Police Mobilize at Northeast Rail Stations

[Purveyor]

Local police departments in 13 states and security agents from Amtrak and the federal Transportation Security Administration carried out a show of force at 150 railroad stations from Virginia to Vermont on Tuesday morning. The drill included random searches of passengers and their belongings, as well as other, unspecified security measures, the authorities said.

“You’ll see police where you wouldn’t normally see them,'’ said Clifford Black, a spokesman for Amtrak, said Monday night. “It’s an exercise to familiarize law enforcement agencies with the railroad environment.'’ He said that in most cases the police “will just be there,'’ but that they would in some cases inspect luggage, briefcases and other belongings.

The surge was scheduled to last through the morning rush hour, especially between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., but it may be repeated at some time in the future, officials said.

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“It’s national rail security day,” said one officer cheerily, as if it was a new holiday. He said he was not authorized to give his name to the press.

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The drill was intended to be a “demonstration of ongoing collaborative capability to expand counter-terrorism and incident response along the Northeast Corridor railway system,'’ Amtrak and the T.S.A. said in a statement that was embargoed for release until this morning. The agencies said it was the largest exercise of its kind.

Participating agencies included the police departments from small jurisdictions, like Kingston, R.I., and Old Saybrook, Conn., Linden and Metuchen, N.J., Lower Merion, Pa., and Harpers Ferry, W.Va., as well as from big cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.

MORE...

NEW YORK TIMES: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/police-mobilize-at-northeast-rail-stations/?hp

[grannie4peace]

1. that's creepy

[Captain Hilts]

4. So's the absence of security measures. nt

[grannie4peace]

6. yeah, but i was thinking of the way it was worded

and the troops coming home to patrol at home, i need my tinhat!! :):)

[Captain Hilts]

9. I know the USN is not permitted to arrest folks. So, I assume the USArmy also cannot.

The Coast Guard has the power to arrest.

Do state guard units have this power?

Beats me.

Mookie, Amtrak NE "Tension" Corridor rider.

[Wilber_Stool]

17. Military Police do not have the right

to arrest civilians. Security guards (Infantry) does.

[grannie4peace]

11. i'm glad--i didn't know that....

[ReadTomPaine]

15. Time to update your sig line.

There's only one good candidate now that we are in the general.

[Captain Hilts]

19. Oh my! I HADN'T thought of it THAT way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gormy Cuss]

13. The language used to justify it is creepy.

If you don't go along with the police dog and pony show, you're at a minimum an uncooperative person (read: unAmerican and probably trying to hide something.)

[Captain Hilts]

2. The LACK of security on rail travel is atrocious. I DO know they have radiation detectors in NYPen

because a friend of mine got collared by police there when he walked through the station after a nuclear heart exam.

He showed them the tabs still stuck to his chest and they let him go.

[rvablue]

12. I agree the lack is atrocious...

of course no one wants to end up living in a police state, but frankly the complete VOID of security when you get on a train is freaky, given, I believe, the appropriate (maybe sometimes not enough) amount of security you go through at the airport.

I often take the train up through the mid Atlantic, and it's just like, ALL ABOARD!, and anyone could be bringing anything on. They tell you to have your ID out, but they never look at it and none of the baggage is screened. It has definitely given me pause in the past.

[rurallib]

3. So if some cop for no reason demands to inspect my baggage

do I have to do it or risk arrest? Any warrants involved? Just curious

[Captain Hilts]

5. As explained to me, you can resist, but you don't get to ride.

People get bags inspected to fly every day.

[rurallib]

8. Thanks - I was curious.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. "Land of the Free...... Meanwhile, has the Dept. of Homeland inSecurity increased

the % of shipping containers in US ports to be searched, yet? :eyes: Wasn't it at only 10%?

[Captain Hilts]

10. GOOD point!

[marmar]

14. Instead of doing this random, pointless, Gestapo police-state shite.....

..... Why not just set up regular security checkpoints, like they do at airports?

[ReadTomPaine]

16. Because that doesn't fit in with current law enforcement policy or psychology.

Not about effectiveness as much as it's about effect.

[High Plains]

22. You would prefer more organized Gestapo police-state shite?

No thanks.

[hootinholler]

18. This intrusion is fucked up on so many levels

I don't know where to start. How are the random searches being selected?

-Hoot

[Captain Hilts]

20. As on the airlines, I suppose. But rail has NO security!!!!

[Hannah Bell]

23. i wonder how rail survived 100+ years with no security. why

aren't we all dead?

security everywhere! papers please!


train bombings - the folks who've done most of them run the *security.*

[High Plains]

21. Just say no to giving up liberty in the name of security.

Warrantless searches...I remember when we used to have a living Fourth Amendment.

"Security" is the justification for so much police state crap, and we sheeple eat it up. Ooh, I'm scared!

Whatever happened to freedom to travel? Getting on an airplane is like entering a prison. Now they want to pull the same shit with trains. I suppose you could drive a private vehicle, but then you're subject to being pulled over on a pretext ("failure to properly signal"), and if you actually exercise your right to say no to a warrantless search, you can be detained indefinitely on the side of the road until a drug dog can come and search you. (Oh, it's not a search when the drug dog sniffs your vehicle. The Supreme Court said so.)

Let me put it as eloquently as I can: Fuck this shit.

[Ganja Ninja]

24. Here it comes, martial law! n/t