I was walking down 7th Avenue, from 56th Street down to 40th Street, last night at around 9:30 or 10:00. A procession of what seemed to be at least 100 NYC police cars -- sirens blaring, lights flashing -- came down 7th Avenue into Times Square. They then stopped traffic coming down both 7th Avenue and Broadway, and all parked at angles to the curb, forming a wall of police cars on both sides of 7th Avenue and Broadway from 42nd Street to at least 44th Street, and maybe beyond.

I didn't stick around to see what was going on, and I saw nothing in the NY Times or the Post this morning. Anyone have any idea what was going on?

Probably an emergency drill or a preparedness exercise. Happens frequently in my town, usually at night.

Maybe Bloomberg decided to leave his E 79th Street townhouse and head to Times Square to hob nob with the hot dog guy.

I wondered the same thing. I left work around 5:30 and noticed 6 cop cars parked on 57th between 5th/6th. The cars were parked nose-out, reducing 57th to one lane and causing a mess of a traffic jam. The same situation was repeated across from Carnegie hall, and also on 6th Ave between 57th/56th.

The first cop I talked to said it was a "security precaution" and the 2nd said they were running a drill. You'd think they would chose a better time than the afternoon rush hour to completely mess up midtown traffic.

There was a shooting in the subways at 4 pm, I wonder if they were getting in position should the shooter pop out at another station.

It wasn't a drill if it hapended at rush hour.

What I witnessed occurred well after the shooting matter was resolved.

The same thing happened on Fifth Avenue a couple of weeks ago -- also in Midtown, also during rush hour. Police cars pointed out, blocking traffic to two lanes, maybe three.

This must be practice as a security drill for the RNC the week before Labor Day.

There was a jumper/suicide on 33rd - not sure if that had anything to do with it.

-Peter

This show of force happens quite a bit around the city and could be a part of the NYPD's Operation Hercules and Operation Atlas.

The NYPD randomly appears with tons of cops and officers in heavy equipment (M16 rifles, riot gear, special operations equipment) at locations around the city as part of an "anti-terrorism" program.

They usually sweep in en-masse and make an appearance, scare the **** out of us ordinary New Yorkers living our day to day lives and pose for pictures with the unassuming and bewildered tourists.

There was a subway shooting last night, yes - but it was downtown.

My educated guess would be that it was part of Operation Hercules, running drills for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday and the requisite elevation of terrorist threat levels.

My guess is that you're right, based on what I observed and the lack of anything in the news. The tourists were in absolute awe, although I have to imagine that some were scared s***less.

Actually l'll take back the Subway thing as it hapended again tonight on the FDR drive around 6. I'll also take back the it wasn't a drill thing, because the SUV's had their windows down, which you never ever, not once, not ever, see when they are zipping around. I can't believe they would be protecting somebody and the windows were down.

I've never seen Hercules and Atlas (and didn't see the Hummers) with so many vchicles, I'm believing it was for the convention, maybe they are drilling at rush hour.

A number of my skittish Manhattan friends are planning to flee town during the Republican convention.

They certainly weren't scaring the shit out of any "ordinary New Yorkers". It was just a big annoyance, to those of us trying to commute home, that's all.

And the rest of us are staying home as we have to go to work!

Mr Cheney was in town and heading up to the Yankee game!

-Mark