"Random" Bag Searches Started Today in NYC >

[Stephanie]

Note to everyone outside of NYC - have no doubt, your cars are next.

According to radio news they are pulling people aside at the subway entrance and making them wait in line to open their bags on a table they have set up at Union Square. And the searches seem to be concentrated in Queens and the Bronx according to WNYC. And they are searching people as they enter the escalator down to the trains at Grand Central.

I didn't see much myself as I walked to work today. It took twice as long but it was worth it.

Ride and seek
City riders face searches in wake of British attacks

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/330467p-282344c.html

Next stop, police searches.

City straphangers became the first transit riders in the nation yesterday to be subjected to random police searches, after a new round of explosions rattled London.

***

Kelly said that, in general, every 10th rider - or some other set interval - would be stopped before they hit the turnstiles and asked to open their bags or boxes for inspection. If illegal contraband is found in the process, riders will face arrest. If not, they'll be free to go.

A team of eight cops was already on the job at the Union Square station in Manhattan yesterday afternoon. Most searches lasted from five to 30 seconds and seemed to ruffle few feathers. But some riders were decidedly put off.

"Between the terrorists and the police, I am being doubly attacked," said Luis Arias, 34, a Bronx carpenter of Peruvian descent who got searched yesterday. "It's discriminatory."

Security experts said the likelihood of actually nabbing a would-be bomber was slim to none. But the point is more about deterrence, they said. <more>

[atommom]

1. How do they have the manpower to do this? And is this really a good

use of that manpower? Aside from the obvious creepiness of the situation, it doesn't make economic sense.

[K-W]

13. The best they can hope to do is get bombers to choose a different target.

Wait until the first cafe gets blown up.

You cant search bags everywhere.

Its time to end this war, its time to change US foriegn policy. The world is getting smaller, we cant afford to run roughshod over the rest of the world anymore, nor should we want to.

[leesa]

22. Exactly. It is pointless and a violation of our rights, at least

before the atrocity of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act...welcome to Germany circa 1934.

It should point out the futility of all these anti-terrorist measures. It can just as easily be done a different way next time.

The ONLY way to end terrorism is to stop invading countries, stop murdering their populace and stop stealing their resources.

[RPM]

21. they dont

somewhere some crime is going unaddressed while the cops are searching subway passengers.

The terrorists have won.

[me b zola]

32. Meanwhile

The cheney administration does not force nuclear & chemical plants to strengthen their security. We can't inconvenience the industries, but we damn well sure can give up our rights that protect us from unreasonable searches. :grr:


Here's a link to a MSNBC poll asking if you agree to being searched.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4168940

Almost 70% of respondents say they agree to being searched :wtf:

[LynzM]

2. This is ridiculous.

Can I tell you, as a diabetic, the number of times I've taken a bag containing vials and syringes through 'security' and not been caught? What comes after bags? Pockets? "the point is deterrance"... yeah, just make sure you're at the right point in line to not get stopped.... ridiculous.

[WoodrowFan]

3. and in DC

a coworker just came in to say that on the DC metro this am they were doing random bag searches...


hey, why didn't the Terror Alert color go up? Oh wait, there's no election coming up this year, that's why! DOH!

[MadHound]

4. Let's see here,

Random searches, the Patriot Act made permanent. Well then, since Bush stated that Osama hated our freedoms, and was attacking us in order to curtail them, the only logical conclusion that one can come to is that Osama won, and that the America we all know and love is no more.

Welcome to the new Amerikkka, please have your papers ready, and all of your bags ready to be searched. And no complaining either, else you will be declared an enemy combatant.

[KurtNYC]

5. I rode the 1 and then the shuttle

this morning. Didn't see any cops on trains and just a couple in the TS station. I certainly didn't see any searches going on.

Ridership was noticeably thin.

If they find a copy of the Bill of Rights on your person they will shred it right in front of you as I understand it.

[Stephanie]

6. That last line is a joke, right?

Because I almost believe you.

One to the shuttle is MY route - how come I never see you? Didn't take it today, tho.

[KurtNYC]

18. We saw each other once on the shuttle platform

a while back. As for the 1 train, I come from the north and you from the south (I think).

And yes the line is a joke because BURNING is the preferred method for destroying copies of the Bill of Rights ;-)

[madinmaryland]

16. I think they are using the homeland security

money on portable shredders. All the easier to shred the constitution.

:argh:

[CWebster]

7. I recall this interview with bin Laden's right hand man

Their objectives were:

Erode US freedoms. Check

Drain us wealth. Check

Break up the US into different regions.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

8. Wow, I love having no rights anymore!

i already called 311 and left my nasty thoughts about this. "I am outraged and disgusted by Bloomberg's and Police Commissioner Kelly's waste of Taxpayer money and trampling of civil rights. How dare the police illegally and unconstitutionally search citizen's private property without probable cause or a warrant." something to that extent...

[tomg]

9. Let's assume the Dems

get in again in 2006 and 2008. Are we ever going to be able to undo all of the insane damage that has been done, or are these violations of our civil rights the equivalent of gas prices: they are here to stay.

[K-W]

10. I took a commuter train to GC and then the subway, I didnt even see a cop

So far my constitutional rights havent been violated.

[LeftNYC]

11. Came in from the Bronx...where I live...

not one cop between 180th(Bronx) and 66th that I saw...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Brooklyn and Queens? They said there wouldn't be profiling. BS! n/t

[Stephanie]

15. Exactly. I heard that on WNYC

WNYC had reporters riding the trains since early this morning and that was their report. Actually I think they said Bronx & Queens - I'm going to edit.

[Lannes]

14. I left NYC about 10 years ago

Its becoming unrecognizable from the city I left in so many ways.Very sad.

[NYC Liberal]

17. "Let's bring on even MORE delays all while really preventing nothing!"

Seems to be the idea here.

Wasn't there also a story not too long ago about police stopping trains to teach passengers how to "identify" a bomber?

[kentuck]

19. One small step for security....one giant step for fascism.

And there's a special little room for you smokers...

[Stephanie]

23. Is It Fascism Yet?

Yes, it is.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

30. Keith Obermann had a piece on Countdown showing how they have high

powered video cameras all over Chicago. Some of them are also wired for sound. Right now the sound is only geared up for the sound of gunshot. As Keith then said, gunshots now, but how about voices in the future. Yes fascism and Big Brother is here.

[JHB]

20. All was normal on the PATH train this morning...

...albiet this was before 6am. For most peoples' info, the PATH trains cross under the Hudson to Hoboken, Jersey City, and Newark, and are under different management than the subways. In Manhattan one line goes up 6th Ave from the Village to 33rd St., while the other goes to the WTC/Ground Zero.

OTOH, at Penn Station I noticed the national Guard people are toting their rifles again. They haven't done that since the Rethuglican Coven.

[Stephanie]

24. At Grand Central cops are wearing helmets.

And the dogs are back.

[Suziq]

25. All Normal on Ferry Service . . . .

from Jersey City to World Financial Center as well.

I did hear this morning that the PATH and ferries are next. They did have some burly security guards on the ferry right after the first London bombings.

I am having such problems with this assault on our civil liberties. :cry:




:hippie:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

26. Disneyland often searches cars before they can enter the premises

nothing new here

[K-W]

27. I guess if you think a private amusment park is the same as a subway.

I think they are actually significantly different situations, and probably shouldnt be generalized together.

[Stephanie]

29. Wrong. Disneyland is not the streets of the city.

Disneyland is a private enterprise. These are the NYC streets where we are being randomly stopped and asked to set our bags down on a table and lay them open for inspection. I'm shocked that you NSMA can't smell the fascism when it is wafting up from the subway tunnels. When they stop your car for inspection before they allow you to drive onto the freeway, then you can make the comparison.

[DinahMoeHum]

28. "No, you can't have my rights - I'm still using them". . .

Wonder what would happen if I wore that button next time I ride on the subway in NYC??

:evilgrin:

[Stephanie]

31. Anybody take the train home yet?

I'm going to walk.

[Suziq]

33. Anyone in the New York City area . . . .

watching Channel 2 news?

What crap! Their online poll shows that 70%, I repeat 70% of people who took the poll were AGAINST the random bag searches.

Roz Abrams and whatever his name is keep saying that every commuter they spoke to were all for it. They would not show the people they interviewed who thought this was a direct assault on our civil liberties. :grr: