NYC Is Using Public Sanitation Trucks To Stop Terrorism At the Thanksgiving Day Parade

The terrorist group ISIS said in its online magazine last year that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City was an "excellent target" for a vehicle attack like the one that killed eight people in Manhattan earlier this month. Authorities have assured spectators that sand-filled garbage trucks and police snipers would protect the tens of thousands who watch the event along Central Park.

"We had a couple of tough months as a nation," New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill told reporters Wednesday. "We won't ever accept such acts of hate and cowardice as inevitable in our society."

Garbage trucks filled with sand—which weigh about 32 tons—will block the cross streets along the entire 2.6-mile parade route, protecting it against any vehicle entering the area.

"We have people at high posts," said NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan, who is in charge of parade security, according to CBS News. He also said the NYPD is teaching local hotel staff about what to watch out for in the wake of the Las Vegas attack, which killed 58 people.

"We have people—observation teams—and there will be sniper teams in and around. We will have undercover assets in a lot of different buildings so there's going to be a lot you can see, and a lot you won't see out there, covering every aspect."

Authorities said there are no credible threats against the parade, which starts at 9 a.m. and will be broadcast live on NBC.

Less than a month ago, a man inspired by ISIS drove a rented Home Depot truck onto a bicycle path in Downtown Manhattan, about three miles from the ending point of the Thanksgiving Parade, killing eight people and injuring 12 in the city's worst terror attack since 9/11. Notes found in the truck said the attack was for ISIS and the attacker asked to hang an ISIS flag in his hospital room.

In its English-language magazine last year, ISIS urged supporters to launch vehicle attacks like that one.

"The method of such an attack is that a vehicle is plunged at a high speed into a large congregation of (non-believers), smashing their bodies with the vehicle's strong outer frame while advancing forward—crushing their heads, torsos, and limbs under the vehicle's wheels and chassis—and leaving behind a trail of carnage," the article stated, according to the New York Post. "Though being an essential part of modern life, very few actually comprehend the deadly and destructive capability of the motor vehicle and its capacity of reaping large numbers of casualties if used in a premeditated manner."

The New York City Marathon proceeded normally earlier this month, less than a week after the truck attack, with the NYPD deploying more sand-filled garbage trucks than ever before and twice as many sniper teams.

The NYPD also used about 65 sand-filled garbage trucks to protect New Year's Eve revelers in Times Square at the beginning of the year.