I shot this during the trip to New York City yesterday. I was somewhat confused to see cops standing around packing assault weapons and flak jackets and helmets. There was no riot, or civil disturbance (well, not that I noticed, but generally, if it's disturbing enough to have half a dozen (the total number, not all are in the shot) cops standing around, I'll probably have noticed). In fact, from their demeanor, nothing was wrong at all. As you can see in the picture, they were posing for photos with tourists. Why were they out in force?
To quote the officer I talked to, "Just a show of force. Keep people on their toes, well, the ones that need to be kept on their toes." This was of course, after a rather pointed set of questions about my "Anticrombie" patch. As in, "What's that patch about?" and "Are you anti-establishment?"