Security theater, not safety: New York’s militarized subway checkpoints are a political scam

During his colorful tenure as mayor of New York City, Ed Koch often rode the subway and asked fellow straphangers, “How are you doing?” I wish Gov. Kathy Hochul would do the same. It will only take a short trip or two to learn that her new militarized checkpoint plan for the subway is not only cumbersome and unpopular, but clearly unconstitutional.

Last month, Hochul implemented a plan to address growing public awareness that crime on New York’s subways is spiraling out of control. However, the governor made no attempt to arrest and lock up the criminals. No, that would make too much sense. Rather, it deployed the National Guard to the busiest, but not necessarily the most dangerous, subway stations.

Under military supervision, police search the bags of innocent passengers as a condition of entry to the subway. Passengers have to open their bags in preparation for the prying fingers and eyeballs of police and soldiers. Those who refuse to be searched will be denied access to New York’s most important public transportation system.

As if that wasn’t enough, Hochul admitted that his strategy won’t catch criminals. The purpose is not to catch criminals. Instead, she said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she deployed troops on the subways while police searched for innocent commuters so people “feel safe.” Told.

To hear her tell it, the subways are already safe, but people need the military to look at them. feel safety. That’s why National Guard troops are being deployed to the busiest parts of the city, rather than areas where recent shootings have occurred.

This is truly “security theater”. People seem protected, but in reality they are not. Meanwhile, violent crimes have been caught on video across the city’s subways just weeks after the unconstitutional checkpoints were set up.

Governor Hochul violates the constitutional rights of countless New Yorkers every day, all for the illusion of safety.

The Fourth Amendment protects fundamental rights against unreasonable searches of individuals and their property. Therefore, all searches conducted without a warrant are unconstitutional. For that reason alone, Ho-chul launches her ruse from behind Eight-Ball’s back.

Indeed, the governor has attempted to justify the illegal checkpoints by relying on 20-year-old case law decided after the 9/11 attacks that authorized police raids on subways for terrorists and their bombs. there’s a possibility that. But as Hochul made clear, preventing terrorist attacks is not the point. It’s about appearance.

Courts have repeatedly stated that the fact that a criminal committed a crime does not give the state the power to ignore the Constitution when arresting the criminal. On the contrary, warrantless and unsuspecting searches for evidence of everyday crimes are clearly unconstitutional. If national security does not justify ignoring the Fourth Amendment, the security theater certainly does not.

But if Governor Hochul has his way, and security alone is a sufficient basis for allowing questionable checkpoints, then there is no constitutional right to stationing the military at the entrance to every district of the city in the name of security. There will be no restrictions — or perhaps even just in certain neighborhoods — for people who have residents who don’t like the incumbent governor, police chief, or city council. This may be true in other parts of the world, but America is not a police state.

Ben Franklin famously said, “He who gives up essential liberty to buy temporary security is entitled to neither liberty nor safety.” Willing to give up essential freedoms to appear to be. It’s a bizarre and unconstitutional deal.

Mayor Koch once called himself a “sane liberal.” Governor Hochul, with all due respect, you are not Ed Koch. If you want subway riders to feel safe, start by protecting their constitutional rights and focus on catching the actual criminals.

Mark Miller and Daniel Wojslaw are the following attorneys: Pacific Law Foundationa public interest law firm that protects the freedoms of Americans from government overreach and abuse.