Flushing Chamber AddressesTerrorism’s Impact On Businesses

A national security expert addressed members of the Flushing Chamber of Commerce and Business Association last Friday about the dangers of potential terrorist attacks.
James J. Darmos, retired assistant chief of Federal Protective Services also described steps businesses can take to work with law enforcement agencies to prevent future attacks.
During his talk, Darmos highlighted a partnership, ‘NYPD Shield,’ where local businesses work with the police department based on providing best practices, lessons learned, counter-terrorism training opportunities and information sharing.
“You can contact them and they will meet with your business,” Darmos said. “They have a whole bunch of things that are very positive for the business community to develop the ability to recognize if something isn’t right and to make a call.”
Darmos also informed the people in attendance that in order to win the war on terror, the U.S. needed to recognize who the enemy is, as well as the potential atrocities.
“We’re not dealing with Sunday school children here; we’re dealing with some pretty sophisticated people,” he said.
Darmos talked about how terrorism is not a new phenomenon that started with September 11, 2001. Instead, he said that more than 7,000 attacks took place worldwide from 1981-2001.
However, he believes there are a number of reasons why the U.S. has been attacked, including the fact that, “a lot of people envy our position, our success and our freedom.”
Although there are many things people can do to help prevent attacks, Darmos acknowledged that we are not at the point where they will become non-existent.
“We have not in this country, in this world, reached the position of living in a Utopian society where we do not need arms, we do not even need police and everybody treats everybody wonderfully,” he said. “It doesn’t exist; it never will.”
pdavis@queenscourier.com