Subway searches

[Farnham]

I've been hearing both sides of this story on the radio for the last few days, and would like to get the opinion here.

The Mayor of New York set up searches of backpacks, gym bags, briefcases, and (apparently) bulky coats at subway stations, and if you refuse the search, you can't board the train. You aren't arrested, you aren't hassled, you just can't board the train.

I have to confess, I'm conflicted on this issue, as the "Don't Tread On Me" and "What part of infringed don't you understand?" side of me says, "take a hike, NYC cop, you ain't searching me, 'cause I ain't doin' nothin wrong!" I think if we allow these searches for bombs to begin, then the next step is searches for guns, knives, rolling pins, books with bombs in them, physics textbooks, etc, etc. "Mission Creep" in other words.

However, I also value the lives of my fellow Americans (however misguided and politically correct they may be) and would rather see a few people inconvenienced than a lot of people dead, as long as it's not ME being inconvenienced. Individual rights are more important to me than society, but I'd like to think I have some compassion for my fellow man.

What say you?

S/F

Farnham

PS: Save the Ben Franklin, I've been saying it every afternoon to the blissninnies that say they'd rather travel clothed only in bubble wrap than have someone else killed by a terrorist bomb.

 

[Marshall]

Welcome to the club, I don't think you would be normal if you weren't conflicted.

 

[Graystar]

Your poll is flawed, as the searches don't actually offer any security.

 

[S_O_Laban]

the searches don't actually offer any security.

Ding!!Ding!!Ding!! "We have a winner!"


Graystar is exactly correct. It's not about safety.... it is about making people/sheep Feel safe. Thus the giant shredding sound you hear is the destruction of your inalienable rights..... all for a little perceived safety. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

 

[hifi]

I haven't listened to the neocons on the radio the past few days, but I'm sure they're all for the searches.

 

[Rebar]

NYC is hardly a bastion for the evil "neocons".

 

[stevelyn]

Subway Searches

Absolute waste of time and resources that accomplishes nothing and could effectively be directed elsewhere.

 

[DRZinn]

Mu.

 

[Alex45ACP]

Random searches are a waste of time. You are not going to catch terrorists with random searches in a subway system used by 4 million people a day. If on the extremely rare chance a terrorist is picked for a search, he'll either:

1. Leave and come back 5 minutes later.
2. Leave and go to a different station.
3. Blow himself up in the crowd of people waiting to be searched.

If security is beefed up too heavily on mass transit, terrorists will simply switch targets.

People need to realize that we can not be totally safe from terrorists in a free society. Stuff like this is slowly desensitizing people to violations of their privacy and civil liberties. I pray Americans will wake up and realize that they're just trading one kind of terror for another, before it's too late.

 

[garyk/nm]

Our wonderful Nanny/ gooberment seems to be locked in on the idea that if they did it once, they will do the same again.
<insert barn door analogy here>
Is there any evidence to suggest that any attempt has been made to use airplanes as tools of terror again? I doubt it, but that hasn't stopped Nanny from spending billions on protecting same.
If I were to guess, I would say that the next attack will decidedly NOT use airlines or trains/subways as targets. Why? That is where all of the attention is focused. Water supplies, hospitals, large hotels, shopping malls, packed stadiums are all prime targets.
Nanny needs to put some serious money into intel gathering, rather than after-the-fact feel good measures, to have any hope of stopping the terrorists.

 

[larry starling]

voted !

 

[Farnham]

People need to realize that we can not be totally safe from terrorists in a free society. Stuff like this is slowly desensitizing people to violations of their privacy and civil liberties. I pray Americans will wake up and realize that they're just trading one kind of terror for another, before it's too late.

That's exactly what I've been trying to express! I couldn't say it quite as succinctly though. Thanks!

Graystar mentioned that the poll is flawed, in that these measures don't actually increase security, and he's absolutely right. This is the illusion of safety, "See, we're doing something!" Says the Gubmint.

"We can't profile and search young Muslim/Arab males, because that's un-PC, but we can search Grandma and Little Timmy all day long. Maybe they're sporting their Semtex vests today." It's just ignorant.

Oh, and the talking heads on the radio are actually saying, "Fine, search away, innocent peoPLE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR!" Creepy.

S/F

Farnham

 

[RoyG]

<insert barn door analogy here>

I agree. It's all for the most part feel good security. I've travel with a few military personnel that have been pulled out of line for a TSA search. Funny thing was is all of them have secret security clearances some of them have top secret.

 

[Bandit01]

I lived in NYC and took the subway everyday. Unfortunately, random searches are not effective. It's based upon guessing. There are so many subway stations in the city--you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than guessing who might have a bomb. Lets say the police are lucky and they find a person with a bomb--the person will just detonate it. What's going to happen in the winter when people are wearing layers of clothes. Does that mean that the police will randomly choose people and have them take off the many layers to inspect them. Good idea but it's flawed from the beginning. All that random searches are going to accomplish is to make people late for work.

 

[Smurfslayer]

drive me away from public transport... go ahead...

On one hand the gov't desparately wants you to use public transportation. Seriously pushed here close to Ground Zero. Now our Metro system is consulting with NY ... fine. Be that way. I'll stick to my gas guzzling truck. I'll gleefully sit in traffic and snake my way through it while the subway goons poke & prod for no known reason some elderly grandmother while several terrorist supporting nation originating folks pile into the system with overcoats and backpacks on in 90 degree heat.

I won't sit in the back of the train car either.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if they send 20 guys with backpacks at random, most will get through...

 

[Dmack_901]

Both.

 

[captlid]

the objective isnt to protect the people, its to control the people. If they really wanted to protect us, they would use that money to train more bomb sniffing dogs....

 

[WT]

Come on, guys. The cops love the overtime.

I see that the governor has called out the NY National Guard to assist. Do they pay OT?

 

[NIGHTWATCH]

Im here in NYC. The searches are taking place in subway stations where there are already thousands of people coming and going. It is a joke to think that searching bags offers us any security....a joke where the punchline could be very loud and tragic.