I've thought it over, and I know what's bothering me. Yesterday, with the start of bag searches on the subway (as I mentioned in my last post), I felt a bit of discomfort.
For the most part, I liked it, but it bothered me a bit, too. While I was about 90% in favor of this step, something in my brain was sounding an alarm bell.
Sure, you didn't have to submit to the search. You could just leave the station. In New York City, not having access to mass transit is no minor thing. Even so, let's say this is no big deal. We'll live with this, as everyone to whom I spoke yesterday said they're willing to do.
So what happens when the NYPD says, "a terrorist who sets off a bomb on one of our crowded streets could kill lots of people, so we're going to randomly search the bags of people on the streets"? So we collectively decided that subjecting people to searches if they want to enter the subway with their bags isn't an unreasonable search. Will we say the same thing on the street? At what point will we have to cower in our homes if we want to preserve our right to privacy? Or will that even work? Maybe homes are next.
Yes, I know I'm (probably) overreacting, but history is replete with little infringements blossoming into massive systemic repression. Fine, let the NYPD search some bags (oh, by the way, they weren't doing it at any of the other stations I was in yesterday, so I guess they told the terrorists to stick to Penn Station), but let's all be careful. I love my country--one of the reasons I love it is because my rights are respected and protected. If we're to be patriots, we must remain certain that everyone's rights are protected, even in (perhaps especially in) these trying times.
3 comments:
This is certainly a loaded issue. You're right...
Mr. H.K.
Postcards from Hell's
Kitchen
And I Quote Blog
I read about how some random 5 guys were taken off of a double tour decker bus because the driver thought they were "suspicious" and had "backpacks". The police came, handcuffed these five guys and ordered the other 60 people off the bus. The guys had nothing and according to the cops "didn't [even] have backpacks". I hope those five guys sue and I hope the driver apologized.
I watch with a great deal of worry, skepticism and fear that our neighbouring sister country is turning and moving closer to a State that resembles 1984, or Brave New World. It is true that I have not experienced the tragedy or horror of the Terrorist attacks on NYC, but I am beginning to wonder if the use of "fear" is being used to justify the impingement of peoples' intrinsic rights? You are correct, history IS replete with these scare tactics adn propaganda. The Red Scare, McCarthyism, the Japanese internments, the Chinese exclusionary acts, the fear of Blacks, of gays, of gay marriage. When WILL it stop?
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