They were searching bags yesterday at my subway station. I was on my way out, not on my way in, so I wasn’t searched. It’s one thing to hear about subway searches (and to be indignant about them, as I of course was), but it’s another to be confronted by half a dozen cops flanking the only entrance to the Roosevelt Island station, announcing via megaphone every few minutes that ALL PACKAGES AND BAGS ARE SUBJECT TO INSPECTION. And, in fact, they were searching everyone - not just some people, randomly, as I’d thought they would be.

Theoretically you can refuse to be searched (although the cops at my station didn’t tell anyone this, and nobody I saw tried to refuse), but they won’t let you enter the subway if you do - and it’s not like I can go to another station. It’s all fairly disconerting.