Did you know that the TSA searches cars, trains, and bus passengers too?

[Xithras]

It's called VIPER, and it's an effort to bring random security screenings to the roadside, bus stations, and rail networks.

"The rail, ferries and tunnels in Hampton Roads are getting extra attention. On Tuesday morning, dozens of law enforcement agents greeted drivers at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The substantial traffic stop included a driver's license check as well as explosive and drug sniffing dogs."

"Since Viper's inception in 2007, 3,500 operations have been conducted, half of those this year. Agents have nabbed drugs and illegal weapons. The larger goal is to deter terrorist activity."

"We do rail, we do busing, we do pipelines. We're out there for all commercial modes of transportation,"

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wavy_vb_cbbt_viper_training_exercise_20091027

"In Virginia Beach this week, drivers on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel are witnessing the police state in action — armed TSA VIPER teams with bomb-sniffing dogs are checking in determined fashion for al-Qaeda, or so they tell the public.

A VIPER operation began early Tuesday and lasted through the afternoon,” reports WVEC. “As many as 60 people with the TSA, the tunnel police, Coast Guard, NCIS, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, Norfolk Police and Virginia Beach Police are part of the security checkpoint that’s occurring on both ends of the span.”

"In 2005, VIPER teams began to patrol Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines, ferries in Washington state, bus stations in Houston, and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore."

"Last week, the TSA searched passengers in Orlando, Florida, at a Greyhound bus station. Nearly 700 passengers “went through tougher-than-normal security procedures Thursday as part of a random check coordinated by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration,” the Orlando Sentinel reported."

http://www.infowars.com/tsa-fbi-cops-turn-virginia-bridge-into-constitution-free-zone/


Just something for everyone to chew on. Just remember...YOU CHOOSE TO TRAVEL. You could have hidden in your home like a good citizen, and avoided all of those infringements of your so-called "freedom". By choosing to enter the public space, you have chosen to opt-out of your rights. Heck, the Supreme Court has even ruled that driving is a privledge and not a right. What kind of troublemaker are you, bagging on these poor TSA agents, who are just doing their jobs to keep you safe? You must be a member of the loony fringe who believes that your rights trump my safety.

[LisaL]

1. Exactly.

People who keep responding that flying is a choice and if one doesn't like it that one should just take a bus or a train, think about that. What is to stop TSA from doing the exact same things on buses and trains?

[superduperfarleft]

4. And what's to stop them from randomly stopping people on the street?

I guess going out in public is now considered "probable cause."

[LisaL]

5. I don't know. Presumably being on the street is a choice.

Do you have to be on the street? I don't think so.

[superduperfarleft]

7. With police forces using thermal imaging in random houses to catch people that might be growing weed

being on the street is no longer a necessity. I guess EXISTING is now probable cause.

[kentauros]

12. "Existing" is also a "pre-existing condition"

:P

[taterguy]

2. No worries. I ride a bike most places

:shrug:

Oh wait. Drug sniffing dogs at ferries? That might screw up some folks Outer Banks vacations.

[superduperfarleft]

3. "drug-sniffing dogs."

Mm-hmmm. Keeping us safe from people with a bag of weed in their car.

Might as well repeal the 4th Amendment, not like we're using it anymore.

[jberryhill]

6. Traffic checkpoints work in Israel /nt

[superduperfarleft]

8. This isn't Israel. n/t

[jberryhill]

11. Not yet /nt

[superduperfarleft]

13. Despite the best efforts of some people. n/t

[Xithras]

10. Frisking random people on the street would work well too.

The point is that the government isn't allowed to infringe our rights...even if that infringement will head off a crime.

[mike_c]

9. when I was a kid, we learned in school-- in school, mind you...

...that the principle illustration for the difference between "being free," as they put it, and living under a cold, state dictatorship-- as the cold war Soviet Union was portrayed-- the principle difference was that in the Soviet Union, citizens could not travel without police permission. This was manifestly not so in the United States, where my teachers simply held up their arms and shrugged to illustrate how boundlessly free American citizens were to travel wherever they liked within their own borders without fear of harassment by authorities.