A stream of consciousness from the brain of B.K. DeLong
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July 26, 2004
A friend of mine who works in a Chemistry lab on at an East Coast University said today a friend passed him a notice being sent around from another Boston-area University Chemistry lab reminding staff and students not to be stupid enough to bring samples of research along with them on the T, bus or other form of public transportation.
To those of us who have been paying enormous attention to security matters this week, it's obvious but to exhausted, jaded students who have been awake for 72 hours on caffeine and munchies....it might not occur to them that while the partially synthesized protein enzyme is harmless - the two burly Boston police searching everyone with a backpack might not be so smart. Who would have thunk?
Boston police aren't doing the search. I've been
to it (more about that later). The search is being conducted by men and women in black jumpsuits bearing the words "Transit Police."
They don't look like MBTA police. But I just called the MBTA police and asked. The guy answering the phone said "They're MBTA police. Some of them are also members of the Transportation Safety Administration." That to me sounds curious.
When I refused to be searched, they defended the "policy." How does a policy differ from lawful authorization? It's a layer on top of the law. For example, if you're arrested for, say, robbing a convenience store, the store has a *policy* of reporting you. The police have *lawful authorization* to arrest you.
I expect that conventional police are not involved, because they work with the *law*. Even the rare but tragic fringe of law enforcement who violate citizens' civil rights are familiar with the law.
So, much like the current federal administration's suspension of EPA regulations which will be tried over the next 5-10 years and found blatanly illegal (see the NRDC), one should expect these searches to be found unconstitutional. I strongly enourage everyone who reads this to support an organization to defeat the searches, such as the ACLU. You can join for $20 and they'll spend that defeating this and other civil liberties issues.