New York life slowly going back to normal

By Adrián Royo Caldiz.

Buenosairesherald.com staff.

New Yorkers gave a sigh of relief on Wednesday as many of the checkpoints put in place by the police in order to check for suspicious vehicles had been lifted. As the high threat level slowly moves away from centre stage, security measures were gradually scaled back and would continue to decrease during the rest of the week, although authorities announced they would be once again put in place during the coming Jewish holidays.

Despite warnings by the National Government that the threat alert remains high due to rumours that al-Qaeda may still be planning an attack on New York, authorities have begun dialing down the extremely heavy security measures that had been put in place since last Thursday, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned it during a press conference.

This, however, doesn’t mean that the police will be back in business as usual.

Sensitive and potential target areas such as tunnels, subways, train stations and bridges remain under heavy security, although many of the checkpoints that nearly froze the city traffic in the last few days have been lifted. Random bag searches may still be conducted by the police at any time if they see any behaviour they deem suspicious.

But the high levels of alert that were present last Sunday and had many people on edge seem to be gone, at least for the moment.

The local media slowly went back to focusing on politics, with a special election that took place in New York and held in order to find a congressman who would replace Anthony Weiner, the democratic lawmaker who was caught in a Twitter scandal after it became public that he used to send naked photos of himself to women online.

New York police authorities also informed that the same kind of security measures enacted during the September 11 anniversary would be repeated in two week, when the Jewish High Holy Days begin.

Commissioner Ray Kelly said that this month there would be an increase of police patrols near Jewish institutions, while they would continue checking traffic and any suspicious elements in the rail or subway stations.

Even though Kelly explained that “they don’t know of any specific plots against Jewish institutions,” they would take the necessary steps to protect neighbourhoods and synagogues.

Rosh Hashana begins on September 28th and lasts through the end of Yom Kippur on October 8th.