Community Corner
Letter To The Editor: MBTA Bag Searches Go Too Far
Rebecca Love, co-President of the Charlestown Mother's Association, wrote us this letter after her husband had his bag searched at the Haymarket MBTA Station.
Letter written by and provided to Patch by Rebecca Love:
Tuesday evening my husband was stopped by TSA agents on his way home from work when boarding the Orange Line T at Haymarket, they did a bomb check of his bag and were stopping everyone in the boarding area. I have been hearing that the TSA has been broadening their searches across the country -- expanding their random searches beyond airports to train stations and bus terminals and even setting up highway checks not because of a specific threat, but because they are just expanding their reach.
I hadn't really believed it to be true until this happened personally to my husband, and I am gravely concerned, troubled, and opposed to such random searches. I am a strong supporter of the Constitution, specifically the 4th amendment which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. I believe that we as an American people should be secure in our person and free to travel in this country without being searched for simply deciding to board the T to work or go home.
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There are infamous lessons throughout history where goverments have imposed random searches and seizures of their citizens for the appearance of safety and security for their country, but have only led to the oppression of their people.
I am most greatly concerned for my children, that they are going to grow up in a country where they believe it is ok to be stopped and searched without cause -- that they will never know the freedom of movement or the ability to go out in their daily lives and to run errands, go to work, drop their children at school without fear they will be delayed by some arbitrary and random search that does little to increase safety, but does much to intimidate and delay those in it's unfortunate random sweep.
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I believe these actions by the TSA are going too far and that we as Americans should say we will not tolerate such infringement of our basic Constitutional Rights. If we give up our basic freedoms, we have let those which have sought to destroy America win, for we have lost what is most valuable to Americans, the right to be free.