What a mess this is. Let's do a little stats lesson: Random searches are not effective because the phenomena in question is highly non-random. Terrorists don't just pop up every hundredth person the same way that after getting a random sample of 500 people, 250 on average will be female. The statistical universe is the entire population, and the number of terrorists or potential terrorists is very small. And the distribution of terrorists throughout the population cannot be assumed to be random. The age distribution of terrorists who've carried out attacks is fairly small.

What's frustrating is that everybody wants things like safe transportation, less crime, less drugs, etc, but the methods that are being embraced to deal with these problems hurt our society. We've substituted ineffective prevention strategies for good policing, an effective justice system, and social engagement that can help to mitigate these issues (see The View From The Ground for an ongoing, detailed analysis of how some of these issues are playing out in Chicago).

Another way to say it is this: prevention is, by nature, essentially structural -- prevention means changing the social and economic structures that create space for bad things, like terrorism, to happen. Justice--at least after a bad thing has happened--tends to be individual or corporate, but less structrual. We've conflated the two, assuming that individualized means (carried out with a poor grasp of statistics, no less) will provide prevention and be just. And, in the end, we wind up with neither prevention nor justice.

I take the actual Singapore train system often.

...

No bag-checking there, I assure you.

Back during the Viet Nam war the US army justified burning a vullage by saying “We had to destroy the village to save it”.

It seems we're living at a time and with a government that is trying to destroy freedom in order to save it.

Looks like the end of this great experiment is near... "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

Jane astutely wrote "Walk or take a cab. Don't like your choices? Leave the city."

Now there is a realistic sense of reality.

How about this Jane - want to guarantee your safty? Don't take the Subway! move to Iowa!...oh, whats that Jane..huh? you love living in NYC? What, you have to take the subway because you can't very well walk from the Bronx to your job in lower manhattan or afford a cab every day? Jesus. I shouldn't have to leave the city or country just to have my rights respected. And lets all repeat...this does NOTHING to make the subways safer.

I wrote a longer essay on this rediculous "be searched or walk" option at my blog. Link is in the name if you really care. Sorry for the whoring, but damn this move pisses me off.

FUCK THE PO LICE. FUCK THE PO LICE.

And what will the cops say when a bus goes BOOM!?

Of course, NYPD just arrest black and hispanic males, since they commit the majority of the crimes in this city.

Personally, very spic an nigger arrested is one less scumbag on the streets.

As "bad" as this is, At least we can debate this. The real threat will be when we Can't.

Who know's how effective "Random" searching of bags would be? How many bombers had Bombs strapped to them instead of in their back packs?

IMO, this is more of a C.Y.A. exercise by the Mayor and the Police designed to let the populace know that the City is "Doing something".

Mat--

Your logic is flawed. The Constitution protects individuals, not transportation systems. The cops need some sort of reasonable articulable suspicion to search my person and belongings.

My fellow criminal defense attorneys and I have been discussing this issue all day, and we can't possibly see how this passes constitutional muster. At the same time, we know the cops are going to collar every single 16 year old young man of color who has a bag of herb, and we have to admit, we can't wait for the suppression hearing to find out the cop's "reasonable suspicion" for the search, and watching the drugs get suppressed.

Meanwhile, I'm envisioning an assload of 2 year wonders in the NYPD getting jammed up with all the CCRB complaints that will be filed against them. Perhaps they should consider conducting these not-so-reasonable searches with their PBA delegates close by.

Mat,

There's no solid intelligence (either the kind at agencies or the kind between the ears) connected with this scheme. It's RANDOM searches, so essentially, the cops have to get lucky. You mention the 4th Amendment but don't notice that the entire second half of the Amendment deals with the necessity of search warrants and the conditions under which they should be issued. Besides, as the Israelis know full well, if someone wants to blow you up badly enough, there's precious little you can do to stop him.

For everyone quoting the 4th ammendment: the key line in that, the ambiguous part, is "unreasonable searches and seizures". If there is reasonable suspicion that a public transit system is going to be attacked then is it reasonable that people entering the system are searched in an effort to prevent that attack? While the 4th ammendment does grant certain rights, they're is a wide range of possible interpretation here. For my part, I think conducting random bag searches will do little to prevent a determined attacker (as CCTV cameras do little to prevent crime...). However if these searches are done in connection with solid intelligence indicating specific times, or specific stations then I think it would be reasonable to conduct searches as a preventative measure, constitutionally speaking. It may be an inefficient or ineffective method of defense, but it is not an unreasonable act. You get searched when entering an airplane, or indeed the entire facility beyond a certain point. Is that an unreasonable search?

Check it out, a bag with the 4th amendment
printed on it: www.handsoffmybag.com

I also went to a school in NYC where they checked randomly for weapons. Guess What? people still got stabbed and beat up. Didn't work.

What about the subway stations that never seem to have a visible police presence? Like, I know where I live I never see cops around. Is the NYPD planning on placing cops at EVERY SINGLE stop now? That'd be nice, I guess.

congrats for being educated in the city, that's impressive. but it's public transit, jane, not high school. children do not have the same rights as adults for obvious reasons. surely you don't suggest that all of society should live by school rules? maybe you'd also like to mandate commuter uniforms so explosive vests don't get past the worthless bag searches? and pat-downs just to be sure. many people can't walk to work every day nor can they afford a cab. if you're so scared, why don't YOU take a cab and leave the public transportation to the people who are capable of carrying on a normal life? instead of imposing your fear on the public with ineffective intrusions, you may also "leave the city". or do you have a higher right to stay here? nearly everything you said is flawed.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ALL YOU STUPID DUMBASSES AND YOUR FALSE SECURITY?

THERES NO SUCH THING AS SECURITY. YOU CAN POST ALL THE COPS YOU WANT IN THE STATIONS, YOU CAN SEARCH EVERY SINGLE PERSON, BUT WHEN THE TERRORISTS WANT TO DO THEIR THING, THEY WILL JUST BRING FUCKING GUNS AND SHOOT THE COPPERS AND THEN BLOW SHIT UP.

STOP GIVING UP YOUR FUCKING CIVIL LIBERTIES FOR FALSE SECURITY. THIS COUNTRY IS SLOWLY BECOMING A POLICE STATE AND YOU ARE ALL COMPLACENT FUCKING SHEEP.

Some of us went to public schools here in NYC (wow, imagine?) where we were randomly searched upon entering. No choice. You go to school, you get searched. You don't go to school, you're in deep. Here you've got a choice: Don't like to get your bag searched? Walk or take a cab. Don't like your choices? Leave the city. I don't know if this bag searching will do anything to prevent a bombing, but this 4th Amendment/no freedoms argument is flawed. No one is coming to your house, no one is stopping you on the street and asking to check anything. When that happens, I'll listen to the "fascist" arguments.

pfft. if i had a bomb in my bag, you'd never find it. you'd have to dig through a fossil layer of old receipts, unused subway sticker cards, ipod accessorires, spare camera batteries, etc.

the cop'd be like, 'ah, fuck it, man. blow yourself up. i'm not digging through this shit.'

The Only Solution is THE FINAL SOLUTION

This morning, on my way down to the C train at the 5th and 53rd street station, an officer asked if I could 'just shake' my bag. ?

I don't know what he was listening for though.

Anyone?