Okay, here's the story. Go on.

Found this via Jeff Jarvis, who paints this as a good thing. And I like Jeff's Buzz Machine a lot, and I respect his opinion a great deal, so I hate to feel like I'm continually being a dick…you know, more than I usually am. But for Christ's sake.

Look, I'm glad the NYPD are doing their jobs. I have nothing against the NYPD. These are the people who are keeping New York City safe and kept me and my family safe while we were there this past weekend. Not that I even spoke to an officer or dealt with one directly, mind you, but we left in one piece, and whether directly or not, that's thanks in part to them. So much love. That's not my point here.

My point is this: just what is the point of this? Is it feeling good about ourselves? Or catching the bad guys?

Because if you want to feel good, sure, go up and volunteer to be searched, thus taking time away from the officer in question who could be searching somebody who didn't volunteer. Because–call me crazy–I somehow doubt that if you volunteer to be searched, you're going to be carrying a big fat B-word. I'm glad you feel good and the officer in question feels good, but did that interaction catch a bad guy? No? Then why are you doing it?

And I hate to sound like a conspiracy nut. I'm a libertarian but not a whacko libertarian, please let's be clear about that. But it's not "okay" to simply be searched.

What's the first line of the story? "New Yorkers are extremely eager to prove they're not terrorists." You shouldn't have to prove you're not. That's the whole point. The point is that the government has to prove you are. And I'm not trying to say, yes, let's make that job hard on the government, because in this era of mad power grabs, one of the few things they actually should be doing is protecting us. But come on, people.

You're waiving your Fourth Amendment rights. And considering private property rights are in the toilet and we're this close to getting a national ID card ("papers, please"), can anyone blame me for being a little paranoid? Remember: Uncle Billy said, "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

So sure, give the NYPD a pat on the back. Tell them thanks for standing between you and the nutcases who want to bomb us back to the Stone Age so we can all propel automobiles with our feet. But this whole thing was supposed to be about catching the bad guys. So please let them do that as quickly as they can.

Although now that I think about it, considering the whole thing is pretty ineffectual, what does it hurt?

The first T-word who walks up and volunteers or gets picked at random and consents to be searched, I promise to reconsider all of this. But until then…