The NYPD's Politically Correct Hunt for Suicide Bombers– and why it will fail

After the bombings of the subways and buses in London proved that the Madrid train bombings were no fluke, the NYPD got it in gear and has decided to "protect" us by "voluntary random searches" of the backpacks and briefcases of boarding passengers.

Mayor Bloomberg has assured us that "profiling" will not be used– the searches will be random and voluntary. I'm sure the terrorists breathe easy at this news.

I read in the paper about how one man watched as commuters VOLUNTEERED to be searched by the police! As if a suicide bomber would volunteer to be searched.

On my commute home, the police wanted to look into my bag as I was about to enter the subway at the 34th Street station. I refused, as is my right, (I had only a book, an umbrella and a catalog in my bag– nothing to hide), I left the station, walked a few blocks to 23rd Street and entered there. If I was a mad bomber intent on blowing up the 34th Street station, I could have taken the uptown train back to 34th Street and BOOM! So how safe are these searches making us?

You can bet that even in random searches, some innocent Middle Easterners will get stopped. Some will feel they've been singled out because of their looks, and/or that they were not treated with due respect. They'll complain. There will be protests. The Mayor will issue statements condemning profiling and launch an investigation.

The lesson that the cops will learn will be: "Don't stop Middle Easterners or there will be trouble." The cops will be happy to search the grannies who volunteer and to stop guys like me who don't fit the profile– they get no complaint from granny and if I protest, I'm some wacko who "does not realize that everything changed after 9/11." In either case, they'll take no heat.

Recently, I've seen the cops at the random search stations chatting among themselves, oblivious to the passengers walking by them. I feel so safe.

Also, since the cops know that the grannies and guys like me are not likely suicide bombers, they take no risk when searching us. Let's face it, if they do stop a bomber and he does not walk away, he'll try to set off his bomb, and the cops will get blown up, too. And they don't want that.

Since anyone can walk away from the cops requesting a search and they request searches at random, a terrorist can keep trying different entrances till he gets into the subway system. The random voluntary searches are a joke.

The Israelis have been dealing with these types of threats for many years. They have a good track record of stopping suicide bombers. They profile. It's not just young Middle Eastern men that they stop, (a pregnant non-Middle Eastern woman traveling alone will get stopped, for example). They also look for other signs: Is the person overdressed? Are they "acting odd"? Ethnicity and gender are factors, but not the only factors. Of course, with the volume of riders on our subways and busses, can we really catch a determined bomber, even with profiling?

These are extraordinary times. We are under attack. The idea that we might get blown up on public transit is no fiction, but I hate the idea of the police searching us without a reason to suspect that we might be bombers. As the system stands, it can't stop a suicide bomber, it can only get the citizenry used submitting to random, warrant-less police searches.

Our founders knew that dangers lurked in the world– that's why they gave us the Second Amendent. They also knew the danger of relying on government power to "protect" us– they risked hanging for defying King George. I leave you with this quote:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin

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