I was on my way home from work around 7:30 pm Thursday. At the 59th and Lex stop, there were about four commuters, myself included, and about six cops checking bags. Everyone got checked, myself included.
I told the officer (one of the "Hercules" guys, with the big guns and body armor) that I did not consent to being searched, and asked what that would mean. He said it was fine, and I could leave without being asked any more questions, but I couldn't ride the train. I wanted to get home, so I said "fine, go for it".
But while he did it, I asked him what would prevent a terrorist from just saying "I don't consent" and simply walking to another entrance or another station. He looked me dead in the eye and said "that wouldn't be a very good idea".
Now, I understand that after the bombings there's a need to make it look like they're doing something. But this is an ineffective, biased way of doing it. First off, they've made it clear that only the busy stations will have people doing searches. That's great...if the terrorists decide to assemble their bombs in the middle of Times Square. If they get on at some random stop in Brooklyn (or if they read the paper, which clearly announced this), they can be assured of no search. So that removes any point.
The other problem is that they can arrest you for ANY sort of contraband. Drugs, weapons, hell, if you have a pirated CD you're technically subject to arrest.
A blanket search warrant is a terrible idea. A blanket search warrant that depends on cops who "swear" they're not going to do racial profiling is a worse one. I see a lot of black and arabic men going to jail for some stupid shit, like minor drug charges.
This is not the NYC I love.