While I’m super opposed to this, people from the West and especially Americans shouldn’t forget that the NYPD has for years used programs like Stop and Frisk [0] and subway bag searches [1] that were seen as valid crime/terrorism fighting policies. The idea that the state shouldn’t randomly stop people to search them has been and still is strongly supported by a decent chunk of the population.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-and-frisk_in_New_York_C...
[1] https://www.nyclu.org/en/cases/sultan-v-kelly-et-al-challeng...