(no subject)

[camwyn]

So.

New York City's gonna do random searches of people's bags if they wanna get on the subway and 'people who don't want to be searched are perfectly free to turn around and leave the station'.

Show of hands- do I start carrying a bag full of mousetraps, or should I start carrying a bag full of some formulation of Play-Doh that feels like dog crap if a cop puts his hand on it? Not that I dislike the members of the NYPD; I'm very fond of cops in general. But since the city doesn't seem to think that the Constitution matters any more (small surprise, since Washington doesn't either)- or that this constitutes a reasonable search and seizure- I'd like to make it plain that if you're going to search me, ever, you are going to have to pay for that privilege.

I'm thinkin' the play-doh. Or a can of non-dairy creamer with a lid that comes off easily- no, then they'd go "ACK ANTHRAX" and I'd be late for work. But you get the idea.

Suggestions?

Comments

[blackraven9.livejournal.com]

They will mistake the play doh for plastic explosives and the next installment of Hellraiser/Hogwarts with be from Riker's Island.

[camwyn]

"What're you in for?"
"I had Play-Doh in my bag when a cop searched me."
"That some kind of new mix of heroin?"
"No, actual Play-Doh. You know, like kids in kindergarten eat?"
"Was there a knife in it or something?"
"Nope."
"..."

[quintus.livejournal.com]

I read about that... completely forgot the small matter of your national constitution/bill of rights thing (not having much of one over here it does slip the mind occasionally -grin-).

I don't know what I'd do to subvert that little ordnance myself... I'd be torn between my resentment of the rule and my sympathy for the rank and file coppers who have to enforce it. A collection of rubber rats, snakes and spiders in a brown paper bag...? I mean, they're bound to be phobic of one of them right?

Depends on your personal embarrassment threshold too I suppose, an assortment of (clean but rumpled) underwear, female necessessaries or rubber objects of unfathomable purpose might raise blushes on the searchers face.

[camwyn]

I have really very little in the way of personal embarrassment when it comes to stuff like this. I'd been sort of considering the Sparkly Pink Dildo approach, but I think I fancy the spiders-and-Tampax idea better.

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

When they did that in Boston, the National Lawyer's Guild handed out big red buttons that said I DO NOT CONSENT TO A SEARCH. I put one on my purse. Just carrying it around, even if you don't use the subways much, at least shows other people who might not have thought of it that they do have a choice. They used to be available to download and make your own button, but it looks like since Boston isn't doing it anymore, they aren't on the NLG website. Still, it should be easy enough to make your own.

Of course it was completely pointless, because they only did it at a few of the larger subway stations, and all you had to do was walk a few blocks to go to another one.

[camwyn]

I was thinking of getting one of those blank tote bags they sell at craft stores and printing THIS IS NOT A REASONABLE SEARCH OR SEIZURE on it. If the Lawyer's Guild did something similar, I think I might just do that.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Yet another manifestation of an American government agency's overwhelming need to Be Seen Doing Something...*sigh*

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

This might bother me less if President Stupid Bush didn't use the word 'freedom' forty million times in his last address.

I don't think that word means what he thinks it means.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the mousetraps.

Or, better yet, a tee shirt that has the 4th Amendment printed in LARGE letters

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

I can arrange this. Somebody show me the relavant part of the fourth and gimme ten minutes

[avram]

My current plan is, if I get hassled, to tell them that I don’t consent, turn around, walk out, and find a different station. Or, for large stations, a different entrance to the same station.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

On the first pass, I liked the mousetraps too, but I've had too much contact with the unenviable bluecollar stiffs that would have to deal with them, and though my college-age self rails against my cosseting of "The Pigs" I gotta say that giving one plodding cop a bad day is not a "mahty bloa f' libertaay an' fraternitaay." (Say it like Cartman)

4th Amendment T, I'm all down for.

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

I'd go with a combination: mousetraps (painted black, of course, so they would be all but invisible at the bottom of a large bag) and the "I Do Not Consent" message or button.

[camwyn]

Possibility that just occurred to me: glitter. Kids' glitter. The red and green kind, so it can't be mistaken for 'white powder'. It gets everywhere and it takes forever to clean up. Search my bag? You will SPARKLE FOR THE REST OF THE DAY, DAMN YOU.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Wow. The NYC Government must've just read Harry Potter.

9.9

And I like the glitter idea, yes. But how do you keep your own stuff from getting glitterfied?

[mephron]

the problem with mousetraps is that some cop might think you were deliberately trying to hurt someone with it, so that would be out.

The day-glo-pink 'personal relaxation device' is one that I've seen floated around quite a bit.

I'm honestly considering starting to re-read the Exalted: The Abyssals book again, especially considering my history of that book and searches...

[metalfatigue]

*snort* How about the new Savant and Sorcerer book? That's MUCH worse.

[kyrielle]

It sucks, but please bear in mind the average cop may actually share your opinion of it - and still have to do the searches. Be as nice to the poor saps as you can bring yourself to be, please? You might get one who thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread, but you also might not.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

The average cop is going to believe the bag checking to be an unbeleivable, and probably futile, nuisance thought up by deskwarmers and political mucketymucks for the express purposes of B) making a show to the public and A) giving the working cop a royal pain in the ass. It will take the rawest recruit to see this as anything but meaningless makework.

It's really going to depend on your route. I imagine the major hubs are going to see a lot of bag checking. My route? Saw no cops.

[camwyn]

My route involves the Herald Square PATH / B, D, F, V station directly under Macy's. 's no Penn Station, but it's close. Once a week I also wind up having to use Columbus Circle, which should be interesting since that means I've got my rollerblading equipment when I turn up there.

"Yeah, sure, go ahead and search- sorry for the stench."
"Bioweapons?"
"Socks."
"Same thing. Get out of here. I got better things to do."

[lasa.livejournal.com]

My cousin came down here to DC a few months ago to do a test run for searches for the DC subway/Amtrack system. They had scanners like they had in airports, only portable. This will undoubtably change your tactics if this is the method they use.

[camwyn]

Oh, glee. Well, New Yorkers are a pierced bunch; that should make scans of that nature more interesting- unless you mean bagscanners, which would make more sense given the context- never mind. *sigh*

If they start using bagscanners, I'm buying two large bottles of Manhattan Special and tucking them under a jacket or something. I happen to love that soda to no end, but it comes in glass bottles that strongly resemble compressed gas containers on an X-ray. (This happened to me when I was in college. I had to open my carry-ons after a scan showed two canisters and a bunch of unidentified metal masses. It turned out to be my Manhattan Special and cans of Italian food.)

[hlaron.livejournal.com]

The only thing I know for certain is that this is going to make me nervous when I go knife shopping next month in NYC. The whole 4th Amendment issues bother the hell out of me, but is less personal since I don't live over there or anything.

(I join the throng suggesting glitter. There is nothing harder to take seriously than a sparkly police officer. I assume.)

Oh you're going to LOVE this:

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

I just read a quote from Grand Moff Commissioner Kelly.

'Mr. Kelly suggested that riders could voluntarily speed the process. "Ideally, people wouldn't carry any backpacks or bulky packages on the transit system," he said.'

He really said that. He did.

Evidently, he's got into the *strong* crack. Dunno about you, but between a) the gym b) my skating and c)my need to be dressed in something other than fetid gym togs at work means that every single day I have to come in carrying a fairly substantial backpack, and so do lots and lots of regular commuters.

Excuse me but AIAIAIAAIIAAIAAIAAAIAAAIIIAIAIGh.

Re: Oh you're going to LOVE this:

[mephron]

Love to hear his definition of 'bulky'.

I have a Dell Inspiron XPS2. Even if I used a bag different from the XPS2 backpack? I think a laptop with a 17" screen, and its powerbrick, is going to come under the concept of 'bulky', even if there's nothing else in there.

Like my iPod, or its powerbrick, or my phone, or a novel....

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Um, I understand you don't like this, but what exactly do you think is unconstitutional about it? As you say, 'people who don't want to be searched are perfectly free to turn around and leave the station'. So how is it different from having your bag searched before boarding a plane?

And that's without even getting in to the question of whether, under the circumstances, a search without consent would be 'reasonable' within the meaning of the 4th amendment; we don't have to reach that question, because you're free to refuse the search and get to wherever you're going without using the subway. (Or, of course, to try again and hope that you don't get picked for a search the second time around. Which is, of course, what terrorists will do, so I agree that it's not the smartest idea or the best use of resources. Then again, I think not letting people fly with their knives and lighters isn't the smartest idea either.)

[camwyn]

It's the reasonable part that bothers me. "Hi there! We don't know who you are and we don't care, but we're going to presume that you're doing or carrying something that indicates criminality. Show us your stuff. Now. Or go away. Oh, you use the subway to go to work? Too bad, bitch. You should've opened up for us. You must be some kind of criminal or pervert or terrorist or something and you aren't entitled to use the subway if you aren't willing to have us go through your stuff."

I pay $2 for a train ride- less, actually, since I usually buy monthly passes. It's public transportation. It's a substitute for my car. I shouldn't be turned away from public transportation because I want to maintain some modicum of privacy, unless there's a really good reason for them to suspect that something big and ugly is impending. The curtailment of free speech in the event that it creates a clear and present danger is reasonable; the curtailment of free speech in cases where there might be a danger is not. Same here.

Besides, I have no faith that this is going to make anything any safer. Unless they search everybody, they're going to miss somebody- they miss them on airplanes and they have far fewer people to search. So they're basically conducting a search for no good reason to no good effect.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking a whole bunch of us should start carrying large backpacks entirely full of copies of the Bill of Rights. It could be an art project.

Heavy, though. Perhaps printed on tissue paper and crumpled up to take more room?

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

I like that idea. :)

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

Sparkles. Put sparkles in it.

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

Glitter, confetti, strips of paper, ...

[jenlittlebottom.livejournal.com]

Glitter! And a copy of the Koran.

[zou.livejournal.com]

Do not put mousetraps in your bags. :(

[cupenny.livejournal.com]

I'll also add my vote to the glitter. Lots of glitter! As well as the "I do not consent to a search" buttons, shirts, so on.

[irian.livejournal.com]

Eh. The security guards check everyone's bags over here. But then again, what they're doing isn't exactly what I'd call checking, since all they do is poke this stick into your bag and prod around a bit without actually looking.

[camwyn]

I think what annoys me most about this is that it represents an intrusion on everyday life, and that it's not universal. I don't mind the searches at the airport. Air travel is something of a rare event, and so naturally comes with (for me, anyway) rare dangers. And everybody at the airport gets searched, or is supposed to, anyway. But I take the subway every day of the week, which means that it feels as if the searches are suddenly intruding upon ordinary existence- as if they were poking into my car, assuming I still had one. And like I said, they're not doing it to everybody. They're doing it to people with backpacks and large bags, and they're doing it at random among those people, so far as I know. That's no way to inspire a feeling of security. That's how you inspire a feeling of 'we're doing something token, and it's inconveniencing you, and it's intrusive, and you can't do anything about it unless you feel like walking to work, so HA HA BITCH YOU'RE STUCK WITH THE LINE AND THE SEARCH AND THE INTRUSION now turn your head and cough'.