A couple of weeks ago, I blogged my criticism of a Washington Post editorial in favor of the new random bag search policy on the D.C. subways. It was deriding the fine folks at Flex Your Rights for encouraging people to refuse the searches, and I argued the importance of privacy rights.
There’s another issue I didn’t address, which is that subway searches are pointless. Suppose we grant, for purposes of argument that a thorough bag-searching policy would stop terrorists from attacking Americans on the subway.
That would force the terrorists to adapt, perhaps changing their preferred target from subway trains to public buses or Greyhound buses or school buses or church buses or mini vans with families in them. Or maybe instead of attacking vehicles, they’d attack high schools or grade schools or preschools or daycare centers or family restaurants or toy stores or music stores or shoe stores or grocery stores or department stores or shopping malls.
Or hotels.
They could also attack doctors’ offices or banks or post offices or police stations or firehouses or unemployment offices or homeless shelters or gas stations or paint stores or chemical warehouses or power distribution centers or telephone exchanges or water plants or sewage plants or gas pipelines or oil trucks or railroad tank cars or oil tankers or liquid natural gas carriers or ferry boats or cruise ships.
But I guess it’s worth giving up our privacy to secure the subways, huh?
Update: I almost forgot to mention office buildings and business conferences and trade shows and casinos and strip clubs and comedy clubs and porno shops and amusement parks and sports stadiums and music arenas and theatrical stages and night clubs and movie houses and sports bars and restaurants and banquet halls. Also bridges, tunnels, and dams. And hospitals, retirement homes, funeral parlors, libraries, and construction sites.
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