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American Morning

Morning After in Times Square

Aired January 01, 2004 - 07:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Organizers estimate that one million people were in New York's Times Square last night to count down to 2004. The event went off without any major incidents. Thousands of police were stationed on the ground and up on rooftops and above the crowd in helicopters.
Maria Hinojosa is live for us in Times Square the morning after. She's just still there from the celebrations last night, right, Maria?

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, just because I knew you weren't here. There you go.

O'BRIEN: Oh, you are too good to us.

(CROSSTALK)

HINOJOSA: There's just a little bit. Wait, here's a piece of orange. It doesn't want to go.

You know, Soledad, this was one of the biggest celebrations here in New York City, and it was one of the celebrations that had the most unprecedented levels of security. Just about a million people showing up, packing up here in Times Square, almost all of them checked by metal detectors, many of them standing next to undercover police officers with radiation detectors, probably many of them not even aware of the counter-terrorism snipers on the rooftops. But they could see those emergency service police officers carrying those automatic rifles.

Now, the tightest security measures in a code orange New York City, but thousands upon thousands of people looked at that fear, at the code orange, and defied it. Some saying that being in a place like Times Square was an empowering feeling -- that on the one hand you had Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays saying he wouldn't be in Times Square for anything, and on the other hand you had all of these revelers who were saying this was where they wanted to be, and many of them coming from Connecticut and all around the world, some of them saying that Times Square, in fact, felt like one of the safest places in New York City last night.

Now, the cleanup started almost immediately after they dropped the ball. It's about 12:30 when all of a sudden these cleanup crews start coming in and start sweeping up. Some of those sweepers, very happy to be doing their jobs. They have to take up 2,000 pounds of confetti.

And here's the thing, Soledad, is that because of the security measures, there are no garbage cans here in Times Square. So, it's literally got to be taken up by all of these sweepers, and they are here working, in fact, right behind me. So, they'll have a lot of work to do probably through the next couple of hours -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet their work is cut out for them, as they say. Maria Hinojosa for us this morning. Hey, Maria, thank you for reenacting the confetti throwing for us -- for me and Miles since we missed it. We appreciate...

HINOJOSA: Well, you know...

O'BRIEN: ... you doing that.

HINOJOSA: ... we try to do our best to make you all feel included.

O'BRIEN: Well, thank you. We really appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Maria.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired January 1, 2004 - 07:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Organizers estimate that one million people were in New York's Times Square last night to count down to 2004. The event went off without any major incidents. Thousands of police were stationed on the ground and up on rooftops and above the crowd in helicopters.
Maria Hinojosa is live for us in Times Square the morning after. She's just still there from the celebrations last night, right, Maria?

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, just because I knew you weren't here. There you go.

O'BRIEN: Oh, you are too good to us.

(CROSSTALK)

HINOJOSA: There's just a little bit. Wait, here's a piece of orange. It doesn't want to go.

You know, Soledad, this was one of the biggest celebrations here in New York City, and it was one of the celebrations that had the most unprecedented levels of security. Just about a million people showing up, packing up here in Times Square, almost all of them checked by metal detectors, many of them standing next to undercover police officers with radiation detectors, probably many of them not even aware of the counter-terrorism snipers on the rooftops. But they could see those emergency service police officers carrying those automatic rifles.

Now, the tightest security measures in a code orange New York City, but thousands upon thousands of people looked at that fear, at the code orange, and defied it. Some saying that being in a place like Times Square was an empowering feeling -- that on the one hand you had Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays saying he wouldn't be in Times Square for anything, and on the other hand you had all of these revelers who were saying this was where they wanted to be, and many of them coming from Connecticut and all around the world, some of them saying that Times Square, in fact, felt like one of the safest places in New York City last night.

Now, the cleanup started almost immediately after they dropped the ball. It's about 12:30 when all of a sudden these cleanup crews start coming in and start sweeping up. Some of those sweepers, very happy to be doing their jobs. They have to take up 2,000 pounds of confetti.

And here's the thing, Soledad, is that because of the security measures, there are no garbage cans here in Times Square. So, it's literally got to be taken up by all of these sweepers, and they are here working, in fact, right behind me. So, they'll have a lot of work to do probably through the next couple of hours -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet their work is cut out for them, as they say. Maria Hinojosa for us this morning. Hey, Maria, thank you for reenacting the confetti throwing for us -- for me and Miles since we missed it. We appreciate...

HINOJOSA: Well, you know...

O'BRIEN: ... you doing that.

HINOJOSA: ... we try to do our best to make you all feel included.

O'BRIEN: Well, thank you. We really appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Maria.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.