NYers to NYPD: 'I Do Not Consent to Being Searched'

The Village Voice ^ | July 21st, 200 | by Chisun Lee

[BigFinn]

Spend $16.99 so you can wear this to your grave

Reacting to the NYPD's announcement Thursday afternoon that police would randomly—but routinely—search the bags of commuters, one concerned New Yorker quickly created a way for civil libertarians to make their views black-and-white. In a few outraged moments, local immigrant rights activist Tony Lu designed t-shirts bearing the text, "i do not consent to being searched." The minimalist protest-wear can be purchased here, in various styles and sizes. (Lu will not get a cut. The shirts' manufacture, sale, and shipment, will be handled by the online retailer. Lu encourages budget-conscious New Yorkers to make their own and wear them everywhere.)

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had announced the legally obvious—that New Yorkers are free to decline a search and "turn around and leave." But Lu, who is a lawyer at Urban Justice Center, warned that even well-intentioned cops could interpret people's natural nervousness or anger as "reasonable suspicion." The possibility of unjustified interrogation and even arrest is real, Lu said.

Although police promised they would not engage in racial profiling, Lu said that, as with all street-level policing, people of color and poor immigrants would be particularly vulnerable, especially if encounters lead to arrests.

[durasell]

Back in the 1980s there was a brooklyn lawyer who used to have a card that when you turned it over it read something like:

Yes, a understand my rights.
I do not wish to make a statement at this time.
I would like a lawyer present during all questioning.

[George Smiley]

I think you're (mis)interpreting the fact that the subway is a "public accommodation" to mean that you have an absolute right to use it. (Airplanes are "public accommodations", too, by the way.)

Go back and have a look at the .pdf I linked to as (from my brief scan of the TOC) it appears to discuss case law with respect to transportation-related issues.

I may look at it tonight if my wife and kids don't have too much loaded on my plate.

[RedRover]

I think I need a little more than a t-shirt! But thanks for the suggestion!

[Stu Cohen]

I think you're (mis)interpreting the fact that the subway is a "public accommodation" to mean that you have an absolute right to use it. (Airplanes are "public accommodations", too, by the way.)

Subways are public accomodations in the same sense as a sidewalk is a public accomodation. An airplane is a public accomodation in the same sense as a resturant is a public accomodation.

Go back and have a look at the .pdf I linked to as (from my brief scan of the TOC) it appears to discuss case law with respect to transportation-related issues.

I'll check it out.

[lainie]

bump

[Alberta's Child]

I understand that, but there was no "NYPD" in 1789, either.

[Freebird Forever]

Not an excuse, FRiend. A fact.

You're certainly free to believe that.

But the main reason that ideological profiling, internment and deportation are not the order of the day is that then the excuse would be gone and the totalitarian policies would be seen for what they really are.

[George Smiley]

Good to have an honest disagreement.

And my real feelings about how it would be In * An * Ideal * World were described in one of L. Neil Smith's novels:

The protagonists were preparing to board a flying device of some sort and the only screening to which they were subjected was to be asked if they'd remembered to load their weapons with frangible ammunition before boarding the aircraft.

[TAquinas]

"'I Do Not Consent to Being Searched'"

Then you die.

Profiling: it works, not just for law enforcement, but for the people on the street, as well.

[RedRover]

Couldn't say about the dates. But rights not specified in the Constitution are reserved by the states.
It seems to me that this a municipal issue.

[TAquinas]

Then they're not real cops if they cannot defend their people.

[Not A Snowbird]

You don't believe terrorists are already here?

[Howlin]

but for the people on the street, as well.

I'm beginning to despise the way I look at people I see out and about.

[Alberta's Child]

Professional police forces didn't crop up until around the mid-Nineteenth century.

I've made the case that professional police forces only came into existence because of the large-scale immigration (of European peasants, mostly Irish) and internal migration (of freed slaves) to cities in the Northeast. The governing classes of these cities simply decided that disorder and chaos would rule the day if the Second Amendment was applied to these people. It's no coincidence that police departments came into existence right around the same time that the first gun control laws were passed.

[Stu Cohen]

>"'I Do Not Consent to Being Searched'"

Then you die.

Um, no, Rambo.

You go the entrance on the opposite side of the street and board the train.

[Dionysius]

You're dead on, Superior. During time of war, racial profiling is minimal intrusion. The true patriot will see it as absolutely necessary for survival. When 75 year old women engage in terrorist activities, search them. Until then some sense would be welcome.

[Stu Cohen]

You don't believe terrorists are already here?

Yes, but this thread isn't about the IRS.

[Alberta's Child]

It's not a municipal issue if Federal funds are used for capital projects on the NYC subway system.

Of course, the Tenth Amendment would also seem to indicate that Federal funds should not be used for the NYC subway system -- but that's a whole other issue!

[Age of Reason]

Good grief, I know that.

They hate us because we didn't follow President Washington's advice to avoid foreign entanglements.

And so we've become mixed-up in Mideast politics and its terrorism.

[Not A Snowbird]

Thanks, I needed that!

Now, where's that spare keyboard...