Papers, bitte

[msmemory_archive]

Eish. They've started checking IDs on the Green Line. Apparently, if you are innocent, you are not supposed to mind.

Comments

[hawkegirl.livejournal.com]

Like a drivers license or state ID type thing? What if you don't have any?

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

They what? ::blinks::

Are they high?

[johno.livejournal.com]

If I had the time, I would travel with without an ID, just to tie up their time and make it more of an effort.

[shipbrook.livejournal.com]

Just on the Green Line?

[tpau]

blink blink blink. goody.

[lensedqso.livejournal.com]

Great. Reminds me of New Mexico. I gave in and got a passport when I lived there because I was sick to death of being harrassed by the border police all the time. They still harrassed me with the passport, btw, even though I don't speak Spanish. I guess they automatically think that anyone with long black hair is Mexican.

I wonder why the Green line? It's already by far the slowest of the slow. Or are they doing it everywhere and the folks who've posted just happened to be on the Green line? In any case, ugh.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely with the "be very polite but fail to find my ID" crowd opinion. Until they get really likely to cart me away.

Time to send more money to the ACLU.

Shall we slow down a bit?

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I just perused the MBTA web site. No such generalized announcement was made. I searched the Boston Globe web site - no such comment. I checked archives of press releases - no such release. The original article says it happened ONE TIME - it does not cite a pattern of such sweeps.

I can certainly see and understand why a one-time or rare sweep of that sort was done. If it became a pattern I'd be up against the barricades. But let's not get too hasty, too quickly.

Why not write to the MBTA General Manager (gm@mbta.com) and ask him about it? Or write to one of the columnists in the Globe, or to the City Desk?

[silme.livejournal.com]

And if you are guilty, you'd have a false ID, yes? :)

Privacy and inconvenience

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

To respond to Jane's original note, it is hard to say. Obviously some innocent people do mind. I am innocent, and I don't mind. In fact, I would rather have my ID checked while on the train than while at the turnstile (where there is one) - it would keep me from being delayed, although it might slow down my reading for a moment. On the other hand, the new loud and clear announcements of what stop we are approaching are more annoying in that way.

However, I don't have a big privacy bug. I am not convinced privacy is actually a societal advantage. Certainly privacy is one of the most valuable tools of criminals, and only marginally valuable to the law-abiding. There are lots of cases where checking my _insert checked chracteristic here_ is not an invasion of privacy that I care about. For example, when a policeman checks my speed with his radar gun, I do not complain that I am being treated like a 'potential speeder'. When they check my FOID when I buy blanks in the city, I am glad they are doing it. My local grocery store keeps track of what I buy using my discount card, and that is a good thing, because I get coupons and deals on the stuff I actually _want_, which is why they want to know in the first place.

The big place where privacy is an advantage is in a society where non-criminal activity is punished either by culture or authority. So, for example, if I were gay, I might want to keep that private if I was going to suffer for it (or Jewish, for that matter). But I think privacy is still a loss there. Since most of us can hide stuff like that to an extent, the hypocrites who punish it while doing it can get away with it. I suspect that a lot of lawmakers, _who are secretly gay_ would vote _for_ a law against gay marriage. If everyone knew, they would not be as likely to, which would be good for them and good for us. On the other hand, if I completely trusted the government and society not to punish me for anything I did that wasn't illegal, I would be happy to have cameras in every street and parking lot. I don't, really, but I don't know how much of that is paranoia. If we really did away with privacy, I would get more advantage out of knowing the government's secrets than they would get out of knowing mine. And we would both benefit far more than criminals would, while suffering far less.

[baron-elric.livejournal.com]

Nancy and I saw the original article in the Globe describing the searches. We found the announcement interesting not so much for the fact of the checks but for the extreme vagueness as to when and where they might take place, what the grounds for them might be, what would constitute satisfaction for the officer(s) making the checks, and what penalties might apply for failure to produce satisfactory documentation.

I suppose one could always feel one was doing their part to ensure security for all by greeting any officers one saw on the "T" and asking whether they would like to inspect one's ID....