City workers fanned out across lower Manhattan to quickly investigate and remove a series of fake NYPD “public service” ads depicting the police force as drone-deploying Big Brother that someone installed in bus shelters.
The bright blue signs — which were first spotted Tuesday morning near Whitehall and Waters Sts. but later were discovered in DUMBO, Brooklyn — feature NYPD logos.
“DRONES,” the sign reads. “Protection when you least expect it.”
Another sign nearby shows a crowd of people marching in business attire with surveillance cameras and two drones — one firing missiles — hovering above. At the top of the poster is an image of Mayor Bloomberg with the misspelled phrase: “Always Wathching.”
It was not immediately clear who posted the signs, which also bear a fake stamp from the Ad Council, a non-partisan public service group. NYPD investigators were dusting the bus shelters for prints.
It appears that it was the New York Civil Liberties Union that created this poster warning New Yorkers of the Orwellian future that is near at hand. The caricature of the fleeing family in the above poster is the exact same caricature used on signs posted near the border of California and Mexico to warn drivers of illegal immigrants crossing the road.
Lower Manhattan workers, still reeling from Monday’s inconvenient Occupy Wall Street protests, were not amused.
“We’ve got freedom of the press but this is blasphemy,” said Tom Michael, 53, a Navy vet who lives in Staten Island. “It’s very disrespectful to have this near the Trade Center. I hope they catch the hoaxsters.”
Others said that the medium — a subtle parody ad — blurred the message.
“What are they saying? That the cops have drones? It doesn’t make any sense,” said Tyron Russo, 39, an elevator mechanic from Staten Island. “It’s a big city and they gotta protect us. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
Source: NY Daily News