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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Bag Searches

Bag Searches

by John Cole|  July 22, 200511:21 am| 5 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, War on Terror aka GSAVE®

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Police are now randomly searching personal belongings in the NY transit system:

Alarmed by a new round of mass transit attacks in London, police in New York began random searches of bags and packages brought into the city’s vast subway system.

The inspections started on a small scale Thursday in Manhattan and were expanded during Friday morning’s rush hour _ a development welcomed by some commuters.

“I’m not against it,” Ian Compton, 35, a computer consultant, said at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. “I think any measures for safety that aren’t terribly intrusive are worth doing.”

Officers, some with bomb-sniffing dogs, were stopping people carrying bags as they entered subways, commuter trains, buses and ferries at various points in the city, police said. Anyone who refuses a search will be turned away, and those caught carrying drugs or other contraband could be arrested.

One man was arrested during Thursday evening rush hour at the Brentwood Long Island Rail Road station after police became suspicious, stopped his van and allegedly found a machete and other weapons. Gilbert Hernandez, 34, had been convicted of possessing a pipe bomb in 1996, police said.

Friday morning, an officer was seen outside a subway stop at Penn Station with a sign saying, “NYPD, Backpacks and other containers subject to inspection.”

No doubt, this will be the source of numerous lawsuits. Or maybe not.

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Reader Interactions

5Comments

  1. 1.

    David

    July 22, 2005 at 11:45 am

    Bag searches are just the most obvious way to quell the political hot water for Bloomberg and Kelly.

    It will do nothing to actually halt an attack. So, the terrorists understand that they may get caught by a random bag search on the subway, thus, take the fight to the crowded sidewalks around Time Square, or simply enter the subway system in a small station that is not policed, or one of the thousands of side entrances which require only the swipe of a Metrocard to get through the gate.

    I live in NYC, and I use the subway nearly every day, sometimes several times a day. There are so many ways around a random bag search, it just boggles my mind.

    It makes people feel better. But, it has no real practical affect on halting a terror attack in this city.

    At best, it might throw a wrench into a terrorists plan to enter the system via a certain station… But, so what. So can a rainstorm.

  2. 2.

    Jeff Maier

    July 22, 2005 at 11:53 am

    Lawsuits or not, you’d have to wonder about the efficacy of such limited searches and using accidental contraband disclosures for arrests make this look more like the saturday night search and roundup of street corner miscreants than a serious anti-terrorism measure.

    Of course, authorities are in a pickle. They need to be seen as doing something and frankly the options are somewhat limited. I’d rather just focus on running bomb sniffing dogs around the subway stations and stopping and searching only if they alert.

  3. 3.

    Stormy70

    July 22, 2005 at 1:09 pm

    This is just cosmetic, to soothe the masses. I do not particularly care for the other illegal items being siezed, but I suppose this will die down in a few weeks. London will have to get a grip on their Muslim fanatics now, they have let them fester for too long. I found it interesting that Britain was called on the carpet by Musarraf, of all people.

  4. 4.

    Jimmy Jazz

    July 22, 2005 at 2:47 pm

    Police officer: Sir, may I check your bag?
    Terrorist: No.
    Police officer: I’m sorry, but you can’t enter this station.

    Terrorist walks to next station, gets in, blows it up.

    That’s some damn good Homeland Security, right there. We certainly don’t want police wasting time with activities that might be effective or useful when they can be put to use on Bloomberg Feel Good Patrol.

  5. 5.

    Sojourner

    July 23, 2005 at 10:16 pm

    Let’s face it. The cost involved in securing the subways is significant. And there’s no money left due to the Iraq war and the tax cuts for the wealthy. So we’re left with cosmetic changes that nobody takes seriously.

    So what’s the solution? Send more anti-terrorism to the red states. Everyone knows Wyoming is a huge terrorist target.

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