Thank You Mayor Mubarak Bloomberg and the HS-MIC

We have recently suggested that in the aftermath of 9-11, police departments are losing their "protect-and-serve" civilian orientation in favor of a military/ counter-terrorism posture that is nurtured by the Homeland Security Military Industrial Complex (HSMIC) and led by civilians that defer to national military advisors.

We have received feedback that our claim is far-fetched, over-reaching, and myopic. Fortunately, New York City's Mayor Mubarak Bloomberg has weighed in to support our position.

From the NY Post:

NYC is ready to go to war.

Mayor Bloomberg boasted yesterday that "I have my own army" in the NYPD and, if that wasn't enough to establish the city as a worldwide power, added "I have my own state department" as well.

The comments came during a speech the mayor delivered at MIT describing how he was managing the city. Trying to offer some idea of the scope of New York's workforce, Bloomberg got a bit carried away with himself.

"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh largest army in the world," he said. "I have my own state department, to Foggy Bottom's annoyance. We have the UN in New York, so we have entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have. I don't listen to Washington very much, which is something they're not thrilled about."

We look forward to learning about his army's perspective on the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners, the Geneva Protocol to the Hague Convention on the use of gas/biochemical weapons such as pepper spray, and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We remain intrigued about the Rules of Engagement the Mayor has established for the NYPD's claimed capability to shoot down civilian aircraft on their own authority.

What's amazing is that Bloomberg, who both promotes a domestic military presence and is himself a product of the culture of Homeland Security, manages to make Rudy Guliani seem rational, and manages to make uber-mensch Ed Koch seem a milquetoast.