New York subway station, Manha

Five people in New York have filed a lawsuit against the city government to stop random bag searches in the city's subway. This report from Stuart Cohen:

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Brendan MacWade is one of the five people involved in the lawsuit. He was in one of the World Trade Centre buildings when it was hit by a plane nearly four years ago:

(BRENDAN MACWADE):

"I think it's fair to say that I want to catch real terrorists as much as any politician or law enforcement official. But this policy of random searches without suspicion does not work, and that is why I've joined this lawsuit."

The random search policy was created to avoid any charges of racial profiling while trying to keep potential bombers out of New York's subway system. A lawyer for the city says the searches meet all legal requirements. But the New York Civil Liberties Union calls it a needle in a haystack approach to law enforcement that just doesn't work.

Stuart Cohen, BBC, Washington

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lawsuit
a case brought to a court of law for a decision by a private person or company rather than by the police or the Government

a violation of privacy
an action against someone’s right to not be disturbed and out of public view

ineffective
doesn’t work

anybody can refuse the search
people can say that they don’t want to be examined

turn around
here, to leave that subway station

subway
In America this is an underground railway – in London this is called ‘The Underground’ or ‘The Tube’

random searches without suspicion
stopping and examining anybody although there’s no reason to think they’ve done anything wrong

racial profiling
choosing people because of their race (for example, because of their skin colour)

potential bombers
people who may be planning to cause an explosion (usually in a public place)

a needle in a haystack approach
(usually: it’s like looking for a needle in haystack) This idiom means that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find something. So here, it means that it will be very difficult to find and catch bombers by randomly searching people

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