Here’s my column for the NY Post on the city’s futile random bag search policy. Excerpt:

WHAT’S the point? In the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in London, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD announced plans to conduct random searches of packages and backpacks carried by subway riders.

“Random,” of course, is a synonym for blind. And we all know what it means when you put blind bureaucrats in charge of homeland security: Grannies and toddlers, prepare to be on heightened grope alert.

Reassuring al Qaeda operatives everywhere, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pledged that his officers would not engage in “racial profiling.” He also emphasized that passengers would be free to “turn around and leave” instead of consenting to a search.

Combined with New York City’s inane sanctuary policy, which provides safe haven for illegal aliens, these new security-in-name-only measures prove that political correctness still trumps public safety.

A few weeks ago, I noted the vapidity of the trite phrase “heightened alert.” New York’s response yesterday underscores the point. It is madness to pretend that no profile exists of possible Islamist bomb plotters. It is reckless to prevent law-enforcement authorities from taking obvious national-security profiling factors (racial, ethnic, religious, nationality, behavioral or otherwise) into account. And it is deadly to refuse to enforce immigration laws in a manner that results in, yes, profiling.

“Look for things that are unusual,” Commissioner Kelly implored. “Look at things through the prism of 9/11.” Uh-huh. But don’t dare note the obvious…

Read the rest for example and example of the profile the Keystone Kops refuse to see.

And I repeat: Political correctness is the handmaiden of terrorism.

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Lucianne.com readers are on the same wavelength.

Clayton Cramer’s take is here.
The New York Times’ coverage is here.

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Update:

Paul Sperry has an excellent column up at Front Page magazine on politically correct suicide.

240pm. Heather Mac Donald cuts to the chase in a new piece up on NRO.

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Related:

See Heather Mac Donald’s archive on policing and profilng.

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Previous:

The meaning of “heightened alert”
P.C. vs. the police
Profiling in the Philippines: Do it
So let me get this straight
Good morning, Mickey Kaus
In support of profiling
Flying blind
On profiling
Making New York City’s skies safer
Profiling:Hyperbole, hysteria, and hypocrisy

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