US cities on alert for vehicles being used as weapons of terror

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Islam in the West, and more of its unique contributions to the daily social fabric of our lives. Respect it! So says the Washington Post, which has no trouble (or conscience) running these now-daily news stories while actively promoting pro-jihad Jew-haters such as Linda Sarsour.

US cities on alert for vehicles being used as weapons of terror

Washington Post, July 10, 2017:

Last month, attackers using a vehicle and knives killed eight people and wounded dozens more on London Bridge. A couple of weeks later in an incident nearby, a man drove into people leaving mosques after Ramadan services, killing one and injuring 10.

And in May, a man driving in New York’s Times Square plowed into a crowd during lunchtime, killing one person and injuring 22. While authorities said the incident was not terrorism, the Islamic State, inspired by the crash, used it to warn that more attacks on the nation’s largest city and popular tourist destination would follow.

“There’s unfortunately almost no end to the number of times these things happen by accident and, unfortunately, it is increasing the number of times these things are happening on purpose,” said Rob Reiter, a pedestrian safety expert and chief security consultant at Calpipe Security Bollards, one of the nation’s top bollard manufacturers.

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In June, Clark County commissioners told their staff to begin taking bids for the installation of hundreds of steel posts between the street and sidewalks along the Las Vegas Strip.

“This one is really a matter of life or death,” Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said. “We’re going to have an event, whether it’s a medical episode or a DUI, where a car could get up onto that sidewalk.”
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The posts, called bollards, will reach 15 to 18 inches beneath the ground and be anchored by interconnected, underground steel frames. The bollards will be 3 to 4 feet tall and strong enough to stop a flatbed truck traveling 55 mph,

Although there is no specific threat, authorities said recent terrorist propaganda featuring snapshots of the Las Vegas Boulevard cannot be overlooked. Each barrier is designed to resist a 15,000-pound, 30-foot vehicle, officials said.

In New York, officials have been calling for the installation of more bollards, citing the ones that stopped the speeding sedan in the May incident. The Los Angeles City Council, meanwhile, will vote this summer on whether to direct the police department and other agencies to issue a report on mitigation methods for vehicle attacks.

Transportation planners are exploring innovative ways to use landscaping to create buffers between roadways and sidewalks. Security companies say they are being consulted on how to protect main streets.

“Big cities are realizing that they could have a mass casualty event on all four sides of an intersection at any time,” Reiter said.

Attacks with vehicles used as improvised weapons became the single most lethal form of attack in Western countries for the first time last year, according to the London-based Risk Advisory Group, which keeps track of every terrorist attack worldwide. Just over half of all the terrorism-related deaths in the West were the result of vehicle-ramming attacks, the data show.

In the most deadly one, in Nice, France, a truck mowed down dozens of people celebrating Bastille Day last July, killing 87 and injuring 434. On Dec. 19, 12 people were killed and 56 injured when a man drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin.

In the United States, a man inspired by the Islamic State drove into students at The Ohio State University last fall, then emerged with a knife, injuring 11 people.

Experts say Europe will probably continue to experience such attacks because of the ease with which they can be carried out. As countries have stepped up security and counterterrorism efforts, terrorists have found it more difficult to strike using traditional means. It is easier to rent a truck than to acquire explosives or firearms without raising suspicion.

“It is much more nebulous. It is much more spontaneous,” said Henry Wilkinson, director of intelligence analysis for the Risk Advisory Group, which keeps track of terrorist attacks and provides security assessments for large events.

Views are mixed on the risk of such attacks in the United States, where so far there has been only one terrorism-related vehicle attack.

“Obviously, the United States has invested huge sums of money and time and resources into its counterterrorism program and the scale of intelligence collection and training and other things reduces the threat significantly,” Wilkinson said.

The availability of firearms in the United States makes it more likely that would be the weapon of choice, he said.

A Canadian man who yelled the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar” before allegedly stabbing an airport police officer in Flint, Michigan, last month was indicted Wednesday on charges of committing an act of violence at an international airport and interfering with airport security, in what authorities say was a possible act of terrorism. But most acts of terror on U.S. soil, including several domestic terrorist attacks, have involved firearms and explosives. The 2015 San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack, which killed 14 people and injured more than 20, was a mass shooting.

“If someone was inclined to go and carry out a terrorist attack, it seems more logical that one would use the effective way of carrying out that attack, and if given choice between using a car and a machine gun, you will probably use a machine gun,” Wilkinson said.

Still, U.S. law enforcement officials say the threat of such attacks is real. In an advisory issued in May, the Transportation Security Administration alerted the nation’s trucking companies about the rising risk of rental trucks and hijackings and thefts for purposes of such an attack. The agency urged vigilance as terrorist groups continue to employ the less sophisticated tactics, which can be carried out with minimal planning and training, but have potential to inflict mass casualties.

“No community, large or small, rural or urban, is immune to attacks of this kind by organized or ‘lone wolf’ terrorists,” the TSA report said.

From 2014 through April of this year, terrorists carried out 17 vehicle ramming attacks, killing 173 people and injuring 667, the report said. While the statistics represent only a fraction of all casualties from terrorist attacks worldwide, the potential for mass casualties and difficulty for law enforcement in planning for or preventing such attacks makes them attractive for would-be terrorists.

In the 1990s, barriers were designed to protect from car bombs after the 1998 vehicle bombings at U.S. embassies in East Africa. The use of barriers, such as bollards, skyrocketed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as officials sought to protect federal buildings and increase security at potential targets, such as airports and stadiums.

The latest threat has cities in Europe, Australia and North America making new investments, from barriers along a number of bridges across the River Thames in London to retractable bollards in the tourist area of Surfers Paradise in eastern Australia. Vehicle barriers along roads around the All England club were among the enhanced security measures surrounding Wimbledon this week.

In Washington, D.C., which is filled with high-profile targets as the nation’s capital, law enforcement officials would not discuss specific tactics, but acknowledged that they are pursuing various means to protect pedestrians, including the installation of more bollards on city streets.

“We are always trying to stay a step ahead of these terrorists,” Assistant D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said.

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Suresh
Suresh
6 years ago

Left/Liberal Loons have bought and sold the “Islam is religion of peace” B.S. while ignoring the history of jihad and the present active ongoing jihadi attacks .

While Muslim youths practice the art of torturing and beheading infidels http://bit.ly/2tlUWt3 ……..to prepare for future jihadi attacks !

Left/Liberal Loons Run away when they are attacked !

Tm.
Tm.
6 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Little good has come out of the left field in decades. They have lost common sense, they repel it. I think common sense is an instinctual tool necessary for survival.

peakpower
peakpower
6 years ago

Does it ever end with the crazy Koranderthals?

OverIt
OverIt
6 years ago
Reply to  peakpower

They’ve been entirely consistent in their MO for the last 1400 years, so there’s no reason to think they’re likely to stop anytime soon. Or ever.

Mahou Shoujo
Mahou Shoujo
6 years ago

All things considered, it would be much less expensive to simply keep muslims out. As one muslin killing machine is stopped, another one starts.

Ichabod Crain
Ichabod Crain
6 years ago
Reply to  Mahou Shoujo

That’s what was going through my mind as I read the article. How much does retrofitting streets with bollards cost? How much do all security measures, such as airport security cost? How much does it cost for the FBI to follow around thousands of potential jihadists? When you add up all the billions, we would see that we just can’t afford the luxury of enriching our culture with Islam, supplementing our diversity with Muslims, because the more Islam, the more Muslims, the more terror. You could easily calculate the cost of each additional Muslim. We could say with some degree with certainty, when the immigration target for next year is announced, that will be x times number of Muslim immigrants, and the answer will be millions of dollars just for the added security cost. In the end, as much as we might like Muslims, we simply cannot afford them.

Rob Porter
Rob Porter
6 years ago
Reply to  Ichabod Crain

Well said. It’s a worthless exercise allowing into Western countries, Muslim immigrants. Never thereafter is there peace and tranquility and never are schools and other institutions any longer without incessant challenges to how they run. Why the devil change our life-style to accommodate them when it is they who should be assimilating and accommodating the people of the host countries who were kind enough to allow them in? Consequently I don’t understand why you say, “In the end, as much as we might like Muslims,…” I didn’t know that “we … like Muslims”. In fact I don’t like them as a people. I know one man, originally from Lebanon, Arab and at first nominally Muslim with whom I had a very friendly relationship, but almost overnight he transformed into an angry, foul-mouthed, hate-filled Islamic zealot who I could no longer bother seeing and I’ve met a few who on a superficial basis seems pleasant enough, one women having twins in a soccer in which I have my granddaughter playing, but this woman is already breeding like flies and don’t tell me she isn’t aware that she is contributing to out-producing the infidels. So, I have no hesitation in advocating that all Muslim immigration be stopped. Whether openly or secretly, most of them are at war with us, so to hell with their Islam.

Ichabod Crain
Ichabod Crain
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob Porter

“as much as we might like Muslims,…” I was being sarcastic of course. Here we certainly don’t like them at all.

IzlamIsTyranny
IzlamIsTyranny
6 years ago
Reply to  Rob Porter

It’s always interesting to see the mask slip off of a “moderate” muslum when you bring up Israel.

Dennis
Dennis
6 years ago

Reality and an honest examination of the acts of terrorism set forth in this article constitute unfathomably unstoppable events. There will always be those who will use their belief system to justify the horror associated with these crimes. We must all recognize that as factual and real. Nevertheless, what we also must do is face the fact that the justification is directly associated with a very dangerous belief system, and not a so-called “religion” of peace. The only way to try to control the number of incidents and/or stop them from happening is to first try to determine who might be inclined to do these horrible acts, while monitoring the places where these acts are promoted. Until we, and the rest of the world, understand that might be the only way to stop those events, and unless we get serious about what causes them, we will be subject to these type of attacks. We all need to stop hiding from the truth that constitutes the “triggers” for these heinous acts and face them head on without fear of “political correctness” or accusations of Islamophobia.

Jon Sobieski
Jon Sobieski
6 years ago

Bollardization of America, an effect of muslim invasion and their relentless obsession to slaughter the non believers..

AlgorithmicAnalystD
AlgorithmicAnalyst
6 years ago

Thanks, good article.

IzlamIsTyranny
IzlamIsTyranny
6 years ago

Replace the corrupt politicians in dying western style democracies w/bollards — at least then they would do no harm.

G P
G P
6 years ago
Reply to  IzlamIsTyranny

Excellent.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
6 years ago

And you wonder why I legally carry a loaded concealed 40 S&W at all times? Like the old American Express ads, “Don’t leave home without it.” Remember, vehicular assault and vehicular homicide laws define a motor vehicle as a lethal weapon.

Tm.
Tm.
6 years ago

Did crimes and methods such as those described in this article exist in Hitler’s Germany, in Stalin’s Russia? Do they exist in N. Korea, or in Saudi Arabia? There may be an occasional incident in Saudi Arabia, but that would be a different topic. Why didn’t they exist in decades past in those particular countries? When someone threatens to destroy you, your family, your country, your way of life, the daisy, the capitulating, the ‘giving them what they want’ doesn’t really work. The world will wake up one way or another.

Bullet Proof
Bullet Proof
6 years ago

Stay two steps ahead, don’t let them in in the first place…duh

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