[ThirstyMan]

Try watching people fall out of the WTC on fire like I did and ask me if I give a damn about having my bag searched on the subway. This isn`t about the 4th amendment, it`s about common sense.

I couldn't agree with you more.

It's the cop on the beat mentality,
"What you got in the bag son? Mind if I take a look?"
Honest folk appreciate being protected from the scum who'd wreak mayhem on our way of life.

[sefarkas]

"What you got in the bag son? Mind if I take a look?

This is the point. This type of random senseless question makes the police prosecutor, judge and jury because the LEO doesn't ask everybody.

The random searches before or after the turnstiles are useless. Have any of you rode the MTA subway lines in NY and looked out the windows between station platforms? The tunnels and all points between are filled with graffiti. I don't know who has the nuts and the time to paint while those trains are running, but the fact that they can paint so liberally in the tunnels means that anyone who wants to damage the NY subway system need not bother with paying the $2 fare.

[Badray]

I get it.

If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about when the police stop and search you.

If a terrorist carrying a bomb that will be used to blow up a subway car sees that he will be searched and found out, wouldn't he (she) just detonate the bomb at the checkpoint rather than just surrender? Damage could still be inflicted, right?

Maybe they ought to search people up on the street before they go down to the subway. But then the terrorist would have a big target as people lined up to go through that checkpoint, right?

Where does it stop? When do you say 'ENOUGH'?