As you may or may not know, about a week ago the NYPD has begun random searches of of bags in the subways in light of the recent attacks in London. These are meant to secure our safety against potential subway bombings in NY. Naturally, this a sparked a massive debate in NY about the legality and effectiveness of this tactic. Here are a few things people are saying:

1. The searches make citizens feel safer and encourage them to continue riding the subways.

2. The searches are an invasion of privacy, which makes them illegal.

3. Almost 2 dozen individuals have already filed complaints of racial and religious profiling in relation to the searches.

4. One woman being searched turned to the officer and asked, "If I refused to be searched and was told to leave the subway, couldn't I simply walk down to the next station and get in there?" The officer replied, "You could just walk over to another entrance to this station and enter from there."

5. In the first week of searches, it was estimated that the NYPD spent 1.2 million dollars to conduct them while most experts argree that they do little to nothing to protect against an attack.

I'm curious about people's opinions are on this subject, especially those who don't live in or near NYC. Personally, I think this all stems from the fact that the NYPD is faced with a no win situation when it comes to fighting terrorism. If they take action to prevent it, such as random searches, they are criticized for infringing on our civil liberties, yet if they don't do any visible actions against terrorism and there is another attack (knock on wood), they are accused of doing nothing to protect the people. Therefore, I think the NYPD is using these searches, a ineffective precaution by most expert opinions, simply to cover its own a--. In case there is another attack, the NYPD can use these searches as an example of the work they did to try to prevent it. In a word, its about politics, not prevention. Let me know how you feel on this issue.