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Non-terrorist harpsichordist demands apology from the MBTA
By adamg on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 4:30pm
Geoff Edgers talks to one of those guys detained at Logan despite not being a terrorist, and now he's vowing to fight the T over the whole mess. The T basically says: Tough, that's the price of freedom in a post-9/11 world.
Earlier:
The man who wasn't a terrorist.
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Comments
And the Globe...
links to the NYC MTA "See Something, Say Something" program.
Awesome.
Yeah, the page they want is ...
This one where you can read:
So maybe there really was something not right about the harpsichordist.
The Glowing Karmatic LEDs
Hey, only one person could see them, but that's enough for a panic response. Reading an aura is sufficient grounds to bring the transit system to a halt and detain innocent riders in a post-9/11 world.
I wonder what would happen if I rode the T with some fresh rice krispies in milk?
Maybe the next person
Who plants themselves on the left side of the escalator is worth calling in as a potential security risk.
"I'm sure that my colleagues
"I'm sure that my colleagues in the Arts community, whom I am quite prepared to mobilize, will agree."
I'm sure they're quaking in their boots. I can just see the choreographers, mimes and poets marching on MBTA headquarters now.
... and the mimes will be
... and the mimes will be demonstrating the T's new "See Something, Make a Gesture of Grave Alarm" security promotion for mimes and others in the visual arts
Mime alert!
Mime reporting suspicious activity at Harvard station.
Wrong way around, guys
The risk someone might abuse the freedom you enjoy is the price you pay for that freedom. Rights cannot be turned in every time the boogieman shows up, voluntarily or otherwise. Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
If you want to life in a "safer" country, move. Leave the United States to be what it was founded to be: a nation of free people.
Oh, and the MBTA has always insisted that its property is not "public", and thus they're entitled to search people and their effects. They claim it's not an essential or required service; that you can be forced to submit to searches because you don't HAVE to take the T to get across town. Funny how that the MBTA is run by the Executive Office of Transportation- a state agency. I think it's high time that we call MBTA property what it really is: State property. Public property. Property used to provide an essential service and fundamental human right: the right to travel freely.
Yay Brett!!!!!
Yay Brett!!!!!
Havent they been doing this for years?
boston.com/news/local..._random_searches_for_bombs/
Random searches have already been implemented, so what is so crazy about a targetted search?
It's one thing to
It's one thing to inconvenience someone for a few minutes in the name of preemptive safety.
It's another thing to be searched and detained arguably without probable cause and to have to miss a flight and cancel a business trip.
It wasn't random
He was targeted without a good reason. I might be inclined to give the MBTA a pass on this, but they seem to think that this was all a rousing success and it wasn't. They delayed hundreds of people and detained and investigated a completely innocent person. Even if I could think that they were acting reasonably in doing that, I can't say that any of it was a success.
See something, say something
Just don't take a picture of what you see or else that makes you a terrorist (because the MBTA photo policy is not the MBTA photo policy...allegedly.). Despite the fact that there really is no difference between standing on a platform every day and taking a picture of said platform.
Unless you are Marcel Marceau
Then you see something, imitate something.
"Mime walking against tide of society" ... or maybe "mime imitating the placing of a backpack with bad intent"
Just last week, I saw an
Just last week, I saw an MBTA employee at Haymarket tell a guy he couldn't take pictures. I wasn't going to argue with her, but I've also seen people smoking in stations in front of T employees who say nothing, and that policy's posted all over the place, plus there are announcements in English and Spanish saying that smoking is prohibited.
Besides, how can they tell if a person is texting on their cell phone or taking pictures with the cell phone, unless they're standing behind that person? The photo policy, whatever it is, continues to be misunderstood and misapplied.
The show "30 Rock" seems to guide the T on this issue
"SEE SOMETHING? DO EVERYTHING!"
I can totally understand the T wanting to nail someone to the wall for sneaking into a tunnel and taking pics, or something of that nature. However, taking photos of things in plain sight in areas open to the public does not, and cannot pose a "threat" to the T. Sure, photographs can preserve a record of a crumbling station, or some other accountability issue, but cannot achieve anything for "evil doers" that cannot be achieved by having people walk through a station. And there are thousands of people without criminal intentions who walk through the same stations each and every day. Good luck weeding out the bad guys.
Allowing photography actually makes it easier to spot potential problems. In such a situation you would have a much smaller number of passengers taking photos as opposed to simply checking things out with their own two eyes. A much smaller subset of that group would end up taking photos regularly, and that group will be much more noticeable and easier to investigate.
But the T would rather do everything it can to look like it's doing everything it can, rather than take a pragmatic approach to the whole issue.