NYPD wants Geiger counters banned

The "let's ban everything" rightists are at it again! You'd think they wouldn't be, now that they've already, well, banned everything, but they always find something else to ban.

New York City police deputy commissioner for counterterrorism Richard Falkenrath and embattled Mayor Michael Bloomberg are demanding that City Council make it illegal for anyone to possess devices that detect biological, chemical, or radiological weapons without a permit. To quote that guy on 'Cops': Reason? Reason? The excuse for the proposed ban is that (get this) one of these devices might malfunction and cause police to chase bad leads.

That's like banning phones because people dial 911 to make false emergency calls.

The banned devices would include Geiger counters, industrial pollutant detectors, and even carbon monoxide detectors. Public health professionals are furious, because their job of warning the city's population of pollution would be just about impossible to do. Organizations like Asthma-Free School Zones wouldn't be allowed to do their jobs either. The law would have also made criminals out of independent experts who tested the air around the World Trade Center site right after 9/11.

Falkenrath said he got the idea for this law from (drum roll, please) officials in the Department of Homeland Suckyurity who suggested it to him. Gee, thanks a zillion, DHS.

Where does this power grab end?

(Source: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0803,thompson,78873,2.html)