U.S. plans Law Enforcement 'Surge' On Trains

[larsend]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/europe-terror-plot-us-plans-law-enforcement-surge/story?id=11797735

U.S. authorities plan a law enforcement surge this week along Amtrak routes, an exercise called operation RailSafe, and the heads of the country’s biggest mass transit systems were briefed today on the possible terror threat, all part of what is being called an abundance of caution.

If you are planning to railfan this weekend, use caution.

[greyhounds]

They’ll never take me alive.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Good. Maybe they can practice doing something useful starting with the spray-paint graffiti vandals in the freight yards and along the freight lines and sidings . . .

and then move on to the muggers and pick-pockets on the mass transit lines -which are thankfully comparatively rare, in my experience.

• Paul North.

[tree68]

Railfans are easy pickings (we stand by the ROW in plain sight) and make the numbers look good on the reports.

I’m sure the new catch phrase will become “you have heard of Al Qaeda, right?”

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Better yet - and quite coincidentally - is the report this morning in another thread here, at -

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/180679.aspx

• about “CSX Workers Assaulted and Robbed” at around 3:27 AM, apprently last Friday morning. There’s no mention of any injuries to the employees, so maybe ‘assault’ was used in that report merely in the classic technical legal sense of “being put in fear of imminent bodily harm”, etc. - I certainly hope that’s all it was . . .

Anyway, I know Florence, SC is an Amtrak stop - we got off there once, to get a rental car from the nearby airport to drive to Charlotte, NC to visit some of my wife’s friends . . . Anyway, as such it surely fits within the stated criteria and goal of this exercise. So let’s hop to it,

[BaltACD]

Good. Maybe they can practice doing something useful starting with the spray-paint graffiti vandals in the freight yards and along the freight lines and sidings . . .

and then move on to the muggers and pick-pockets on the mass transit lines -which are thankfully comparatively rare, in my experience.

• Paul North.

Eliminating graffiti would decrease Spray Paint production by at least 40%…from all appearances

[Dakguy201]

Doesn’t announcing you are staging a “surge” at a specific time largely negate your effort to actually improve security? If I am planning something nasty for a railroad or transit system, I simply put it off until the end of the surge. The whole thing strikes me as another example of security theater.

[samfp1943]

Doesn’t announcing you are staging a “surge” at a specific time largely negate your effort to actually improve security? If I am planning something nasty for a railroad or transit system, I simply put it off until the end of the surge. The whole thing strikes me as another example of security theater.

Dakguy201…

SPOT ON! It seems that the brain trust in Washington is well versed in ‘SNIPE’ Hunting techniques; as much as they are in Political Kabuki Theater. If they ‘catch’ any one at all it is purely a fluke, and accidentally; it certainly would be done in spite of their own efforts.

[samfp1943]

Doesn’t announcing you are staging a “surge” at a specific time largely negate your effort to actually improve security? If I am planning something nasty for a railroad or transit system, I simply put it off until the end of the surge. The whole thing strikes me as another example of security theater.

Dakguy201…

SPOT ON! It seems that the brain trust in Washington is well versed in ‘SNIPE’ Hunting techniques; as much as they are in Political Kabuki Theater. If they ‘catch’ any one at all it is purely a fluke, and accidentally; it certainly would be done in spite of their own efforts.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Paul_D_North_Jr:

Good. Maybe they can practice doing something useful starting with the spray-paint graffiti vandals in the freight yards and along the freight lines and sidings . . .

Eliminating graffiti would decrease Spray Paint production by at least 40%…from all appearances

[(-D] But . . . does that then mean an important sector of our economy is dependent on that ?!? [sigh]