Dose of Dan

Today's Dan Barry:

POLICE officers stopped a sightseeing bus in Times Square on Sunday morning, and not because they suddenly desired to see the South Street Seaport. Urgent word had come to them of suspicious men on board, acting suspiciously in these suspicious times.

Within seconds, the tourists on the double-decker bus had their hands raised high, in pantomime of thrill-seekers riding the Cyclone. And within minutes, five of those tourists, all dark-skinned men, had their hands in cuffs and their knees on city pavement, in pantomime of new immigrants worshiping the ground of this freedom-loving country.

It quickly became clear that those five suspicious-looking, dark-skinned men, who suspiciously had bought their tickets in advance, were just British citizens on holiday, with vacation snapshots that now will include newspaper photos of their public humiliation. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg issued a public apology – on behalf of the city, not the police – and the city lurched toward its next uneasy moment.