Badges?
What bothers me about random ID checks on travellers is that I grew up in and have always lived in countries where you don’t have to carry “papers.” Now Boston is going to stop passengers trying to use local rail and subways for ID checks. In other words, no driver’s license, no train to work. Well, you say, but there are other forms of ID besides a driver’s license, aren’t there? No, there are not. You may be issued with an ID from your employer, but who the hell’s your employer? Unless it’s IBM or some other corporation instantly recognizable to 99% of police, it won’t pass muster, I guarantee it – I’ve had that problem for years. So it appears that now a State-issued form of National ID card is going to sneak in to your lives, but it’s just government intruding on your right of free association, your right to travel within the national borders without restriction, your right to privacy; it’s not going to keep you safe. It’s one thing to track foreign visitors entering the country (although why not just implant a chip?), but we’re getting pretty silly about security when we start sending daily commuters home because they don’t have a passport. Maybe if we all just had a Visa?