As OpsLens contributor Steve Pomper explored recently in an article he composed regarding Atlanta’s government pulling their city police force from crime-fighting along with federal law enforcement agencies, here we have an example of why that was a gross error in judgment.
Exemplifying the antithesis of Atlanta’s faux pas, another grotesque terror plot against citizens in the Big Apple was put to bed before it had a chance to marvel at mayhem the morning after. NYPD cops and FBI agents comprising the joint terrorism task force unraveled the entanglements and thwarted a lone wolf-type radical’s diabolic plan to use grenades against an untold number of citizens in heavily populated Times Square.
Joint task force operatives comprising law enforcers with the NYPD and FBI had been surveilling an individual their intelligence indicated as a terror threat. Sure enough, good old-fashioned police work established the extremist’s plot to blow to smithereens himself and portions of Times Square, a mecca for tourists in New York City.
Not only did the city/federal task force duo have suspicions, they methodically gathered proof by posing an undercover agent as a radical jihadist. It worked! The suspected terrorist offered details of his plan.
According to the New York Daily News, the terrorist-in-the-making “went to a shooting range with the undercover [officer] to practice hitting targets. Twice, he scoped out Times Square as a possible target.”
To the undercover agent, the would-be terrorist shared his adoration of the 9/11 attacks and the infamous depth of destruction caused by fellow jihadists, labelling their efforts a “complete success.” He savored some of that success and told the undercover operative that he always wished for “the flag of Islam on the Twin Towers or the Empire State Building.” Well, he is not getting that wish. Instead, he’s getting a baloney sandwich and a small carton of milk on the daily.
The terror-minded twit also said he planned to wrap himself in one of those terrorist-trendy suicide vests, adding, “When it blows up, those [grenade] balls explode and the metal goes everywhere. The more better the explosives the more farther the shrapnel could go.” His grammar is the least of his worries, for who pays attention to Ps and Qs when the mind is so terribly warped?
According to NYC prosecutors, Queens County resident Ashiqual Alam purchased two 9mm handguns with serial numbers obliterated. That triggered his arrest. From there city and federal law enforcement officers armed with interviewing skills (and recorded intel obtained by the undercover operative) were able to get the destruction-minded quarry to fess-up his devilish idea.
This serves as one of an untold number of lunatics walking among us and justly phantomized cops who diligently and discreetly preserve our nation. And to think some local governments ban task forces from taking up the task, in this case disgusting terrorism.
Based on ego and power-tripping elected officials in leftist-operated cities, it is foolish to dissolve law-enforcement joint task forces such as Atlanta has done. New York City is a sanctuary city and a bastion of liberal-minded governance. Imagine if, like Atlanta recently did, they too fizzled away their crime-fighting duality we know as joint task forces. An idiot with a group of grenades would have gotten his way if not for cops whose warriorhood ways ensnared evil in its tracks.
