New York City subway users, please respond.

[Sgt. Pepper]

Hey guys. I'm originally from Rhode Island but I go to college in Long Island, Nassau County. As I'm sure most of you know, ever since the attacks in Britain over the summer, users of the MTA now are subject to random bag checks.

My question is: Have you ever had you bag randomly searched and what were the circumstances? From time to time I transport small bags of weed to my girlfriend's dorm in Manhattan and I want to know what my chances are while coming into Penn from the LIRR and taking the E uptown. What are the chances of a normal, nonthreatening-looking, white (because it DOES make a difference) college kid succeeding?

Sgt. Pepper Reviewed by Sgt. Pepper on 10-04-2005. New York City subway users, please respond. Hey guys. I'm originally from Rhode Island but I go to college in Long Island, Nassau County. As I'm sure most of you know, ever since the attacks in Britain over the summer, users of the MTA now are subject to random bag checks. My question is: Have you ever had you bag randomly searched and what were the circumstances? From time to time I transport small bags of weed to my girlfriend's dorm in Manhattan and I want to know what my chances are while coming into Penn from the LIRR and Rating: 5

[beachguy in thongs]

I wouldn't worry about it, with the amount of people that use that subway.

[Breukelen advocaat]

If you keep it in a jacket or pants pocket they won't find it. Random stations are used daily - and you can usually see the tables that are set up outside the turnstiles.

They are inspecting baggage, knapsacks, etc. I doubt that they've found ANYTHING of interest being transported in the public transportation systems of NYC, because anybody carrying something illegal, in a large container, would have to be an imbecile to enter a station where an NYPD search table is set up.

[somebody someone]

surely if your scared just put it in ur hat or sumthin? well how much weed are we talking about here.. a bagful?!?

[Sgt. Pepper]

I'm not scared. I've done it multiple times already. I just got to wondering what the actual procedures are so I can be warned, because I'm not from New York.

[NYCZILLESTROLLER]

put it in ur show, they never search shoes

[kontrol87]

FUCK NY....LA BABY!!!! LA IZ THE ILLEST!

[looseends]

FUCK NY....LA BABY!!!! LA IZ THE ILLEST!

GROW UP!!!!

[CocaCola]

OMFG. ILLIST! AHAHA1

[Breukelen advocaat]

New York Times
October 7, 2005
New York Named in Terror Threat Against Subways
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Security in and around New York City's subways was sharply increased yesterday after city officials said they were notified by federal authorities in Washington of a terrorist threat that for the first time specifically named the city's transit system.
The measures were announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, along with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and the head of the New York F.B.I. office, Mark J. Mershon, after a joint C.I.A.-F.B.I. operation in Iraq yesterday and Wednesday aimed at disrupting the threat, according to law enforcement officials.
Some officials in Washington, in interviews last night, played down the nature of the threat. While not dismissing it, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security described it as "specific yet noncredible," and officials said the investigation had yet to corroborate any of the details.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the operation resulted in two people being taken into custody. They said a third was being sought.
Information about the threat, the officials said, came to light last weekend from an intelligence source who told federal authorities that the three men in Iraq had planned to meet with other operatives in New York. One official said the group would number roughly a dozen. Another official said the total was closer to 20 people involved.
The men planned to use strollers, briefcases and packages to hide a number of bombs that they planned to detonate on the subways. "It was a conspiracy involving more than a dozen people aimed at delivering a number of devices into the subway," one of the officials said.
One official said the information suggested an attack could happen as early as today; another pointed to the middle of the month.
"This is a piece of information that came in as a result of operations that go on all the time and to corroborate that information or not we had to go after certain people," one official said.
Mr. Mershon said: "F.B.I. agents and other U.S. government personnel continue to work around the clock to fully resolve this particular threat. Thus far, there is nothing that has surfaced in that investigation or those enforcement actions with has corroborated an actual threat to the city."
Mayor Bloomberg tried to inform New Yorkers without alarming them. He said that while the threat was not corroborated, it was specific enough to warrant an immediate and overwhelming response.
"It was more specific as to target; it was more specific as to timing, and some of the sources had more information that would lead one to believe that it was not the kind of thing that appears in the intelligence community every day," Mr. Bloomberg said.
The mayor urged New Yorkers to continue riding the subways, as he said he would, but cautioned them to be watchful, saying several times, "If you see something, say something."
As he spoke, thousands of city police officers were swarming the transit system. An officer will be assigned to each subway station, and Commissioner Kelly said the Police Department is significantly stepping up uniformed and plainclothes patrols, increasing sweeps through subway cars and posting officers at each subway tunnel that passes beneath city waterways. The department's heavily armed "Hercules teams" and other specialized units will also focus on the transit system, he said.
Bag searches will also be significantly increased, the commissioner said, with a focus on briefcases, baby strollers, luggage and other packages and containers, and he asked subway riders to curtail their use. The searches will take place not only on the subways, but also on buses and ferries, and the Police Department has coordinated the increased scrutiny with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New Jersey Transit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Amtrak.
Mr. Kelly used narcotics detectives from Brooklyn and Queens and other investigators from the department's Warrant Division to increase security in the subways. Officers mobilized at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Mershon would not discuss the events in Iraq, or where they had occurred, saying that it was classified.
Counterterrorism officials in Washington said the information received this week was highly specific, including details about the possible use of suitcase bombs and explosives hidden in strollers. That information, along with the more general concern that terrorists might stage an attack modeled on the July bombings in London, prompted immediate concern, the officials said.
On an average weekday, an estimated 4.5 million rides are taken on New York's subway system, which has 468 stations.
One official who has been briefed on the matter said the investigation of the threat had uncovered no evidence that the information "could be verified or corroborated by outside sources."
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for Homeland Security, said the credibility of the threat was still to be determined.
He said Homeland Security "received intelligence information regarding a specific but noncredible threat to the New York City subway system."
Mr. Knocke added, "The intelligence community has concluded that this information is of doubtful credibility."
Mr. Knocke said Homeland Security shared the information "early on with state and local authorities in New York," adding, "There are no plans to alter the national threat level or the threat level in New York City."
He would not say any more about content of the threat or the origin of the information.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, city and national law enforcement authorities have at times reacted differently to similar threat information. In part, this is because of the varying roles that different agencies play. The New York Police Department, for example, is responsible for protecting the city and its subways and therefore is more likely to act quickly. Federal authorities' prime antiterrorism mission, on the other hand, is thwarting plots and apprehending any suspected terrorists - a task that is almost always complicated by information becoming public. But yesterday, city and federal officials in New York stood side by side and seemed to present a similar message.
Of the information from Iraq, one official said: "Suffice it to say it was credible enough for us to be working it very hard and very diligently literally around the clock and around the world. Sometimes it looks incredibly detailed, and then it washes out into nothing, and sometimes pretty vague in nature and it turns into something real - you can't know until you go through the process, and we're going through the process."
William A. Morange, the transit authority's security director, who is a member of a citywide counterterrorism task force, was informed several days ago about the threat, said Tom Kelly, a spokesman.
"We were kept well apprised of all the developments since earlier this week," Mr. Kelly said.
The Police Department also put into effect a broad range of measures aimed at stepping up security around the city that did not address the specific threat, but were aimed at tightening the city's security cordon. They included increased truck searches on East River crossings and banning trucks from the Brooklyn Bridge.
The department will also increase the use of radiation detectors, and detectives from the department's Intelligence Division will check parking lots and garages in Manhattan and in other areas of the city.
Reporting for this article was contributed by David Johnston, Eric Lipton and Eric Lichtblau, in Washington, and Sewell Chan and Kareem Fahim, in New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/07/ny...tml?oref=login