Machine-Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway MP5 Submachine Guns, Bomb Sniffing Dogs Part Of New "Torch Team" Anti-Terror Efforts Reporting Magee Hickey NEW YORK (CBS) ― More protection against terrorists is coming to a subway station near you. Starting Thursday, special bomb teams - "Torch Teams" - will be toting submachine guns and bringing bomb-sniffing dogs onto the platforms and into the trains. CBS 2 was out first thing Thursday morning on the lookout for these significant security measure improvements. It's a first for mass transit in the United States. NYPD officers, armed with rifles, submachine guns, body armor and bomb sniffing dogs will begin patrolling the city's subway system thanks to a 50 percent increase in a homeland security grant. Digg This Story! The city's massive subway system has long been considered a potential terror target; six officers and a dog will constitute a team, patrolling all platforms and trains in 12-hour shifts. The "Torch Teams" will be toting MP5 submachine guns that are used by Navy seals and FBI hostage-rescue teams. The teams are being paid for by $151 million from the Feds. Similarly equipped NYPD units, known as "Hercules Teams," have patrolled Wall Street, the Empire State building and other aboveground city landmarks for years as a response to the World Trade Center attacks. A police official likened the "Torch Teams" to "Hercules Teams" with metro cards. In this age of heightened security, commuters and keen canines will share the underground world of mass transit.
As the saying to the Sturmabteilung or storm troopers that was mentioned above..."Terror must be broken by terror", though frankly it is just another way for the gov't to show the people who has the power and who doesn't. For a 2 year stint, I can just imagine this spreading to other cities besides NYC.
An FBI acquaintance of mine summed this up most succinctly:"When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
