A City’s Police Force Now Doubts Terror Focus

Time to stop clowning and playing make-believe.

Flush with federal domestic-security grants, the police department acquired millions of dollars’ worth of hardware and enrolled officers in training courses to detect and respond to a terrorist attack.

But much has changed. Now, police officials here express doubts about whether the imperative to protect domestic security has blinded federal authorities to other priorities. The department is battling homicides, robberies and gang shootings that the police in a number of cities say are as serious a threat as terrorism.

The Providence police chief, Col. Dean M. Esserman, said the federal government seemed unable to balance antiterror efforts and crime fighting.

The domestic side of the GWOT boondoggle is about to have to begin winding down. There haven't been any instances, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the *preparations* (i.e., spending like a drunken sailor on useless crap with which to wage a make believe war to defend the homeland) Of course, just like with the so-called *war on drugs* - none of the allegedly grown folks charged with waging the *war* spoke out against the opportunity to play dress-up, cowboys, cops and robbers and live their very own little overextended fantasy against non-violent offenders - while the big drug wholesalers and manufacturers grew richer and more powerful with little or no threat of police interdiction.