July 22, 2005
Remote Control Terrorism
Mayor Bloomberg has announced New York City will begin random bag checks on the subway. This is "not a response to a specific threat against the city," but rather a response to the fizzled London 7/21 bombing. So now the terrorists can strike us by ineptly pawing at our friends 3400 miles away. And we already started this charade last night.
Searches began last night at several stations, including 14th Street-Union Square in Manhattan and an undisclosed station along the No. 7 line near Shea Stadium, in Queens.
Undisclosed station? This is starting well. Can somebody remind me how this is even legal? I can vaguely reason my way around to thinking that searches in airports are legal - everybody gets searched, airlines are private enterprises and can institute whatever prerequisites they want for using their services, etc. - but how on earth would this be legal? Under what circumstances does riding the subway with a backpack constitute probable cause?
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly promised "a systematized approach" in the searches and said the basis for selecting riders for the checks would not be race, ethnicity or religion. [...] "Every certain number of people will be checked," Mr. Kelly said. "We'll give some very specific and detailed instructions to our officers as to how to do this in accordance with the law and the Constitution."
Oh, right, the circumstances of not being a white Christian. Of course they're going to profile based on race, ethnicity and religion (as much as religion can be spotted at a distance). You're looking for Islamic terrorists. You're ready for your next check, when a white guy and a dark-skinned fellow approach the turnstile at about the same time. Who's bag gets checked? It's human goddamn nature.
And of course, there's no way these random searches can be effective in a subway system of 5 million daily riders. And they know that.
William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, an industry group, said comprehensive coverage of any major urban transit system would be next to impossible. "If you were going to try to check a very high percentage at every station or on every train, it would be incredibly labor-intensive," he said.Still, he said, the searches could deter would-be attackers and improve the public's confidence. "The public wants to feel safe, as well as be safe," he said. "So this has a benefit of perception."
America. Give me liberty, or give me a vague sense that Somebody's Doing Something.
Posted by ben at July 22, 2005 07:52 AM