NEW YORK, March 19: New York police are neither prepared nor equipped to deal with another terrorist attack of the type that levelled the city’s twin World Trade Center towers and killed some 2,800 people on Sept 11, 2001, a group representing police sergeants said on Wednesday.

“New York City officers, among the first at the scene of an emergency, today are not equipped with even the most basic of tools against our enemy — a gas mask,” said a half-page advertisement in the city’s press, signed by Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA).

In the ad, Mullins denounced municipal budget cuts which have hit the city’s emergency services.

“Our most experienced police personnel are exiting the police at record numbers,” he said. “Since the year 2000, nearly 10,000 members have left the Police Department, including 1,342 sergeants.”

Deriding advice to the public to protect themselves by building a safe room with plastic sheeting and duct tape, Mullins said, “We all know that duct tape and rabbits’ feet are no protection against weapons of mass destruction.

“The Boy Scouts of America have a simple motto: ‘Be Prepared.’ The present New York City motto seems to be: ‘Keep your fingers crossed.’”

The SBA, said Mullins, was demanding “our police be provided with all the necessary tools and training to protect and defend New York City.” —AFP