The Transit Police were doing random bag searches at Downtown Crossing Friday. They seem like nice enough guys. But, I think if I made over $100,000 working for a bloated, debt-laden, too-big-to-fail "independent" Transportation Board, I'd be pretty happy too. Anyway, I have had to have my bag checked twice. They take a swab, wipe it down the side of your bag and put it in a GE portable gas chromatograph, which probably cost 80 grand (you have to love the T's dedication to fiscal responsibility and knee-jerk terrorism responses). My question is: Does this really do anything?
The answer is no. If I was a terrorist, I could blow up the T if I really wanted to. These random screenings will do nothing. Your anti-terrorism plan has flaws if it could be thwarted by taking the Orange line instead of the Red line. You don't need to be a terrorist to want to blow up the T either. All you have to do is watch 3 full Red line trains pull in to Downtown Crossing before giving up and walking to South Station to get a cab to take you to where the 20 minute T ride was supposed to for a fraction of the cost. Or ride the Green line once. Seriously MBTA, I'm sure the Red Sox would supply with a schedule of their home games. On those home games, many people use the Park St. station to take the Green line to Fenway. To get there on time for say a 7:00 game, people start getting on the T at 5:30, coinciding with the rush hour commute of three quarters of the city. Maybe a two street car C line every 10 minutes is not going to cut it.
What the hell do the Transit Police do anyway? I saw two of them take a bum off of the T once, but that is about it. Most of the violence on the T, occurs you know, on the T. So, why are the Transit Police always above ground. Maybe if you pared down on the Beruit level tactical unit, you could prevent the once a month robberies and twice a year shootings on the Orange line. Or, at least tell the guy who lit up the incense on the T that one time to put it out.
In essence, the Transit Police are engaging in what some security experts call "security theater". Everyone has a knee jerk reaction to big shocking events and then they say, "do something" to government because they feel helpless. So, the MBTA Police, goes "OK, fine, we'll buy this $80,000 machine, so you feel safe," even though it does nothing. You play along because it only takes 10 seconds and that machine sure looks like a expensive terrorism catcher. You could make a civil liberties, 4th amendment argument, if you really wanted to be a dick about it. Meanwhile, the reason you might have to pay yet another fare hike is because this Transit cop didn't score high enough on the Sergeant's test for the BPD, so he took this job and some bureaucrat thought it was a good idea to guarantee him 100% of his salary in a pension payment for the rest of his life. The Transit cops do seem like good, decent people, but you want me to pay the second fare hike in 5 years after 30 years of zero fare hikes (exaggerated) for no increase in service because the MBTA can't cover you ludicrous benefits package. Um, NO.
It's not just the Transit cops either. Why do you think every T is driven by a person who they would decline at McDonald's? Benefits. Pensions. Unions. I could keep going on the T because I take this physical representation of horrible government monopolism (might not be a word) everyday. But, hey, if you want to keep going on with this farce instead of doing stuff that would fix actual problems, then go ahead, check my bag. I need to get home.
-K
