Thursday, August 04, 2005
Police searches, the Jackson Doctrine, and Muslim women, the solutions for terror
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Report from the battlefield. That’s what it feels like, when you leave the comfort zone of Union Squareand go downtown. Our area takes the concerns about potential terrorists smoothly, at the city’s fourth largest subway station. You have to go asking questions, to hear of a transit policeperson checking the shoulder bag of a passenger (no backpacks, this is the school holiday period.) But, leaving the IRT Wall Street station, the first thing I noted was a disheveled person at the exit, slowly tucking some miserable-looking personal papers and belongings back into a black zipper bag. The street-dressed detective who had done the search was standing by, gently helping the searchee get it all together.
I would guess thepolice were taking their own advice.In case you are not familiar with the advisory, a week ago the NYPD publicized a memo summarizing the hints of an experienced police sergeant, who had been on TV,giving safety tips to worried bus passengers. Be wary of a transit rider with clenched fists – suicide bombers have used devices that require squeezing the hand-held trigger mechanism; designed to explode when the grip is released. An ordinary bomb that has a gun-type trigger would be disabled if the terrorist were shot and let go of the weapon. The mind boggles.Some of these cautions stem from reports of one of the London bombers. Arider who is nervously feeling under his clothing may be a terroristadjusting the bomb. Also, someone who wears a coat in the summer, or otherunsuitable clothing, or reeks too much of cologne, trying tomask the scent of an explosive. Someone who perspires profusely, or mumbles or chants, avoiding eye contact. Talking with some insurance people at lunch about the subjects, one of them remarked; “that could be any one of our actuaries!” A joke, nevertheless it is serious, since on the subways of our fair city we encounter the floatsam and jetsam of our era. Actually, the homeless, the sleepers and the bag people have been nearly gone from the trains. Part of the police enforcement?All this invariably brings up concerns about stereotyping, or profiling, as the current cant will have it. The police memo carefully avoids any mention of official policy or ethnic types; nevertheless, profiling cannot be avoided. One has to quote Justice Jackson, this time in full: "The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the courtdoes not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."Thus spoke Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, in a dissent opinion decades ago. Those among us who protest against searches as intrusive should hear my neighbor, the mother whose student daughter was on Russell Square minutes before the bomb attack. Come on, those of us who have nothing to hide will accept any number of searches, if that inhibits a deadly bomb attack.
Now, profiling. There is an Internet quiz floating around that describes 12 terrorist attacks since 1983 (McVeigh omitted), and gives multiple choice answers for identifying the culprits. In each question, one of the answers is “Mideastern men 17-40 years old,” the correct answer for each of the atrocities. At the end the quizmaster wants to know why do we search grandmas, mothers with strollers and old men, people who have no history. Why waste the time and create inconveniences by randomly selecting the searchees?. The answer is our objection against profiling, the crime of prejudice. Again, one tends to ask the Jackson question. Let’s face it, we, even those of us who never leave East Midtown are living under a threat, and defenses are essential.
Speaking of defenses, a neighbor called, warning that there is no protection against a dirty car bomb exploding on Wall Street, thus closing the country’s major financial institutions for months if not forever, with ill-placed backup facilities, unable to communicate with their Iron Mountain record storage caves. I told him that steel plates rise out of the asphalt on Nassau Street north of Wall, that another set is at 40 Wall, and a third on Exchange Place south of Broadway, along with what I call “street diamonds” (brassy bricks weighing a ton, their edges blunted in a jewel-cut) and cross-parked pickup trucks, all barricading access to the Stock Exchange, America’s symbol of its wealth. But the concern persists – is this another misapplied defense, when Homeland Security should concentrate on the rivers and the boats, and ships, and container docks in Bayonne, and Depository Trust , the world’s clearing house for securities, sitting unprotected on Water Street. But enough already, this thinking leads to paranoia. At least, the Muslim organizations have snapped out of their denial, have issued a fatwa against terrorists, and will actively monitor their reckless young. We may never have peace until Muslim women acquire equality, but it is a hope.
Report from the battlefield. That’s what it feels like, when you leave the comfort zone of Union Squareand go downtown. Our area takes the concerns about potential terrorists smoothly, at the city’s fourth largest subway station. You have to go asking questions, to hear of a transit policeperson checking the shoulder bag of a passenger (no backpacks, this is the school holiday period.) But, leaving the IRT Wall Street station, the first thing I noted was a disheveled person at the exit, slowly tucking some miserable-looking personal papers and belongings back into a black zipper bag. The street-dressed detective who had done the search was standing by, gently helping the searchee get it all together.
I would guess thepolice were taking their own advice.In case you are not familiar with the advisory, a week ago the NYPD publicized a memo summarizing the hints of an experienced police sergeant, who had been on TV,giving safety tips to worried bus passengers. Be wary of a transit rider with clenched fists – suicide bombers have used devices that require squeezing the hand-held trigger mechanism; designed to explode when the grip is released. An ordinary bomb that has a gun-type trigger would be disabled if the terrorist were shot and let go of the weapon. The mind boggles.Some of these cautions stem from reports of one of the London bombers. Arider who is nervously feeling under his clothing may be a terroristadjusting the bomb. Also, someone who wears a coat in the summer, or otherunsuitable clothing, or reeks too much of cologne, trying tomask the scent of an explosive. Someone who perspires profusely, or mumbles or chants, avoiding eye contact. Talking with some insurance people at lunch about the subjects, one of them remarked; “that could be any one of our actuaries!” A joke, nevertheless it is serious, since on the subways of our fair city we encounter the floatsam and jetsam of our era. Actually, the homeless, the sleepers and the bag people have been nearly gone from the trains. Part of the police enforcement?All this invariably brings up concerns about stereotyping, or profiling, as the current cant will have it. The police memo carefully avoids any mention of official policy or ethnic types; nevertheless, profiling cannot be avoided. One has to quote Justice Jackson, this time in full: "The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the courtdoes not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."Thus spoke Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, in a dissent opinion decades ago. Those among us who protest against searches as intrusive should hear my neighbor, the mother whose student daughter was on Russell Square minutes before the bomb attack. Come on, those of us who have nothing to hide will accept any number of searches, if that inhibits a deadly bomb attack.
Now, profiling. There is an Internet quiz floating around that describes 12 terrorist attacks since 1983 (McVeigh omitted), and gives multiple choice answers for identifying the culprits. In each question, one of the answers is “Mideastern men 17-40 years old,” the correct answer for each of the atrocities. At the end the quizmaster wants to know why do we search grandmas, mothers with strollers and old men, people who have no history. Why waste the time and create inconveniences by randomly selecting the searchees?. The answer is our objection against profiling, the crime of prejudice. Again, one tends to ask the Jackson question. Let’s face it, we, even those of us who never leave East Midtown are living under a threat, and defenses are essential.
Speaking of defenses, a neighbor called, warning that there is no protection against a dirty car bomb exploding on Wall Street, thus closing the country’s major financial institutions for months if not forever, with ill-placed backup facilities, unable to communicate with their Iron Mountain record storage caves. I told him that steel plates rise out of the asphalt on Nassau Street north of Wall, that another set is at 40 Wall, and a third on Exchange Place south of Broadway, along with what I call “street diamonds” (brassy bricks weighing a ton, their edges blunted in a jewel-cut) and cross-parked pickup trucks, all barricading access to the Stock Exchange, America’s symbol of its wealth. But the concern persists – is this another misapplied defense, when Homeland Security should concentrate on the rivers and the boats, and ships, and container docks in Bayonne, and Depository Trust , the world’s clearing house for securities, sitting unprotected on Water Street. But enough already, this thinking leads to paranoia. At least, the Muslim organizations have snapped out of their denial, have issued a fatwa against terrorists, and will actively monitor their reckless young. We may never have peace until Muslim women acquire equality, but it is a hope.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 5:18 AM 
