My first thought before clicking the article was 'of course - it is NYC and the government there prides itself on being paranoid authoritarians'. This is the same city which brought us stop and frisk, which has a police department that likes to wander broadly out of jurisdiction into foreign countries, and given reports about unmarked X-Ray Vans that they have gotten special pleading okays to block any information from the courts. Their government will almost certainly kill more innocent people in /New York City/ than terrorists ever will which is impressive feat given both 9-11 and earlier historic attacks.