The formation of the United States Homeland Security resulted from the constant terrorist attacks on the nation. Some of the country`s highly coveted events such as the Super Bowl present an opportunity or easy target for terrorist attacks and hence the need to buffer security by creating a specific department whose main aim is to cater for such security concerns. In this case, Homeland Security (H.S) is responsible for a number of issues. For example: Border security, cybercrimes, violation of human rights, immigration, and smuggling ( Lewis, 2014 ). One significant homeland security related event is the Time Square bombing attempt.
During weekends, especially on Saturday in the evening, Time Square emerges as the place which is buzzling with the most activities within New York. This is due to the large number of individuals streaming in across the streets with some seeking to pose and take pictures with some of the legendary movie characters like Iron man who grace the screens ( Boynton, 2010 ). Terrorism, however, almost managed to disrupt the peace and quiet mood of revelers and other individuals in the city. This occurred on May 3 2010 when it emerged that some smoking Nissan Pathfinder contained a bomb ( Boynton, 2010 ).
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To further elaborate on the incident, the pathfinder contained tanks filled to the brim with propane along with some jugs of gasoline, M-88 firecrackers and a gun casing containing fertilizer ( Flamm, Foltin & Frogel, 2015 ). These were enough accessories to cause a deadly explosion. The discovery of explosives was made by some T-shirt vendors who alerted a law enforcement officer who in turn requested back up. Home land security whose mandate is to cater for such events was alerted about the issue and together with the police managed to disperse individuals from the surrounding area. As a result, no one was injured and the law enforcement agents managed to contain the situation, although, the terrorist was never apprehended.
To sum it all up, the role of Homeland Security is to cater for the security within the U.S borders. Matters pertaining to terrorist attacks and border security are well managed by the H.S agents. The Time Square attempted bombing is one of the events which demonstrates the role played by H.S. Some of the matters are beyond the police` jurisdiction and hence the need for another body mandated to deal with such incidences. One can, therefore, not dispute the viability of Homeland Security within the United States.
References
Boynton, G. R. (2010). Twitter Data Stream: Times Square Threat.
Flamm, A., Foltin, G., & Frogel, M. (2015). 71 Had the Time Square Bomb Exploded: What Would Your Emergency Department Have Done? Annals of Emergency Medicine , 66 (4), S25.
Lewis, T. G. (2014). Critical infrastructure protection in homeland security: defending a networked nation . John Wiley & Sons.
