A New and Disturbing First For Boston

As my cousin notes, the coming of the Democratic National Convetion to Boston is turning into one huge boondoggle. Mostly I've done my best to ignore this, as I have no reason to be in Boston during that time, and the prospect of all that inconveniece for the sake of visting politicans makes me cranky.

Much of the incovenience - the closing of train stations, highways, and the like - stems from security requirements. I haven't heard of any plans to make this happen in New York during the Republican National Convention (in fact I believe Penn Station is remaining open despite it's close proximity to the actual convetion site) but hey - maybe their mayor is smarter than ours, and eventually the DNC and all the attendant hoopla will go away.

Or maybe not. Several weeks ago the MBTA announced that they would begin stopping passengers for indentification checks.

Although officials would release few details about the initiative, the identity checks will mark the first time local rail and subway passengers will be asked to produce identification and be questioned about their activities.

'Questioned about their activities' - nice. Despite being a law-abiding citizen going about your business you could be called to account for yourself by a man with a badge.

The State Police officers based at Logan who are instructing T police have been trained in "behavior pattern recognition" in order to identify potential terrorists.

According to past interviews with Logan's primary security consultant, Rafi Ron, former head of security at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel, such a program helps avoid accusations of racial profiling and is based on the behavior of those stopped. Logan was the first American airport at which the method was used.

That didn't make me feel all that much better about the potential invasion of privacy, but at least there was the comfort of knowing there would some purpose, some guidelines to this policy. Your average Jane or Joe Citizen is probably not going to match up with the behavioral profile of a terrorist, right?

Pesaturo wouldn't say where or when the identification stops would take place, or how long they would last.

All of the above changed yesterday.

Next month, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will become the first transit agency in the nation to institute a permanent policy of randomly inspecting passenger bags and packages on subway and commuter trains, MBTA police officials disclosed yesterday.

So - this is not just a temporary policy for the duration of the DNC - this is, I guess, forever. And there's no longer even the pretense that the searches will be tied to suspicious behavior or pattern recognition.

But the MBTA policy would be far more ambitious -- and in the eyes of civil libertarians, far more invasive -- as police conduct random inspections of bags and briefcases that are not tied to suspicious behavior. The policy is being developed in coordination with the TSA and with several other transit agencies in the United States and abroad, Carter said. It is not yet fully developed, he added.

MBTA Deputy Police Chief John Martino, who is overseeing the development and implementation of the policy, said police, some accompanied by explosive-sniffing dogs, will randomly pick out riders for inspection throughout the transit system daily. If the dogs are present -- there are only four used by the force currently -- riders would not have to open their bags, but make them available for the dogs to sniff, Martino said.

I don't think I'll be riding the T much anymore. First of all, I fucking resent the hell out of the idea that I should have to account for myself if I am not engaged in suspicious behavior(however vague that definition may be), let alone breaking the goodam law.

Second, random searches sure as hell do not make me feel any safer. Random searches are very effective for detaining Medal of Honor winners and inconveniencing commuters, but as far as catching terrorists? At random? Out of all the folks who ride the T? Like finding a needle in a haystack. But do not point at the Elephant at the party - that it is very likely that most potential terrorists would be of Middle Eastern or foreign origin* (tell me again how many of the 9/11 hijackers came from, say, Saudi Arabia, as opposed to, say, Roxbury?) as well as fitting ither profiles (behavioral, age, sex) - lest you be deemed insensitive. Just sit quietly and endure whatever indignity and inconvenience comes your way as a result of random searches.

Other passengers, however, said they understood that they may have to give up some privacy to protect against attacks such as those that occurred in Madrid.

Well, how much privacy? For how much safety gained in return?

*That's not to say that the possibility of 'home grown' terrorists a la Walker Lindh orMcVeigh should be ignored.