Anxiety on 42nd Street
It takes a certain amount of fearlessness to live in this city. Motorists try and run us over, the police blotters of the Daily News and the New York Post are filled with muggings, shootings and sexual assaults. Yet somehow everyday we get up, go to work, face it all. We come home at the end of the night relatively unscathed.
I manage to meander these streets with very little fear in my step. The one place, however, that sets my heart racing and forces to me to ask the question “why on earth do I live here?” is the Times Square subway station.
Mp5 submachine guns make me uneasy like nothing else. While our mayor seems convinced armed guards bring about a sense of security to most New Yorkers, I experience a low to mid grade panic attack every time I run into these guys.
The placement of the guards in our underground system began last April and is called “Operation Torch.” More than 7 years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the city decided heightened security might be a good idea. Similarly above ground, NYPD squads known as “Hercules Teams” began trolling around Wall Street and landmarks such as the Empire State Building.
Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement two weeks ago at a congressional hearing, the lives of New Yorkers were improved the guards because we can all “feel safer.” $151 Million dollars has been poured into the units, and Bloomberg urged congress to give me more. Wall Street is falling apart, banks are shutting down, and Mayor Bloomberg wants more money for guns.
Yes, it is important to protect our city, and it is important to have the equipment to do so. I don’t want to forget I live in a dangerous place, and I do think it’s important to be alert and vigilant about our security. I however, do not want to live in what feels like a police state. I have had my bag searched more times than I’d like to admit (I suppose my look of fear, can translate to a look of guilt though I always come out clean); and I would like to not feel like someone is going to shoot me every time I go to get on the A train.
I remember when I was younger and a friend of mine had come back from Egypt with her family. She was showing me pictures and noted the guards with machine guns walking around the town. I said to her I hoped I never lived in a place like that. Now, unfortunately, I feel like I do.