Pansies of New York: bend over for feel-good policing.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Luggage checks in public transport systems

It's been A long time since New York City, home of the Bronx Cheer, the one-finger salute, and at least one headless body in a topless bar, was the world capital of feisty, in-your-face attitude. But who could have predicted that 21st-century New Yorkers would set the national standard for sheepish servility?

On the first day of random searches in New York's subway, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly reported, "We actually had people who came over and volunteered to have their bags checked." The New York Times located one such individual, 35-year-old Eve Holbrook, at a station in Brooklyn. Having a police officer paw through her possessions "gives me a sense of comfort," she said. "I went up there of my own free will."

What was Holbrook's motivation? Did she think she might have accidentally slipped a bomb into her briefcase that morning? But if letting police look in her bag comforts her, maybe we shouldn't question it.

That seems to be the general attitude toward New York's new search policy, which has been copied in New Jersey and may be imitated in Washington, Boston, and San Francisco: It's hard to see how it will prevent a terrorist attack, but it makes people feel safer.

New York's subway system provides nearly 5 million rides on the average weekday. The city did not release precise figures, but the Times reports police search "thousands" of bags a day. Even allowing for the fact that not every rider carries a bag, the chance that any given bag will be selected for a search is minuscule.

In the unlikely event that a terrorist with a bomb is picked for a search, he can simply say no and exit the system with no questions asked. (It has to be that way so the city can argue in court that the searches are voluntary.) Upon leaving the subway, he can try again at another station, pass his bag to an accomplice, or detonate his bomb at a crowded location above ground.

The level of thinking required to support such a laughably inadequate security measure was illustrated by a New York Times editorial calling for "continuing and widespread"...