By Emily Drooby
In Midtown Manhattan, the normal noise of busy streets filled with commuters and shoppers was replaced by the sounds of power tools as businesses prepared for the election. Businesses have boarded up their windows and doors, and luxury residential buildings have hired extra security.
This comes as many fear the aftermath of this contentious election could include civil unrest.
From “the intelligence that we are hearing, there are going to be protests no matter who wins,” explained Kenneth Weiss, a senior account manager for Advanced Electronic Solutions, also known as AES. They are a security company that services some of the biggest residential and commercial buildings in New York City.
Kenneth explained that many buildings are using a combination of electronic security in terms of technology and physical security in terms of bodyguards.
“Security is like an onion, so you want to have different layers,” he said,” and the more layers you have, the harder it is for someone to cause damage to persons, property or information and let them go to the next building.”
Adding, they’ll also be using technology to monitor large group gatherings.
“A lot of the clients are using overt and covert video surveillance and using smart techniques, AI, deep learning algorithms, so that if a crowd is forming. it could alert someone that’s monitoring the systems and hopefully let them take some action before a problem occurs,” Kenneth added.
Mayor Bill de Blasio shrugged off questions about potential violence during his daily press conference.
The mayor asked people to accept election results, adding that the NYPD is ready if there is any unrest.