The ACLU: Making the World a Safer Place for Terrorists

The New York Civil Liberties Union plans to file a lawsuit today challenging the legality of the Police Department's new policy of randomly searching bags and packages in the subway system.

The lawsuit, to be filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends that the searches are "virtually certain neither to catch any person trying to carry explosives into the subway nor to deter such an effort." It also says that many riders have been selected in a "discriminatory and arbitrary" manner, creating the potential for racial profiling.

Of course they are right. The problem here is that random searches will not be very effective because cops will be forced to search 12 year-old girls and 80 year-old grandmas in order not to appear racially profiling. “I’m sorry we let the guy with the bomb get through. I know he was wearing a turban, an excessively large and bulging overcoat, and carrying a duffel bag that said ‘Death to American Infidels,’ but he was the 4th passenger, and well, we only check every 5th.”

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said the searches, which began on the evening of July 21, were both effective and legal. Under the search policy, officers are to use an essentially random criterion - stopping every 5th, 12th or 20th passenger carrying a bag or package. Selecting riders on the basis of race or national origin is prohibited.

Let’s not parse words here. Terrorists are Muslim, male, and in their late teens to 30’s. And until there is a white octogenarian suicide bomber, we have no reason to think otherwise. Cops profile all the time. How do you think you they catch bad guys? “We are looking for a suspect. About 5-foot-8. Can’t give you any other information, because that would be unfair to other people of their race and gender. Now go bring him or her in!”

The suit is to be filed on behalf of at least four people, including two men whose bags were searched on July 22, at subway stations in Manhattan and Queens. A third man, a lawyer who works in Midtown, entered the Times Square station on July 26 but then walked out when he saw that officers were searching bags. A fourth man is described in the suit as a "political activist, writer and media critic" who is worried about being harassed if the police notice the political materials he carries.

There’s an old saying – if you throw a rock in a pack of dogs, the only one who barks is the one who gets hit. Ever notice that when a measure is enacted to deter crime (i.e., security cameras, searches, three-strikes laws), it is always the liberals that are worried? Think about it.