Not if the fare were uniform.
Yes it would.
Prior restraint means that in order to exercise a right [in this case, as you posit, ride the subway], you must satisfy a government-set prerequisite [paying a fare] PRIOR to exercising said right.
Uniformity doesn't have a thing to do with it.
GS: If the police want for you to "assume the position", they can always come up with a plausible reason for you to do so.
Yes, but that doesn't make it right. Have you given up?
No, I choose to live and work in jurisdictions where concealed carry is legal and have made the decision to a large degree to assume responsiblity for my own safety.
The cops are more than welcome to cuff and write paper when they arrive on the scene.
(And on a personal note, I have strong disagreements with the concept of a Concealed Handgun Permit for the prior restraint reasons stated above, but my aversion to incarceration overrides my temptation to be inflexibly principled (as you seem to be) and carry without one.)
GS: And in a situation where they are armed and several and you are disarmed and solo, discretion ought to dictate that you adopt compliant behavior.
Yes, I am well aware that we are supposed to fear our government and the people cosncipted to enforce it's wishes. It still doesn't make it right.
It's called "exercising common sense" to not get smart if several officers ask you to do something. My subsequent comment about positive results should have sufficed.
And no, it's the other way around. The government's supposed to fear the citizenry.
And when was the last time that you got conscripted to enforce the government's wishes, as you put it?** Shades of Ivan Denosivich!
**[the large part of the year you work to pay your income taxes excepted from this rhetorical question : ^ ) ]
Being smartass to police officers does not yield positive results, even in New York.
Nobody should be above the law or consitution. Armed or not.
Reality check.
I worked as a paramedic for a couple of years long ago which gave me more of a window into how cops work think and operate than anybody except for possibly cop spouses.
On the streets, the courts aren't the law, the Constitution isn't the law, and the lawyers aren't the law: the police are the embodiment of the law, whether you like it or not.
If the cops decide that you haven't broken the law, then you don't get arrested. Regardless of whether you have or not. Period. End of story.
And, just as in any other profession, there are good cops and bad cops; there are people who have no business being cops (some of them are good politicians who end up in the brass)
I think that you're bitching because the principle of law isn't always congruent with the law as it is applied In Real Life in a given situation.
And that's just life, my friend.
It is.
But you can either accept it in perpetuity, or like our forefathers, try to change it.
If we followed your lead, we would be sipping tea at noon and saluting the Queen.
Things have gotten bad in this country, but it would suck if everyone gave up. Even though I think they have, I like to hope they haven't.