A BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

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The Down Low on the Down Below: A NYC Subway Event

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Brian Michels

DO NOT CONSENT. That was written across the upper chest of a woman exiting the Apple store in Soho. I didn’t catch the meaning at first. However, a half hour later as I entered the Broadway Lafayette subway station, I figured it out pretty quickly. “Open your bag,” the police officer told me. There were three other cops nearby inspecting personal belongings.

Of course I didn’t comply. The officer, a nice enough fellow, told me I wouldn’t be allowed on the train unless I did. I saw the need to educate the officer. I will get on the subway, I told him, and, of course, you won’t be looking in my bag. He didn’t like it, and it caused the other officers to laugh. I’ll be getting on the subway, and there's a decent chance it’ll be the next train, and you will not be looking in my bag, I repeated for a few surprised straphangers to catch the drift.

I hadn’t raised my voice, I delivered it with a smile, yet now I had stern attention from all four cops as they gathered around. Relax gentlemen; I’m not doing anything wrong. I pointed to the first cop, I’m simply telling this kind police officer why he’s wrong and he won’t be telling me what to do. The chubby cop caught my bait, “Is that right, you’re going to get by all four of us?” I will, and without much difficulty, I told them, just as easy as a terrorist would be able to do it. I continued, I will simply go upstairs and cross the street and enter on the other side where there are no cops standing around. And if tomorrow there are cops there, I will simply walk to the next station. There are too many stations on the subway to have cops posted at every one of them. Add to it the thousands of subway access points from street grates, sewer lines, and tunnels, and you have to agree that the subway is an open ended system. It cannot be sealed off. A terrorist could easily figure this out; especially these genius types who were supposedly able to foil the most dominant military defense system in the world when they managed to strike the pentagon on 9/11. (Something most experts believe was impossible) After cracking the pentagon, the subway must be a joke. Furthermore, what is to prevent a terrorist from buying a fat suit and strapping themselves with explosives, and then asking one of you cops inspecting his bag how to make a transfer to the Wall Street bound #1 train.

“Let him on the train!” an older lady yelled from the other side of the turnstile. Chubby cop said, “Well, I guess you are going to have to walk to the next station, buddy, because you not entering here.” I told him that’s not a major hurdle. I then finished off by telling the cops and the now thirty people gathered around, the real problem is that the government is instructing the police to look into bags for no reason other than to frighten all of us, and this is unacceptable in America. If this is allowed to continue it means those who hate our country for our FREEDOM have won. And those freedom-hating enemies of America are very likely some officials in this Administration. I love my country always and my government when it deserves it. In the end if a police state takes shape, we are no longer America, we are something Not America. I finally raised my voice before walking away, the real reason for a bogus police subway bag inspection is to instill fear into the masses just as the un-Patriot Act is up for confirmation in the Senate. Without a frightened populace the un-Patriot Act would be thrown in front of a moving train.

Brian Michels
New York, New York

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION