Welcome to the Police State. No, Really.

From the New York Times:

New York City will begin tomorrow morning randomly checking bags at subway stations, commuter railways and on buses, officials announced today in the wake of the terrorist bombings in London.

This is the first time the city has undertaken such a security effort of this scale on the commuter transportation system.

...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly said that the focus of the searches will be the subway system, but that the Police Department would reserve the right to check passengers' bags on buses and ferries as well. Officials said they would take pains to avoid racial and ethnic profiling.

No mention of what happens if you refuse to cooperate.

Update: NYPD conducts its searches at subway entrances, akin to airport searches. So, hypothetically, it's consensual. But as the police intend to to expand the searches to buses, it would leave those without a car -- most New Yorkers -- without any real alternative.

At least as regards subways, we think this plan has a good chance of working. The chance of a terrorist exploding a bomb on a crowded subway is going down -- way, way down.

Sadly, the chance of a bomb exploding where commuters are bottlenecked at security points just outside subways, well, that one's going up.

Update update: Problem solved. The New York Police Department has just announced a second series of checkpoints, just outside the current checkpoints. The police expect this to provide greater security within the original checkpoint, and should also speed the inspections going on there.

Update update update: Should have seen this one coming. The concern now is with the bottleneck. No, not the bottleneck at the original security point -- there actually isn't one any more. But there is a bottleneck outside the second security point, which is of serious concern to transit officials. The subway itself, however, remains safe.

Update update update update: NYPD is now requesting that New Yorkers commute to work single-file.