The Second Side

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When you stop believing in coincidence, paranoia is only a heartbeat away.

Friday, July 29, 2005

More New York Newspeak.


New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg engaged in even more hysterical verbal contortions in explaining why the subway searches are being conducted randomly. So, here's where we currently stand, according to the Mayor:
  • We don't know what terrorists look like. They are just as likely to be blue-eyed females as brown-eyed men.
  • Terrorists come in "all shapes and sizes and forms."
  • Randomly searching everyone under the assumption that anyone could be a terrorist is actually a restriction of police power.
  • Concentrating searches on people of certain ethnic backgrounds is a violation of the principle of "innocent until proven guilty," but searching people of all races and creeds—thereby treating everyone as a suspected criminal—is not.
  • Police can stop and search someone if they have "reasonable suspicion." According to Bloomberg, an example of reasonable suspicion would be someone walking down the street wearing a backpack with wires sticking out and a sign that says "bomb." Bloomberg did not say how many people searched in the subway met that description.
Got that?

3 Comments:

Blogger Chris Jart said...

Oh my god! That's insane. The article in your link said if people refused to let their bags be searched, they would not attract extra police attention and could go on their way without being followed. It seems to me if someone refuses to let you search their bag that might qualify as "reasonable suspicion."

So I guess if you're a terrorist, all you need to do is refuse to let them search your bags. You can go blow up your target as the police concentrate on wrestling an 80 year old grandma to the ground because she has a tupperware container holding left over screws from her house remodeling.

8:22 AM  
Blogger Jimmy said...

Exactly. The Constitution protects the right to bear arms. Those knitting needles, however . . .

10:11 AM  
Blogger Davis said...

And thanks to Davis for carrying the "bomb". HA-HA!!!!!

8:49 PM  

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