New York City Mayor Slams Lawsuit Over Subway Bag Searches
Posted on: Friday, 5 August 2005, 18:00 CDT
Aug. 5--Mayor Bloomberg blasted the New York Civil Liberties Union yesterday for filing a federal lawsuit to stop random searches of bags in the subway, declaring: "We have a responsibility to keep this city safe."
"It's a small price to pay to stay safe in this day and age," Bloomberg said of the unprecedented security imposed by the city last month following the London transit bombings.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly also rejected the NYCLU's contention that the searches were ineffective, unconstitutional and a publicity stunt.
Kelly argued that the searches are just one of many tools being used by the Police Department to deter potential terror strikes.
NYPD spot checks of potential terror targets already have foiled at least one assault, Kelly said -- referring to Iyman Faris, a Pakistani-born American citizen who plotted with al-Qaida two years ago to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.
Faris called off his mission because of the city's random security measures.
"To glibly assert that it's of no deterrence value is ill-informed at best," Kelly said of the bag searches in the subway. "The Brooklyn Bridge is still standing because of increased police attention."
But NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman called the subway searches a "needle-in-the-haystack approach" after the legal group and five New Yorkers filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU's associate legal director, said the NYPD measure was akin to searching people on public streets and a violation of a fundamental civil right.
Though the NYPD conducts unannounced checks at scores of the city's 468 subway stations, Dunn argued the searches have little effect because anyone can refuse to have his or her bag inspected and simply walk away or can enter the subway where cops are not posted.
Among the plaintiffs was Brendan MacWade, 32, of Brooklyn, who escaped the twin towers during the 9/11 attacks.
"I want to catch terrorists as much as any politicians or officials, but this policy does not work," he said.
Partha Banerjee, a writer who also put his name to the lawsuit, said as a dark-skinned, dark-eyed man with a beard, he fears he will be wrongly targeted, regardless of an NYPD policy prohibiting racial profiling.
"I came from India 20 years ago, yet immigrants like me are seen as an enemy," he said.
By Lisa L. Colangelo and Alison Gendar
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Source: Daily News
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