Crandolph’s Barbaric Yawp

Another update from Flex Your Rights:

Dear Flex Your Rights Supporter:

Having received numerous inquiries regarding the implications of therandom searches being performed on the subway in New York, Flex You rRights hereby presents "The Citizen’s Guide to Refusing New York Subway Searches."

While we don’t know if the policy will do anything to combat terrorism,we feel it’s essential to dispel the dangerous rumor that our 4th Amendment Rights have been entirely repealed. As you’ll see in "The Guide" there are some easy ways to protect your rights when traveling on the New York subway.

This policy is constitutionally suspect and unambiguously inconvenient. But for what it’s worth, here’s a great opportunity to practice a little rights-flexing in a real life police encounter with lots of cameras tomake sure everyone plays fair.

By learning and sharing this information you can help to ensure that this unprecedented event does not further indulge that defeatist attitude towards the 4th Amendment that causes so many Americans to consent to suspicionless searches wherever and whenever they’re asked.

Please spread the word! And if you’re in NY, pass out our Citizen’s Guide to Refusing New York Subway Searches Flyer to subway riders.

===

For their part the media is largely reporting the unofficial repeal of the 4th Amendment as both fait accompli and popular.

This requires some interesting avoidance of fact, such as when an article titled N.Y., N.J. commuters OK with bag searches says precisely the opposite in some of its text:

"Some commuters have called [the ACLU], saying they believed they were stopped because of
their race…"

All logic has gone out the window on this one.  Some more quotes:

"I think it’s necessary," [commuter Roberta] Nelson, 30, said. "But I agree with a lot of people that it’s not going to be a deterrent."

… which means you really think it’s completely unnecessary.

We can’t seem to work logic into a full sentence, all the way through, as cited right above or in the following, from the same article:

Passengers do not have to submit to the searches, but those who refuse will not be allowed to board.

If you’re not allowed on board, guess what?  You’re not a passenger.

The ACLU may attempt legal action, but at least they’re speaking out:

"If we’re going to spend the money, we should spend it on something that’s going
to stop a terrorist attack, and random searches of 4 to 6 million transit riders
between New York and New Jersey is not the way to do it," said Deborah Jacobs,
executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.

Almost all I’ve received in my inbox from the alphabet soup of other liberal (and ‘liberal’) mailing lists lately has been Karl Rove-related.  This will not save us, it will not help us.  Nothing about the searches, nothing on the renewal of the PATRIOT Act by the House (before, during or after), nothing (save from Jobs with Justice, as cited below) on CAFTA.  Those were the big, combatable issues of the week, and have been met with a great silence on the "center-left" and through all the byways of Liberalville, following the lead of Democratic House leadership (using the term loosely).

Up in Canada people are taking quite a different approach to the same problem:

"If somebody wants to blow themselves up, there’s nothing that anyone can
do," Howard Moscoe, chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, says in an
exclusive interview with CTV’s Question Period, to be broadcast
Sunday.

He added that the TTC has been preparing itself for how to respond to the
aftermath of a terrorist attack.  "You can react effectively after the fact; it’s very difficult to prevent any
of this kind of thing from happening," Moscoe says.

Moscoe also says he doesn’t want to become involved in the "politics of
fear," and believes random searches would play into the hands of terrorists.

Even cranky Canadian right-wingers are against random searches, for a combination of practical reasons and privacy concerns.  And that’s in a political culture which doesn’t even have a Bill of Rights equivalent.  When did Americans become such sheep?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Current Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.