Washington subway police to begin random bag checks

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

Officers will start random bag inspections on the sprawling Washington subway system, the Washington Metro Transit Police said on Thursday, a week after a man was arrested for making bomb threats to the rail system.

Metrorail police officers plan to randomly select bags before passengers enter subway stations and they will swab them or have an explosives-sniffing dog check the bags, according to the Metro police.

There is "no specific or credible threat to the system at this time," Metro said in a statement. Passengers who refuse to have their bags inspected will be denied entry into the subway system.

"The program will increase visible methods of protecting our passengers and employees, while minimizing inconvenience to riders," Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said in a statement announcing the new checks.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BF5FM20101216

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Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[ZombieHorde]

1. 4th Amendment is supposed to protect us from this.

The US is getting worse. I hope the ACLU is all over this.

[Bandit]

19. You are supposed to be so terrified that you will give up all your freedoms

That is the Logic.. Once all our Freedoms are gone the terrorists will no longer have any reason to attack us.. Everyone KNOWS that the ONLY reason they attack is because they hate us for our Freedoms..EVERONE...:shrug: So go out and buy your Duct tape and begin your cowering like a good American.

[cbdo2007]

20. What happens if you refuse??

[StarburstClock]

27. Refusal results in removal from metro station or bus stop, no arrest is made

It's a typical knee-jerk reaction from Metro police after a guy was arrested a few weeks ago for supposedly planning a subway attack in the D.C. area.

[Creative]

30. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has ruled that random traffic stops are constitutional.

Thus, I am led to conclude if they can stop you while you are utilizing a private means of transportation, they probably have the right to do anything if you are utilizing public transportation.

Little by little, our freedoms are being chipped and stripped.

[liberation]

2. Next station: "papiere bitte"

[hootinholler]

15. My reply

Zig-Zag Orange.

-Hoot

[bluestateguy]

3. They'll probably spend most of their time confiscating drugs

which has not a damn thing to do with terrorism.

Some loser wants to snort cocaine or shoot up with heroin in the privacy of their own home? That does not affect me at all.

[Golden Raisin]

4. We've had this in New York City

for several years now, complete with robotic, pre-recorded announcements/warnings that "backpacks and other large items" are subject to random search. Of course my favorite on the streets are the clusters of what I call the "black police" --- the ones in all-black uniforms, wearing what look like modernday versions of Nazi stormtrooper helmets, and invariably holding small, compact machine guns. NYC and the USA have irrevocably changed since 9/11. Or maybe some of what used to be hidden has just come out into the open.

[Kolesar]

8. Police and thieves in the street

Scaring the nation with their
guns and ammunition

[Possumpoint]

9. Terrorists Won

Our freedoms lost.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Looks like Paris or Rome since the 1970's

[Heywood J]

25. Machine guns?

Jesus Christ. That's about the worst thing to have on a massively crowded subway platform. It's been my experience that most people in a city will freak when danger erupts in a public space (think nightclub fires), much less automatic gunfire in an enclosed space with few exits. Someone dressed in black opening up on a subway platform will only instigate mass panic and end with people being crushed and trampled to death as the whole platform tries to empty at once.

Ironically, the mass panic may very well kill more people than any potential terror attack.

[Demeter]

5. Just for the Hell of It

Treating the public like infants will make it so....if it doesn't incite a more revolutionary response.

[Anakin Skywalker]

6. *Shaking Head* Here We Go Again!

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. yep

[progressoid]

7. I'm surprised it took this long for them to get around to this.

Subways, trains, buses.

Terra! Terra! Terra!

[Possumpoint]

10. It Was Said

that you could refuse the search but they would then refuse to allow the bag to go on. I sure wish we could get a court to restore our freedoms, kill the Patriot Act and tell the Department of Homeland Security to ESAD.

[ixion]

11. And the march towards the Police State continues

unabated by 'change' we were suckered to believe in.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[justiceischeap]

12. I can't see this working well

Nothing else does in the DC Metro system.

[Recursion]

13. They're looking for french fries...

...since WMATA's chief concern seems to be keeping people from eating on the trains.

[bikebloke]

16. Is that why the trains were so empty this morning?

Boogah Boogah time again. I was wondering when they were going to do start SS searches. They've had machine gunners prowling the platforms since the last snow forced me on the trains. If you ain't afraid, then you're with the terrists.

I only take the Metro when the snow and ice on the streets is too risky for biking (took me an hour getting home in it last night).

[Gormy Cuss]

18. I wonder if it will truly be random (as in, using a random number generator to set the interval)

or whether it will be based on officer hunches or something less random like a static interval (e.g. 1 out of every 10) which is easily observed and then circumvented by someone trying to slip explosives on board)

I also wonder if the search will be limited to swabs or dog sniffs. That's less intrusive than a search of contents but there's still the possibility of bycatch if the swab or dog returns a false positive.

[soryang]

21. They have been doing this in NYC subways

We the sheeple, find these rights to be self evident...

[CreekDog]

23. Searching kids' backpacks for contraband french fries

:eyes:

[sarcasmo]

24. Police State upon us prepare to collide.

[Rex]

26. This fucking country has lost it's collective mind.

Beam me up Scotty! This place is going to shit.

[sarcasmo]

29. Rex, I fear we have already gone to shit.

[daleo]

28. Just checking backpacks?

How long until its body scanners on street corners and routine sexual frisking? It is crazy.