Barless in the Big City

In response to the Mumbai terror attacks, which were coordinated partially by the use of cell phones, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly wants to have the ability to shut down New York City’s cell phone coverage, as reported in this Wired Blog article.  Along with the training of police officers in “heavy weapons,” tighter security at all ports of entry, and a proposed network of spycams, this is the newest security proposal which threatens to turn the Big Apple into Big Brother; which is the kind of tortured, heavy-handed, overly-obvious, teenager-who-has-just-read-”1984″-for-the-first-time-and-is-all-like-”WHOA” statement that we’ll refrain from using in the rest of the article.

First, in the blog article linked above, can I say that Commish Kelly looks FABULOUS?  I mean, that is a suit that you expect to be worn by the Commissioner Of Police in the big city.  Or a Mafia don.  Whichever.  And I highly dig that little pout he’s rockin’, the one that says “if you use one of THESE things in MY city, you will be swiftly and efficiently sodomized by a nightstick wielded by a member of the nation’s finest police force.”  You stay classy, Ray Kelly.

Secondly, I’m not sure that all the extra security is necessarily a good or bad thing.  There’s questions of rights and privacy and intrusion that always come about when these kinds of reforms are proposed.  It’s no chore to recognize the value of preventing further terrorist attacks, but there’s a point at which the pursuit of airtight security begins to restrict civil liberty.  This issue has been and will continue to be hotly debated for probably the rest of our lives, so I feel no reason to hash out the details of the argument here.  GWIRE readers are welcome to debate this in our comments threads, of course; and would probably do so even if they weren’t welcome.

The point I’m sticking to here is this:  the elephant in the room, which is the dependency of modern society, particularly an urbanized, highly-mobile society such as exists in NYC, on cell phone technology.  Commissioner Kelly may want to take a tool out of the hands of potential terrorists, but by shutting down New York’s cell reception he would remove the ability of civilians to check on their loved ones or report to emergency services.  The survivors trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center were able to contact rescuers using their mobiles.  With no cell phone reception, everyday people are robbed of what might be their only method to deal with a terrorist attack.

If Overheard In New York has taught us anything, it’s that a New Yorker deprived of their ability to communicate with others is a cranky New Yorker–and in the middle of a terrorist attack, suddenly having a million cranky New Yorkers on your hands means you have TWO major emergencies.