NY officials on ISIS threat

Amid the fear associated with the recent ISIS propaganda video threatening NY City – particularly Times Square – the NY Police Department is working hard to spread reassuring messages about the city’s safety.

Wednesday, the terror group released a video warning of an impending attack on NY City.

Police immediately said that there was “no current or specific threat”, and Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton went to Times Square in the middle of the night to reassure residents. While Times Square and Herald Square appear in the video, the NYPD in conjunction with all of our partners are taking all necessary security precautions in these areas and areas across the city.

“Can you believe the worst mayor in the USA, and probably the worst mayor in the history of NY City, Bill de Blasio, just called me a blowhard?” he asked.

As The NY Times reported this month, “The federal government’s annual homelessness count showed an increase in New Yorkers living on the streets or in shelters, even as the number of homeless people nationwide dipped slightly compared with the previous year”.

Police said they were aware of the footage and there was a “heightened state of vigilance”.

In September, Mayor De Blasio, along with Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, announced an expanded coalition of “more than 70 cities and counties” that urged “immediate implementation” of President Obama’s Immigration Executive Action. “We can not be intimidated, and that’s what terrorists seek to do”.

This past April another similar video had been released.

The video comes on the heels of a series of attacks by the extremist group in Lebanon, on a Russian airliner and most recently in Paris, that killed 129 people on Friday.

Earlier this week, another video released by ISIS threatened to strike Washington.

Trump, a billionaire NY real-estate developer who has gained traction in the Republican race, said this week that Syrian refugees may prove a “Trojan horse” in the U.S. In a Thursday interview with Yahoo News, he said he would be open to implementing a database to track Muslim Americans.

The new unit will supplement an existing 1,000-officer programme.

Authorities in the US capital said they are stepping up security. “When we see the video, we make note of it, but it’s like a lot of videos we’ve seen.”, said Miller.