This past Thursday night, I found this document sitting in the garbage can in front of the NYPD’s Manhattan South Task Force stationhouse on 42nd Street. And by sitting, I mean, it was the only piece of trash in the bottom of the can. (Don’t ask me why I look in garbage cans — just a habit.) But this document appears to be something pretty substantial. Yet, there it was, in pristine shape, with specific locations and deployment instructions for the NYPD’s Chemical Ordnance, Biological, Radiological Awareness (COBRA) taskforce to undertake should a vengeful Osama Bin Laden sympathizer decide to retaliate on Times Square.

“I’m appalled that all this money is being spent on counterterrorism and yet some knucklehead can leave a document lying around,” said one NYC official who works closely with the NYPD.

The NYPD should really find room in the budget for a paper shredder.

UPDATE! The NYPD issued a pissy statement to ABC News:

The document involved the deployment of 20 highly visible uniformed officers whose assignments were obvious to anyone with eyes in their head. The assignment sheet was tossed out the day after the assignments were completed. Granted, we would have preferred it was disposed of more discreetly, but its discovery by a dumpster-diver* posed no threat to the public or anyone else.

*Here’s a photo of the actual public trash can the documents were found in. As you can see, it’s hardly a “dumpster.”

