RPCV Shays defends warning
Shays defends Times Sq. warning
By MAGGIE HABERMAN
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays said yesterday that he doesn't regret warning people to stay out of Times Square on New Year's Eve, even though the celebration went off without a hitch.
"I just have gratitude that there [was] not a problem," the Republican told the Daily News. But he added, "It's kind of like someone who swims in shark-infested waters, and they get out and say, 'I did just fine, didn't I?' "
Shays had declared he wouldn't go to Times Square on New Year's Eve "for anything" because of the high-alert terror warnings. The comment drew immediate fire from Mayor Bloomberg, who called on Shays to apologize after New Year's Eve passed.
But Shays said he isn't sorry and added it is "disingenuous to make this an issue of courage, or to make this an issue of faith in New York's police," as some officials did.
He called the NYPD "the finest police force of any in the world."
But Shays, who sits on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security and chairs a terrorism subcommittee, said elected officials must give people enough information to make informed decisions about what they do.
"My attitude is this: You tell people the truth, and you let them make adult decisions," he said. "These alerts either mean something or they don't mean something. . . . I don't know if Mayor Bloomberg would have gone [to Times Square] if he wasn't mayor."
Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler replied, "The congressman still doesn't understand that New Yorkers refuse to be terrorized. If he wants to go hide in a cave, that's fine, but we aren't going to.
"Of course, if he wants to make New York City even safer, he can help fix the pork-barrel formula which makes us second to last in homeland security funding," he added.
