Unless of course you have a hidden compartment in your bag so by opening and showing it to the guard makes him/her just do a quick search and not find the hidden compartment.
But then again you could offer your open bag and that would make the gaurd more suspicious and think that you are trying to hide something and take you aside for a "special" search <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Or that you are trying to divert his or her attention from something else.

-john

That might be tolerable. *dirty grin*

Advice, strong advice, for all our younger memebers. No matter how cute she is, never, ever ask the cop who pulles you over for her phone number. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

I've always wanted to have a large cat just to chase or taste those pesky door to door salespeople. But having an armoured kitty would certainly turn heads.

Class IIIA spectra and maybe, somehow, eye armour for a a 250 pound tiger... Only thing scarier would be the same gear made for a 440 pound liger that can look into second story windows if it wants. Can we say juggerkitty? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Heck, I'm trying to find eye armour for one of my cats. In a perscription. Like that would work.

Had my first experience with the bag searchers yesterday - I had to go from our main company "campus" (66th and Broadway) down to Times Square
Get to the top of the steps for the sourth bound 66th st stop, and you can see the sign at the bottom of the steps - "Bag Searches"

Go downstairs with my Becker Patrol pack - aka fairly good sized military style bag, loaded with about 40 lbs of gear EXPECTING to be stopped (in fact wanting to, so I could tell you guys what exactly they did), when I was waved through - guess I wasn't one of the random lucky ones, but the old lady who came down 30 seconds later with a smallish purse got stopped

The BIGGEST joke in all this? If you went to the northbound side, and came in there was no search, and you can take the cross over tunnel - also there was no search at the entrance on the south bound side - aka 3 ways to get in that station, ONE was being searched

As a high ranking Federal Officer I was talking to this AM said to me "It's a feel good security measure to make the public feel that the MTA is doing something. It will end when the ACLU files their suit today or Tommorow. It wasn't really meant to catch anyone"

Well, I hate to say it, but you are right.

It reminds me of a scene in the movie "Spaceballs." The ship is about to blow up, and somebody yells to the president "Do something." He picks up the microphone and yells over the entire ship "Do something."

The people in charge just want to "do something" so that they can say that they tried. Never mind if much thought went into the action, or if anything will even be accomplished.

And even if the random bag searches DID work, then the bad guys would just switch targets. I have never been to NYC or London, but from what I have seen on TV, you just have to send a bomber in the middle of a crowd crossing the street at rush hour. Or, you could hit a mall... or the line of people waiting to get into a popular bar...

Guy I knew kept a maglight between the seats of his car. So he gets pulled over and the policeman shining the light in the window asks "what are you doing". He pull out his mag, shines it back in the cops face and says "nothing, what are you doing". I'm sure you can figure out what happened from here <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

While everyone would like to think that all law enforment personnel are the jack booted thugs they've heard/read about they basically are just doing their job. And it does not get any easier on them or you when you walk up and try to give these people a hard time.

It comes down to preparation or panic: Will they be able to search everyone and prevent an incident? No. Will them searching a handful of bags make most people feel safe because they see law enforcement doing something? Yes. This is the real world, thinking that everything that life is going to be "fair" should of been outgrown.

Uhm, I don't think I am. If any of our law enforcement members feel I am, the should tell me.

I nearly was a cop. Something happened, that's all I will say, that made me unwilling to follow through with those plans. I have friends who are police, and I respect most cops. I've also seen cops who were just there to wear the badge and strut about looking important. It is the latter who I worry about, because they often end up going the furthest, just like these kinds of people do in any organisation.

I shared my idea about the F-9 tiger becuase I thought it was funny. It goes into the same catagory of throught as loading B-52s with the heads of sledge hammers for attacking armoured vehicle columns and smashing them rather completely, with zero UXO risk. A grim joke from someone with a strange sense of humor, made funnier becuase it might work.