Posted on 06/09/2004 4:52:23 PM PDT by JOAT
BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston's transit police will randomly search subway and commuter train riders' bags and packages, making it the first American city to do so after March's deadly bombings in Spain, officials said on Tuesday.
"This is a proactive policy designed to deter and prevent a terrorist attack," Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Chief Joseph Carter said.
The random searches will begin in July, before July 4 Independence Day celebrations and ahead of the Democratic National Convention at the end of July.
Boston has the nation's fourth largest rail system with nearly 1 million train and subway riders daily. Locals voiced concern about security at the convention site, which stands above a subway station and near a major train station, prompting the closure of both stations during the July event.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, U.S. cities have stepped up security. And efforts to secure rail systems have been ramped up after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people.
Carter said the random searches will be conducted by all 247 uniformed MBTA officers and four bomb sniffing dogs.
"We want the MBTA to be inhospitable to terrorists. They can go someplace else," he said.
Carter said the planned searches will randomly pick out riders and are not aimed at singling out anyone.
Gunnedah, why would Ted Kennedy complain about Big GovernmentTM encroaching on the little people? The day that government starts getting smaller is the day that his job becomes threatened.
~ Blue Jays ~
You can have multiculturalism or you can have freedom, you can't have both. When you acquiesce to the former you give up the latter.
"Randomly"?! I don't like it. Especially if the suspect looking Middle Eastern young men will not be searched for the sake of political correctness. How many blond female Presbyterians from New Hampshire were among WTC bombers? It is getting insane. Why the Americans should be giving up their freedoms if the likely terrorists will be exempt from the scrutiny?
WTC Tower # 2 should hereafter be labelled "Second Ammendment".
Al Quiada has won: we eagerly give up liberty for "safety".
--Signed, light_"I Lack Perspective"_man
"Randomly"?! I don't like it. Especially if the suspect looking Middle Eastern young men will not be searched for the sake of political correctness.I think some of you people's posting rights should be restricted on the grounds of inability to interpret a press release by the Boston PD that a) puts terrorists on notice that bags will be searched and does so b) by containing the usual 'politically correct' language that must be used when issuing such notice.
I hate it when we have to go back to a 101 level/introductory course to explain things that should be known/understood by 'you people' ...
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall ...Do you see a key word in that excerpt above?
Do you have any idea what the framers of the Constitution may have had in mind when they strategically placed that modifying term in there?
Contrary to some thinking common today, the Constitution is not a suicide pact that provides a means abolishing 'The Union' at the hands of terrorists at the insistence of the libertarians and with the aiding and abetting of the liberals ...
Yet another "unreasonable search and seizure" in our emerging Amerikan police state.
If you don't want to be searched, don't go out in public. Anyway, why would you object if you don't have anything to hide?
/sarcasm
Many Americans view their "security" as directly proportional to the number of cops they see, and the number of times their Rights are violated by illegal searches, illegal gun edicts, etc....
Great movie, especially when the kid hops on the whale and ride it home
What you say is not that far from the truth.
Maybe. My shoes are checked every time when I go through the airport. It makes me feel safe. :)
There is nothing "unreasonable" about demanding that the gov't abide by their contract (the Constitution) with 'we the people'.
As for "whining", you need to read some of the stuff by Otis, Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. Those guys were major league "whiners" by your standard.
And as for "happiness being robbed by fantasy boogeymen", perhaps I should post some "before and after" pictures of children that were murdered by your "fantasy boogeymen" at Waco, or maybe post links to articles referring to thousands of Americans who lives have been ruined by these figments of my imagination.
On the other hand, I'm usually thinking that the large number of people concentrated in the security lines would make an ideal terrorist target.
Evidently your 'reasoning' is that it is not unreasonable to pick a person at random and search their belongings.
You conveniently excerpted the 4th amendment, but a simple glance at the ENTIRE 4th demonstrates intent:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The simple fact that the framers demanded warrants to name specific persons or things to be seized reveals the error of your statement regarding 'unreasonable.'
The dead white men who drafted the bill of rights understood the nature of governments and the propensity to enlarge their powers. They went out of their way to make it inconvenient, no difficult, for government to harass its owners by putting restrictions in place to prohibit random, blanket fishing expeditions.
So yeah, '_Jim', I DO 'have an idea' what the framers had in mind when they inserted the key phrase 'unreasonable' in the 4th, and I even went to publicke skool.
So if they are searching me, and see my handgun, will they not let me board? Or will they let me board after seeing my permit?
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