Many of the city’s residents, however, do not realize the option to refuse the search exists. The rules are quite simple: if you don’t subject yourselves to the search you don’t get to enter and ride. New York City residents are, by now, used to the subway version of the stop-and-frisk, to the sight of policemen manning the turnstiles to the city subway, subjecting passengers to ‘random’ searches of their bags and belongings.
