Hot new item

. . . for brown people who use public transportation.

Found this on a number of British blogs. For more, you might want to start with Nosemonkey.

In particular, the pack might have been saved five tourists in New York yesterday, as reported by the NY Times.

According to the Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, a Gray Line supervisor approached a police captain who was nearby and told him five suspicious-looking men were on board with backpacks.

Mr. Browne said the supervisor was also suspicious because all five men had bought their tickets in advance.

The police responded by cordoning off the block to traffic for 90 minutes, ordering all 60 passengers off the bus, searching their belongings and then searching the passengers themselves.

After the supervisor pointed out the five men, the police handcuffed them. The men were handcuffed for 10 minutes while the police searched them and looked for backpacks that the police ultimately determined the men did not have.

The police said later that the men did not pose any threat. The five, all British citizens, were identified yesterday as Baljh Sahota, Chauinder Gill, Jackjit Singh, Askhad Addokou and Johal-Singtt Cashant.

Oh sure, I feel SO much safer.

UPDATE: This incident has drawn an apology from Mayor Bloomberg and some recriminations between Gray Line and the NYPD. Today the Times published a picture showing tourists led off the bus with hands in the ari:Welcome to New York!