Police ignore the 4th. Amendment will conduct random bag searches along the Red Sox world series parade route
(image from Chicago marathon)
Security at tomorrow’s Red Sox rolling rally, which will pack a million or more people along miles of downtown streets, including the places where the marathon bombs exploded — will be a “major challenge,” even for a city experienced in running mass events, a national sports-safety expert said.
“It’s going to be the same as the marathon,” said Lou Marciani, director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and
Security at the University of Southern Mississippi. “You have open space and, in
essence, little control over the spectators on the route. You have to rely on some countermeasures to oversee the security. ... it’s going to be an interesting environment, and I assume, as
always, the Boston authorities will do a great job."
Cops say they’ll be out in full force, both in uniform and plainclothes, with special-operations squads, including bomb-sniffing dogs. Cops have said they will search bags at random along the parade route.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/10/security_challenge_seen_in_rally_but_police_are_ready_for_it
Spying at sporting events got a whole lot creepier: DHS/Police can take over messaging boards
Red Sox chief operating officer Sam Kennedy: "I want to stress how safe Fenway Park is and how safe we feel. We do have these expansive procedures in place."
The Red Sox, in cooperation with the Boston Police Department, have officers assigned to gates throughout Fenway Park and they observe fan screening. Kennedy said a security assessment of Fenway was done with the DHS during the offseason.
"We worked very closely with them just to make sure that everything is up to standards," Kennedy said. "We installed a state-of-the-art surveillance camera system, so we basically have an eye on every inch of the ballpark and the surrounding perimeter. And, as you know, parking is restricted throughout the Fenway area during games and during other major events.
"One of the things that is most effective is that 15-minute refresher before every game," Harold Hansen, the director of life safety for the International Association of Venue Managers said. "You pick a topic, you review it, you drive it back into the minds of their awareness. And so on. One of the things, a football team, in fact it was the Eagles — while everybody in the venue was getting ready for a game, all of the video monitors that are doing commercials and stuff when the public is in it — they ran training information on all of those videos. So even if you're the concessions guy, walking down with the cart of stuff, you're hearing, you're seeing, you're getting reminders of what suspicious activity might be, or where do I report, or what do I need to be thinking about.
"One of the things that is difficult to gauge is everybody's working to move that bar upwards and higher for their preparedness all the time," Hansen continued. "And each time we see a new disaster like the Boston Marathon, there you were in the heart of the heavy security, the finish line — and obviously two bombs got in. Everybody's kind of going, 'So what's that mean?' And it really means that you got to go back and revisit the kind of awareness and suspicious activity training that the team of people did."
"The most important things are a means of communicating with fans and team personnel, which includes both players on the field and folks who are in the clubhouses or behind the Monster," Adelman said. "There are a lot of people in a lot of different locations within the greater Fenway Park complex and they all have to be accessible to the means of communication. And so with the 10-year renovation project largely done, there are three excellent video boards in the outfield with very high resolution, those are all — and I know this from the research I did for the NFPA journal — those are all tied not only to the scoreboard operators for the Red Sox, but they can also be taken over by Boston Police departments, or by whatever is the authority having jurisdiction.
The Boston Police or the authority having jurisdiction, can take over all of the other message boards and also the loudspeaker systems," Adelman continued. "So the first issue is, can you get information to the people who need it in the event of an emergency? At Fenway Park, the answer is a resounding 'yes.'"
http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2013/04/how_to_keep_fenway_park_safe.html
http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2013/04/mlb_security_policy_does_not_d.html
http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2013/04/experts_guns_knives_more_reali.html
http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2013/04/red_sox_and_bruins_were_on_sam.html
Video producer charged with felony wiretapping for recording interview with a Boston Police spokeswoman:
Two weeks after having his case dismissed for photographing a Nike commercial set from a public sidewalk, Taylor Hardy learned he was being charged with a felony for audio recording a telephone interview with the media spokeswoman of the Boston Police Department.
Angelene Richardson, Director of Media Relations for the Boston Police Department, claims she was unaware she was being recorded and was surprised to discover the video of their conversation on Youtube.
The video he posted online, which has received less than 100 views, begins in mid-conversation and doesn’t reveal much except that Richardson was clueless about the story that Hardy was calling about; a PINAC story in which a Boston police detective shoved a man recording him while threatening to arrest him for felony battery on a police officer.
Obviously, the 2011 landmark Glik decision, in which the Boston Police Department paid a man $170,000 after arresting him for on wiretapping charges for recording them in public, hasn’t sent the message, even though it makes it very clear that public officials can be recorded in their public capacity.
The Massachusetts wiretapping law, however, makes it illegal for people to secretly record other individuals, even if they don’t have an expectation of privacy, so that is what they are vying for here.
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/10/31/pinac-video-producer-charged-felony-wiretapping-recording-interview-police-spokeswoman/
DHS & the NYPD use the Boston Marathon bombing as an excuse to ignore American's 4th. Amendment rights:
"The New York City Police Department today announced street closures related to the 2013 ING New York City Marathon. Street closures and parking restrictions are expected to cause traffic delays. The use of public transportation is highly recommended.
Beginning at midnight on Sunday, November 3, the upper level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge will be closed to vehicle traffic. At approximately 7 a.m. rolling street closures will commence along the route in preparation for the marathon. Prior to taking their starting positions on Staten Island, runners will be screened and their bags inspected. The New York Road Runners has provided the participants with clear bags to expedite this process. Individuals who require event credentials and special access to secure areas, such as organizers, volunteers and other personnel, have been pre-screened in addition to the physical screening they will receive on Sunday.
Along the course, bags and backpacks may be subject to search. Bag checks and magnetometer screenings will be conducted in the area of the finish line. Spectators can help expedite, if not alleviate some of the security process, by leaving backpacks at home."
Event participants and spectators were told to expect a “large uniformed presence,” strict bag checks at the race's start and finish and extra screening for those with credentials to access secure areas. Kelly said all bags and items are subject to search and runners were encouraged not to bring backpacks. Marathon organizers New York Road Runners are providing clear bags for use.
Aside from the increased event security, the NYPD and the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday announced a partnership between the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign with this year’s marathon.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pr/pr_2013_nyc_marathon_2013_11_03.shtml
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/03/21287362-kenyas-mutai-and-jeptoo-win-heavily-monitored-nyc-marathon