Activists protest NYPD searches

The Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) called an emergency demonstration on July 26 to protest the recent announcement by billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that the NYPD would make random searches of riders' bags on the subways, buses, ferries and the commuter rail system. The demonstration was held outside the Union Square subway station in Manhattan during rush hour.

The new procedure was announced following the July 7 bombings of London subways that killed over 50 people. A 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot five times in the head at point-blank range on a crowded London subway by the police on July 22. The chief of police there justified the killing by claiming that Menezes looked and acted "suspicious." He also stated that this kind of "mistake" could happen again as part of the so-called war on terror.  

TONC activists and their allies explained to the press and bystanders that the searches by the NYPD are illegal because they are a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.  This amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ..."

These searches are also acts of racial profiling because largely disproportionate numbers of people of color--especially those perceived to be South Asian, Muslim or Arab--will undoubtedly be singled out by the NYPD. This kind of racist police intimidation is not new to the Black and Latin@ communities.  

Protest signs featured photos of Menezes, Amadou Diallo and Timothy Stansbury. Diallo, a West African vendor, and Stansbury, an African American youth, were killed by the NYPD for similar reasons as Menezes--"acting and looking suspicious."

TONC issued a statement that read in part: "The climate created by these oppressive police tactics do not make anyone safer. ... It is vital that progressive and antiwar activists rally in solidarity with targeted communities and against unchecked police repression. ...

"There are 4.5 million riders on the subway everyday. There is no way that the NYPD can search even 1 in 20 riders. So who will be searched?  It won't be yuppies carrying briefcases on their way to Wall Street.

"In a country where racism is a pervasive fact of life--28 percent of all Black men will spend time in jail at some point in their lives and institutionalized lynching persists in the police killings of Black youths--more police power doesn't make anyone safer.  It only reinforces and strengthens a racist and repressive environment."