Originally Posted by
nd2010
It is pointless for them to search just one entrance of one station. There are too many ways to enter the subway system.
Not only that, but on the T in Boston and in NY, there are some entrances that only have one or two turnstiles or gates and are unattended, and do not physically have the space for any checkpoint. These entrances will
never have any bag checks.
The bag searches originated in NY as a knee-jerk response to the London Underground bombings. (Though, Governor Romney started them in Boston in 2004 during the DNC.) No politician had the balls to say, "You know what? It is simply not possible to secure a subway system with thousands of entrances that are open 24/7." So they set up these searches, that hinge on the assumption that a suicide bomber would only enter the subway at 8 a.m. on a weekday at the glittering Times Square main entrance on 42nd and Broadway.
At the beginning, they were physical searches, and only later moved to the ETD swabbing, as companies like Smiths Detection realized the profits they could make from this new expansion of the uses of their products. At the same time, the cops get to say, "We're just doing a quick swab, it'll take ten seconds and you're on your way."
Meanwhile the courts were spineless, trusting the "expert" testimony of the NYPD and playing in to the grave threat that subways face from terrorists.
http://www.aele.org/law/2006LRSEP/macwade-kelly.html
Never mind that in 1994, a guy firebombed a 4 train at Fulton Street, and in the first half of 1995, the Paris Metro was bombed and there was a gas attack on the Tokyo subway. And in December of 1993 there was the mass shooting on the LIRR.
But of course, 9/11™ changed everything.