on the ground the boy's location, but the youth managed to run from the officers.
Unaware Holbrook was still tailing him from the helicopter, the boy slowed down and met friends near Blue Hill Avenue. There, police caught up with him, frisked him, and found the gun. Later, the boy told officers he had picked up the gun because he and his friends were going to fight another group, according to a police report.
Lieutenant Michael Conley of the Youth Violence Strike Force:
"We probably prevented close to eight altercations."
A Boston police officer patrols the city in the helicopter all day Thursdays and Fridays and on Saturday evenings with two State Police officers, who pilot the helicopter.
To date, the helicopter has helped officers to find a speeding motorcyclist who was terrorizing people in Franklin Park and to thwart thieves by patrolling parts of the city where residents have reported break-ins.
On Aug. 19, the helicopter helped city police find an armed man who had eluded them on foot in a Mattapan neighborhood. The helicopter shone a light on the man, helping police catch him in a yard behind School Street.
Sergeant Joel McCarthy, who rides regularly on the helicopter:
"It's sort of like an airborne command post, providing real-time surveillance."
[Even with all this shit, what are they really preventing?
This is just the surveillance grid they are setting up for your "protection," folks.
And what if you need protection from them, Amurka?]
The cameras can zoom in close enough to identify a person and even identify a hand-held object.
Said McCarthy: "You can see whether it's a Poland Spring water bottle, a cellphone, or a firearm."
[Or WHATEVER! Why don't you wave next time, Amurka!
Then give a big Sig Heil salute!!!!
I know what salute I'll be giving (and I bet they will zoom right in)!!!]
