As a result of threats made to the creators of the hit cartoon series "South Park," the New York Police Department has beefed up security at Comedy Central's headquarters.
As NewsBusters reported Monday, a radical Islamic group threatened the lives of Trey Parker and Matt Stone due to a two-part episode featuring Mohammed in a bear's costume.
Newsweek's Declassified blog reported Friday that the NYPD actually got advanced notice of the threat, and is acting accordingly (h/t @allahpundit):
The New York Police Department has stepped up security at the headquarters of the Comedy Central cable channel after an Islamic extremist Web site posted apparent threats to the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, for making fun of the Prophet Muhammad. Paul Browne, NYPD deputy commissioner and chief spokesman, says that his department for some time has been aware of the small group, which appears to organize around a now-unreachable Web site called RevolutionMuslim.com, at least one of whose purported leaders posted threats against South Park after the scatological cartoon series made fun of Muhammad, Jesus, and the icons of several other major religions, as well as numerous prominent Hollywood celebrities, in a two-part story celebrating the program's 200th episode. "We were aware of the threat before it surfaced and took precautions to safeguard the offices of Comedy Central," Browne says. He declined to discuss the security measures in further detail or to disclose how NYPD managed to get advance warning that the cartoon and its producers were going to be threatened.A law-enforcement official who asked to remain unnamed due to the sensitivity of the information and private experts who monitor extremist Islamic Web sites say that from what they can tell, the people behind RevolutionMuslim.com, who at one point last year apparently succeeded in organizing a pro–bin Laden demonstration outside a Queens, N.Y., mosque known for propagating a moderate form of Islam, espouse a particularly virulent extremist Islamic message that includes support for bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. But the experts say that there is no evidence that the Web site or its supporters have ever engaged in actual violence or have access to any weapons. "It's all talk," the law-enforcement official says.
Nevertheless, law-enforcement agencies are concerned that the implied threats that the Web site posted condemning the latest South Park lampoon of Muhammad "might inspire someone else," says the official.
Too bad Comedy Central caved to the pressure from these wackos.
