“As part of an effort to guard against terrorism,” the authority announced June 8, “MBTA police are developing a policy that would involve random checks of passengers’ bags. Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have warned that terrorists might strike trains and buses in major U.S. cities using bombs concealed in bags or luggage.

“While it is the MBTA’s goal to have the policy in place prior to the Democratic National Convention, it’s important to note that MBTA Police are looking long-term.”

“Transit Watch, Update July 2004,” which is issued by the MBTA, said, “From now on: All MBTA customers will be subject to security inspections of any carry-on item.”

“We consider the policy misguided and dangerous,” Urszula Masny-Latos, executive director of the Massachusetts National Lawyers Guild (NLG), told the MBTA board of directors. “It is a serious assault on freedom and privacy of ordinary Americans. We all have a right to walk the streets without going through security checkpoints.”

“It will not be random, people from the Middle East will be targeted,” said Merrie Najimy, from the Massachusetts American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Spokespeople for the MBTA have said you can refuse to be searched. But if you do, you will be asked to leave the station, and if you don’t, you will be arrested for trespassing.

“How do I get to work? How does my son get to school? I don’t have a choice,” said Khalida Samalis, coordinator of the Transit Riders Union (TRU).

More than a dozen people from TRU spoke at the board meeting. TRU has been active in the fight against fare increases and “racial profiling” by MBTA police.

“The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights protect everyone against unreasonable searches,” says a flyer by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Rallies sponsored by the Safe and Free T Coalition, of about 50 people each, took place July 1 and July 13 at a downtown subway stop. Mock searches and leaflets explaining riders’ rights in case of searches were passed out at the actions. National Lawyers Guild members distributed a button saying “I do not consent to a search.”

Not everybody at the MBTA board meeting opposed the proposed searches. “We can’t depend on a wing and a prayer to keep us safe,” said Susan Howard, a member of the Transit Police Community Advisory Committee.

The search policy was not on the agenda of the board meeting and the members did not debate it. Under the manager’s report, MBTA general manager Michael Mulhern told the board earlier that day he had been called by Homeland Security to watch the press conference by the agency’s secretary Thomas Ridge. “Ridge said there was an increased risk of a terrorist attack and pointed to the upcoming Democratic Party convention in Boston and the Republican Party convention in New York,” Mulhern said. “The first political conventions since 9/11.”

Both the ACLU and NLG have said they will go to court to stop the searches. The policy has not been released to the public in writing yet.

Besides the searches, the MBTA has announced that the Commuter Rail and subway platforms at North Station here will be closed during the July 26-29 Democratic convention. Riders on the Orange Line subway and buses that go on highways by the FleetCenter, where the convention is being held in downtown Boston, will not be permitted to carry onboard packages larger than “the size of a loaf of bread.”

City authorities have also announced major roads will be closed from 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. each day during the convention, including a six-mile stretch of I-93 that snakes through downtown Boston past the FleetCenter.

“The searches are an attack on the rights of all working people,” said Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidate for state representative in Massachusetts, during a planning meeting called by TRU to discuss responding to the proposed searches. “They are testing this assault in Boston. If they can get away with it they will expand it across the country.”

In May, the MBTA said it was going to begin stopping passengers for identification checks at various subway stops. Up till now, it has not implemented this plan.
 
 
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Democrats lead drive for increased police spying
Push ‘homeland security’ in factional move to win elections  
 
 
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