Typo Lad
07-27-2005, 06:57 AM
Greetings gents.
So New York has a new law – they can search your bags in the transit system for any reason. Ignoring the wonderful possibilities for racial profiling and the like, I really had no issue with this. Spend enough time in Israel and it seems normal. It is also, as Israel goes to show, not exactly effective. Still, whatever helps the blue hairs sleep at night, eh?
The new law went into effect Monday. Monday afternoon I headed to Washington Heights to pick up Tot. She spends her post-camp hours at Fort Washington Park, playing on the slides and whatnot. We then get an Ice Cream from the truck parked outside and walk over to The Port Authority at the GWB (http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/bus/html/gwb.html) .
Well, as we walked in on Monday, we were greeted by two officers. The male officer requested my bag. I complied, of course. The female officer then looked at him as though he was an idiot.
“You gotta check the kid’s bag.”
Well, Mr. Policeman?
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No. You gotta check every bag.”
I was just standing there, amused. I complied, of course. I also noticed how he failed to check one of the compartments of my bag, which had an obvious bulge (water bottle).
As we walked away, Tot looked at me:
“Why did they open our backpacks?”
Took me a minute to phrase it juuuuuust right.
“That’s their job. They have to make sure no-one is bringing in anything that they shouldn’t be bringing in.”
“Oh”.
So Tuesday, we head for Port Authority. We walk in to see that the table is gone and there’s not a uniformed cop in sight (this, by the way, is in marked contrast to the Port Authority at 42nd street, where you can’t move without bumping into a cop).
“Hey!”
I look down at an outraged Tot.
“Where are the people who check the bags?”
Ladies and gentleman, we have achieved normalization.
So New York has a new law – they can search your bags in the transit system for any reason. Ignoring the wonderful possibilities for racial profiling and the like, I really had no issue with this. Spend enough time in Israel and it seems normal. It is also, as Israel goes to show, not exactly effective. Still, whatever helps the blue hairs sleep at night, eh?
The new law went into effect Monday. Monday afternoon I headed to Washington Heights to pick up Tot. She spends her post-camp hours at Fort Washington Park, playing on the slides and whatnot. We then get an Ice Cream from the truck parked outside and walk over to The Port Authority at the GWB (http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/bus/html/gwb.html) .
Well, as we walked in on Monday, we were greeted by two officers. The male officer requested my bag. I complied, of course. The female officer then looked at him as though he was an idiot.
“You gotta check the kid’s bag.”
Well, Mr. Policeman?
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No. You gotta check every bag.”
I was just standing there, amused. I complied, of course. I also noticed how he failed to check one of the compartments of my bag, which had an obvious bulge (water bottle).
As we walked away, Tot looked at me:
“Why did they open our backpacks?”
Took me a minute to phrase it juuuuuust right.
“That’s their job. They have to make sure no-one is bringing in anything that they shouldn’t be bringing in.”
“Oh”.
So Tuesday, we head for Port Authority. We walk in to see that the table is gone and there’s not a uniformed cop in sight (this, by the way, is in marked contrast to the Port Authority at 42nd street, where you can’t move without bumping into a cop).
“Hey!”
I look down at an outraged Tot.
“Where are the people who check the bags?”
Ladies and gentleman, we have achieved normalization.