Spend $16.99 so you can wear this to your grave
Posted on 07/22/2005 11:06:07 AM PDT by BigFinn
Reacting to the NYPD's announcement Thursday afternoon that police would randomly—but routinely—search the bags of commuters, one concerned New Yorker quickly created a way for civil libertarians to make their views black-and-white. In a few outraged moments, local immigrant rights activist Tony Lu designed t-shirts bearing the text, "i do not consent to being searched." The minimalist protest-wear can be purchased here, in various styles and sizes. (Lu will not get a cut. The shirts' manufacture, sale, and shipment, will be handled by the online retailer. Lu encourages budget-conscious New Yorkers to make their own and wear them everywhere.)
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had announced the legally obvious—that New Yorkers are free to decline a search and "turn around and leave." But Lu, who is a lawyer at Urban Justice Center, warned that even well-intentioned cops could interpret people's natural nervousness or anger as "reasonable suspicion." The possibility of unjustified interrogation and even arrest is real, Lu said.
Although police promised they would not engage in racial profiling, Lu said that, as with all street-level policing, people of color and poor immigrants would be particularly vulnerable, especially if encounters lead to arrests.
No, I'm saying the person wearing the T-Shirt is inviting a confrontation, and that's never very smart.
If you were really serious about that, well... We handed George the Third his hat for much less than this.
Your Marine Corps brothers and sisters are fighting so we can remain free, not so we can give up our freedom gradually.
I think there is if it is public transportation, paid by you ... the public.
A private taxi is another matter, but I think you do have a consitutional right to get on a subway.
That would solve it nicely.
It sure would.
Then terrorists would stop hating our freedom because we wouldn't have any.
Then cars,homes,walking on the street etc etc....Not the country I grew up in.
A lot less, but they're not very effective!
Yeppers, while Marines, Soldiers, and Airmen are off trying to protect American freedom, let's just throw it all down the $#!++er at home.
Brilliant.
I've seen plenty of your posts on this forum. You're smarter than this. I'm beginning to wonder if somebody from the DUmpster has hijacked your account.
To the people who are complaining about the searches, just wait for a bomb to go off on a NY subway, you will be the first to complain about nothing was done to stop it.
Quote: FINE! Then you can go to jail instead of your job .. and then you get to explain to your boss your lack of concern for your job and your idiocy at refusing to have your bag searched. Typical liberals .. me me me me me .. to hell with the employer who is expecting you to show up for work that day. The liberals have no VISION for tomorrow - they live only in the present.
What the heck is your babbling about? When is it being a good conservative to start professing it's better we lose our privacy and rights at breakneck spead.
Sometimes I think I have awoken in a parralell universe when conservaties today are in bed with the communist in so many areas.
Dear Alberta's Child,
" F#ck them, and f#ck their stupid random searches. The brutal truth here is that the only way they can effectively prevent terrorism in New York City is by engaging in large-scale deportation and de-populating large swaths of this urban toilet."
Let's not sugar-coat it. Tell us how you REALLY feel.
;-)
sitetest
I've been seeing bomb-dogs at Penn Station in New York for at least a year now.
Look, you have a cop(s) there the bad guy has to pass the cop. He has to not get searched or tip his hand as he walks by the cop. He's on the platform, he has to not tip his hand to other people who might summon the cop. It makes perfect sense.
Also, I have something of a vested interest here, since I'm betting my life on these measures.
These nuts are anxious to kill themselves for their cause. You think the threat of a random search might discourage them?
Gotta love Americans. When it comes to liberty, we give it up faster than a drunk prom date.
Yes, I would be complaining ...
About the horsesh*t that passes for border control in this country. Not because someone didn't ruffle through the porno mags in my breifcase before I got on the train.
When we control the borders, we can stop abusing the actual citizens, and maybe have true freedom again someay.
They were carrying box cutters not bombs..
Your embarrassing attempt to tug at the heartstrings is duly noted. Do you assume those of us whose opinion differs from yours didn't also wear the uniform?
Freedom = the threat of being randomly searched by the cops? You've got a strange idea of freedom, my friend, certainly one inconsistent with the document you swore to uphold and defend. Just what the hell are we fighting the terrorists for, if not the "freedom" to walk from point A to point B without having to prove your innocence to a cop?
Very slippery slope, that one.
"Whatever makes us safer" is unadulterated CRAP - what makes us safer is letting everybody in NYC carry a loaded 45.
When Mayor Bloomberg is OK with me wearing a loaded 45,and carrying a 12ga, then search away.
Until then, this is just one more step towards a total nanny state.
Law enforcement presence, cooperative, thorough intelligence gathering, and community policing make us SAFER - searching people at random is BS.
Too many sheep in NYC.
That's a silly analogy. Everyone who gets on an airplane goes through a screening process -- that's 100% screening. If you search 5000 mass transit riders a day, that's only .14% of all passengers, which means there is a 99.86% chance that a person will enter the system without screening.
If riding the subway was a right then you wouldn't have to pay a fare to exercise it-- as that would be "prior restraint".
And what if you have alrady paid the fare and you refuse once inside ... they would have to have some kind of refund mechanism. Putting up a sign in a public place doesn't make it so.
Look.
If the police want for you to "assume the position", they can always come up with a plausible reason for you to do so.
And in a situation where they are armed and several and you are disarmed and solo, discretion ought to dictate that you adopt compliant behavior.
Being smartass to police officers does not yield positive results, even in New York.
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