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.

[AdamSelene235]

if the NYPD is not allowed to search everyone then they can't search the nervous ME youth with the long bulky coat.

Have you never heard of reasonable articulable suspicion?

[Sonny M]

He was talking about the shooting in LA where the man used his 2 year old as a sheild and they were both killed, he was calling the police idiots and how they needed to take a lesson from the police in London because of how they handled the shooting today.

The guy was a fool.

Cops in London don't even carry guns, and the brits don't think most of their cops are qualified to handle firearms, only certain cops, with special training get firearms and its a very limited number.

[Not A Snowbird]

Same here at Mariners' games. Be searched or go home.

[Alberta's Child]

All fo these complaints about violations of our Constitutional rights are pretty meaningless in the context of public transportation, but they do illustrate a very important point. The whole notion of "public transportation" has no foundation in Constitutional law, since the Constitution could not possibly have envisioned a scenario in which government agencies would oversee the operation of this kind of public infrastructure.

The only "Constitutional" approach to this situation is to shut down the damn subway system and fill all those tunnels with concrete. This type of thing simply isn't conducive to a free society.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Let me know when you ladies enlist and the least of your worries will be what's in your hanbags! LMAO

Been there, done that.

[Cathy]

Compared to the cost of living? Cops here in Northern Va are paid well (not pretty well) comparatively but the cost of living here is so high that they usually can't live in the County where they work.

[Stu Cohen]

And not I don't think the war on terror is just an excuse to take our rights away from us.

Yeah, that's what the "war on boredom" is for. (wtf is a "war on terror anyway, and how do you win it?).

[Sonny M]

I have been following your posts on this thread. As a product of 3 generations of NYPD, I must thank you for your defense of the rank and file of New York's finest.

No problem, and to your family.

Thank You for what they do and have done.

[RedRover]

Fanny packs are usually worn by male bicyclists in spandex.
And I thought gays were supposed to be better dressed than straights!

[ArrogantBustard]

Look, I live in NYC, ride the subway and have no trouble at all with the searches.

Look, I live in NoVa, ride MetroRail, and would be mighty pissed if they tried that crap here.

[zeugma]

Quote: "If you have done nothing wrong, comrade, then you have nothing to fear." - Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria (1899 - 1953), chief of the Soviet Secret Police (NKVD) under Stalin.

And again.

This one too...

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom--go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen! --Samuel Adams

Jackboots come from both the left, and the right. That's why it is so easy to create totalitarian states. It is something we have to guard against with eternal vigilance.

[Sonny M]

Compared to the cost of living? Cops here in Northern Va are paid well (not pretty well) comparatively but the cost of living here is so high that they usually can't live in the County where they work.

LI is cheaper to live in then NYC and suffolk county officers are the highest paid in the country.

[Sandy]

Ya got me there.

[Sabramerican]

On the other hand as they are searching everyone, the odds of catching real perpetrators diminishes.

Better to search only those with sufficient probable cause and argue the legitimacy of the cause if and when challenged.

[Not A Snowbird]

The 4th Ammendment. Expand at will.

Okay.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Who defines unreasonable?

[gdani]

The way to back up your case is read the 5th Ammendment and quote the passage that backs up your claim that random searches on municipal subways are unconstitutional. If you're convinced that our rights are being trampled, you must have a basis for that belief.

As for myself, I'd probably start with the Fourth Amendment.

[Grut]

...while thousands of my Marine Corps brothers & sisters are putting their asses on the line to fight for YOUR FREEDOM, the least you can do while you're sitting safely behind your computers is support the cause and if that means extra security at bus terminals and subways and an extra inconvenience to passengers; THEN SMILE & DEAL WITH IT!

So, the way to support those risking life and limb for our freedom is to kiss freedom off?

[Not A Snowbird]

The next arguement will be that because it is a public road they should be able to search your vehicle or you cannot use it. Slippery slope and people here are eating it up.

There's a difference between public transportation and a private vehicle. No slippiness here.

[Cathy]

We know a guy in London who is with a patrol unit and if they are in a dangerous situation they have to call for an armed unit. That is crazy.

[WKUHilltopper]

How about a T-shirt which reads, "I consent to having my head lopped off"