War, terror and the ACLU.

In light of the terrorist attacks experience in our own country 4 years ago, and those affecting London and Egypt right now, I'm torn in my thinking on the matter. When I heard of the shooting on the London tube, my very first thought was, Good God, I hope this isn't some mentally ill person who simply had the misfortune to wear a heavy coat on a warm day, and to be too afraid of police to stop when they said to. Turns out, there's some debate about whether the police even told the man to stop, or freeze, or whatever.

So why am I torn? Well, immediately after the second (unsuccessful) bombing, the NYC transit department began random bag checks. The only penalty for refusing to be checked was that you were not allowed to ride the subway. The ACLU began threatening lawsuits immediately, of course. And the NY authorities said, "This will be systematically random, with no racial profiling." I don't know what to make of this. Part of me, I must ashamedly confess, thinks, "Why aren't you using racial profiling to search bags? It sucks, I admit, but no-one's grandma from Italy or 8-year-old cousin from Germany or 32-year-old sister from Des Moines is trying to bomb any trains lately." The ACLU, I think, is protesting the invasion of privacy and violation of civil rights, but what would they do instead? They seem to be upset by the randomness of it, but were it racially or ethnically based, I'm sure that would occasion an entirely different protest. I realize many people protest the way airline searches are conducted, but certainly it's not a common position to protest the searches themselves. And I'm not saying they're right or wrong, mind you. The whole thing just confuses me. If I were a police commissioner, or in some similar position of power charged with protecting innocent people in an open society, what would I do? Especially when a major part of what I'm protecting is the very idea of the open society itself, and the freedom to move around without being searched?

This might be the most Republican thing I'll ever say, and it's easy for me to say--being a 34-year-old white American woman, I fall outside of most demographics that would be racially profiled anyway--search my bag. If you don't care that I carry some very stupid shit in my purse, search it. It's worth it to me to not get blown up on the subway. But stay the HELL out of my library records. They're books, not bombs.