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July 8, 2004

Activists protest MBTA bag inspection policy

Yawu Miller

Commuters exiting Park Street Station may have been taken aback last week where an impromptu bag check was taken place. A woman in a blue blazer with a CIA cap ran a metal detector over commuters while a man checked bags and asked probing questions.

The spectacle, courtesy of the Class Acts Theater Troupe, was part of a protest staged by civil rights organizations in opposition to the MBTA’s plan to establish checkpoints at stations and randomly check bags.

The activists at the demonstration said the searches would constitute an unnecessary violation of riders’ Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure.

“I think this policy is wrong because it violates Fourth Amendment and privacy rights without any trade-off for real safety,” said Nancy Murray, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Bill of Rights Education Project.

Under the plan outlined by MBTA officials, four officers would set up checks, each at a different stop. Murray says that should anyone attept to commit a terrorist act, they would likely notice a line in the station and move on to the next.

“What we are saying is that there should be a public debate about real safety on the T,” she commented. “This policy undermines rights and there’s no real safety gain.”

MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera said the searches would add a measure of safety to the system and would not violate the rights of riders.

“These are random inspections that will be done in a courteous manner,” she said. “We’re still trying to develop the final process, but it will be done in an equitable manner.”

Rivera acknowledged that the security measures may not be fool-proof, but stressed that they are only an initial step.

“Our feeling is that we are one step closter to ensuring that customers are safe on our system,” she commented. “We’re starting small. Hopefully we’ll go on from there.”

While the ACLU is mulling legal action against the MBTA, the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild is preparing to file a lawsuit, according to member Michael Avery, who attended last week’s protest.

“Under the Fourth Ammendment, the ordinary rule is you have to have probable cause,” he said. “You have to have a reasonable suspicion before you search someone. We don’t allow dragnet fishing expeditions.”

Activists also said giving police the discretion to randomly stop commuters could disproportionately affect people of color, whom police could mistake for Middle Easterners.

“Most Cape Verdean people have a Middle Eastern look,” said the Rev. Filipe Teixeira, who served on the MBTA Task Force on Racial Profiling. “We look like those people who have been profiled. That’s why we’ve been involved from day one with the American Civil Liberties Union.”

Ali Noorani, executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigration Reform Advocacy Coalition, said the targeting of people of color is of particular concern to undocumented immigrants, many of whom depend on public transit to get to work.

“If you look or sound like an immigrant, chances are your bag is going to be searched,” Noorani said. “If immigrants are undocumented, they’re not going to want to take the T. How are they going to be able to get to work?”

MBTA police have said they will conduct the searches randomly, checking the bags of every sixth or seventh passenger, for instance. But civil rights activists say there would be little to stop police from expanding their scope.

Avery noted that if the MBTA adopts the policy of searching bags, it will become the first public transit authority in the nation to do so.

“It could turn our society into a police state,” he said.

 

 

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