emacsen's journal - The Metro just became a little more dangerous

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November 7th, 2008

07:34 pm

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The Metro just became a little more dangerous
I know I promised election coverage, but this news just came out.

It turns out DC's Metro Transit system has enacted a new policy of random searches of passengers.

The link above includes a link to a A Citizen's Guide to Refusing DC Metro Searches which I suggest every DC area person read carefully.

As the article points out, this will do nothing to combat terrorism. You cannot be arrested for refusing search, and you can, as far as I know, still board a metro bus and not be subject to those searches. And depending on the location of the officer, you may even be able to board the train later.

So, how does this impact terrorism? A terrorist will know his or her rights as well as I do, and simply exercise his rights.

As someone who sometimes carries electronics in various states of assembly, and someone who has begun taking on the job of mapping the metro entrances, I believe I'm even more at risk for running into such a search.

I'm only glad I don't ride metro daily, as I did in the past.

When fares are proposed to increase again, I'd suggest people speak out against these practices and suggest that this program's funding be cut before riders pay any more to ride Metro.

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