From the USA Today

Subway and commuter train passengers in Boston will be randomly stopped starting in July to have their bags searched and identifications checked in a first-in-the-nation program to protect trains from terrorism.

Read more:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...n-trains_x.htm

"Some bus passengers will see security upgrades this summer. Greyhound will increase the use of metal detectors and luggage searches. It also will begin installing shields to protect drivers in their 2,400 buses, as well as communications systems to connect drivers to 911 operators."

What's next? Every person renting a car will have to travel with a Road Marshall?

Regime Change 2004

The Boston Globe printed this op-ed piece that clearly states the viewpoints and worries many of us have about this ineffective Un-American policy.

"REPORTS THAT the MBTA is implementing a first-in-the-nation plan to stop subway passengers for random identification checks and to question them about their activities at T-stops should alarm anyone who worries about civil liberties."

more of the article: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi..._and_the_mbta/

I asked this in another thread, or maybe it was another site, but it deserves answering:

What about those of us who do not carry (or have) a driver's license? Obviously, if you're taking the subway, there is a high likelihood that you do not have a car.

Are we going to be asked to carry our US passports on our person? This is going to be interesting.

I do not carry ID, generally, unless I have my briefcase with me where my passport lives.

Spiff said it all. This would not happen if Bush (read: Ashcroft) were not in office.

Unfortunately, I do not beleive a regime change is going to fix any of this. I do not believe that Kerry or Nader will get rid of the DHS, TSA or any of the other bodies implemented following 9/11. The government is too slow to change, and many people sit back and say well it doesn't affect me. Thus regardless who is on top, things won't change at any reasonable speed. (too many bueracrats in place, who don't change) What it is going to take is a planned challenge to some of these rules/actions in the courts, and hope that the court system will reverse some of these idiotic rules and procedures.

That being said. The random searching and stopping of passengers is not going to increase security at all. it only creates the illusion of security. If random is random, then you can only hope to catch a small portion of those who intend to do harm. If we want real security, and not the illusion of security, then we have to allow actual profiling. This leads us to the ultimate question, how much of our notions of equality are we willing to give up in the name of safety?

Well-said! I can't help but think that the only individual who could change things is presently lying in state at the Capitol.

None. Freedom involves risk. I am not willing to compromise the former for a perceived or real decrease in the latter.

I'm having trouble understanding the legal basis for these proposed random stops, ID checks and searches. Particularly, how they will be carried out without violating the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

Can anyone articulate how theses actions do not violate the Fourth Amendment? 'Cause I'm stumped.

We slaughter 40-odd-thousand people on the nations roads each year.

In 2001 there were 11,348 firearm homicides in the USA.

But when some designed-to-be-flimsy-so-as-to-provide-maximum-rentable-floorspace buildings collapse (in part because they did not have to meet local fire codes because their builder, PANYNJ, was "exempt" from those laws) we turn Boston "Where it all began" 2004 into East Berlin "Hauptsdadt der DDR" 1974?


/golf clap

collapse??!

I mean, seriously, collapse??

They were knocked down. By airplanes. I was watching from Bleecker and Mercer.



Has revisionist history really caught up that far?

Just curious,where did you get your firearms data?

None? Really?

During WWII would you have been willing to give up the freedom to buy as much gasoline as you could afford?

Would you have been willing to give up the freedom to eat meat in unlimited amounts?

Would you have been willing to give up the freedom to have as much sugar and eggs as you would like?

Most importantly, would you have been willing to give up the freedom to make your own decisions for the duration of the war and serve in the Armed Forces?

If Americans had not given up those freedoms in Dec. 1941, they would have precious little freedom today.

Since we're not at War, I'm a little unclear as to the purpose of this post.

Additionally, you're discussing giving up access to material objects that were used for a declared War, not idiotic harassment with contributes nothing to security of airports.

I am grateful for those who have and do serve and do all I can to make sure that the freedoms they fought for are not pissed away by some pencil-necked imbeciles who couldn't secure a paper sack. Added: The pencil-necked imbeciles I was referring to are the TSA management.