The Problem With Fanny Packs

The Times does a post-mortem on Sunday’s tour bus terror scare, noting in particular that the problem with keeping an eye out for dark-skinned men with backpacks is that there are an awful lot of dark-skinned men with backpacks in New York:

According to the police, the Gray Line supervisor told the captain that the five men had aroused the concerns of a Gray Line ticket agent at the Waldorf-Astoria, where the men had boarded bus 320. The ticket agent, the police said, had told the supervisor that the men had purchased their tickets in advance; that they carried backpacks; and that they wore something else – perhaps fanny packs – that caused bulges to appear around their waists.

Bonus: Perhaps the British tourists were confused when police told them their “fanny packs” were suspicious?