Posted on 08/04/2005 7:34:11 AM PDT by bobsunshine
The New York Civil Liberties Union will file suit against the city Thursday to keep police from searching the bags of passengers entering the subway, organization lawyers said.
The suit, which will be filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, will claim that the two-week old policy violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and prohibitions against unlawful searches and seizures, while doing almost nothing to shield the city from terrorism.
It argues that the measure also allows the possibility for racial profiling, even though officers are ordered to randomly screen passengers. "While concerns about terrorism of course justify -- indeed, require -- aggressive police tactics, those concerns cannot justify the Police Department's unprecedented policy of subjecting millions of innocent people to suspicionless searches," states the suit, a partial copy of which was provided to Newsday.
Names of the plaintiffs -- subway riders who object to the searches -- were redacted in the copy, but are expected to be released Thursday morning.
A city Law Department spokeswoman said that since officials had not yet received the suit, she could not yet comment. The city is named as a defendant, along with the police department and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Thursday, before the suit was released, Kelly said that the searches were "just one more layer, one more tool." "No one thinks that will be the solution, but it does give a potential terrorist something more to think about," he said.
The civil liberties union has criticized the searches as over-reaching since Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the measure on July 21, after terrorists targeted London's mass transit system for the second time in two weeks. It also calls the stops ineffective because terrorists can walk through entrances where police are not screening.
(Excerpt) Read more at nynewsday.com ...
There's a simple solution to this that seems to escape the powers that be here.
Turn the mass transit system over to private companies. Get the government out of it altogether.
Then the private companies can search anyone and everyone they desire before getting on their "PRIVATE" transit system.
The ACLU or the NYCLU wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
No Government, not alleged infraction of rights.
At least according to all of the business people around here, this would work. Profiling would then be ok too because it's a private company and not publicly owned.
That's why I live in Virginia, a priviledge I do not want to give up :)
What do you mean by priviledge? Are there other privileges, like, say, gun ownership, that the government is empowered by our Constituution to restrict?
Do you mean to say that my rights are enumerated in the Constitution?
When we stop allowing young moslem males to fly without extensive checks, we could readily do that. Are you against that happening?
Do you know how ineffective the bag screening was when it was tested? It found approximately ZERO of the weapons that were intentionally concealed, and less than half that were placed in bags with no attempt to conceal them.
IF I pay my taxes and commit no egregious offenses, the state cannot take away my drivers license. Moreover, if I am not operating a vehicle, the state has no power at all to restrict my travel.
Are you saying that rights not enumerated in the Constitution are mere privileges?
Readily available lasers easily destroy CCD sensors. Put up all the cameras you like.
Oh, and while your genius legl mind is at work, please explain how "resticted" differs from "infringed."
Or are you one of those people who think there are no unconstitutional and illegitimate laws?
yes they are...Your rights are the ones that the Government is not allowed to touch...
No matter how stupid they are in the present
BZZZT wrong. I'll give it to you in multiple choice.
An unconstitutional law is...
A. ...like any other law.
B. ...permanent until reapealed by legislation.
C. ...no law at all.
For extra credit, who said it, and in what case?
Really! The Constituion is a very short document. We must not have very many rights. You can point me to the list, eh?
Why doesn't the aclu sue the airlines for unreasonably searching people's bags?
so, Blue laws didn't exist and were never enforced. yet they are unconstitutional, they were still laws...
The first 10 admendments are you bill of rights...
so, who was it that said, "a moral people do not need a government"?
*sniff* *sniff*
Say, you sound just like..
Naaaah.
Can't be.
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