Cue the 'if you aren't doing anything wrong...' crowd.
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Posted on 10/20/2011 10:24:20 AM PDT by bimboeruption
PORTLAND, Tenn. – You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).
"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.
Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.
Agents are recruiting truck drivers, like Rudy Gonzales, into the First Observer Highway Security Program to say something if they see something.
"Not only truck drivers, but cars, everybody should be aware of what's going on, on the road," said Gonzales.
It's all meant to urge every driver to call authorities if they see something suspicious.
"Somebody sees something somewhere and we want them to be responsible citizens, report that and let us work it through our processes to abet the concern that they had when they saw something suspicious," said Paul Armes, TSA Federal Security Director for Nashville International Airport.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol checked trucks with drug and bomb sniffing dogs during random inspections.
"The bottom line is this: if you see something suspicious say something about it," Gibbons said Tuesday.
The random inspections really aren't any more thorough normal, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel Tracy Trott who says paying attention to details can make a difference. Trott pointed out it was an Oklahoma state trooper who stopped Timothy McVeigh for not having a license plate after the Oklahoma City bombing in the early 1990s.
Tuesday's statewide "VIPR" operation isn't in response to any particular threat, according to officials.
Armes said intelligence indicates law enforcement should focus on the highways as well as the airports.
Just like East Germany. They want everyone to spy on their neighbors. The real terrorsit are the people in the stinking Obama government starting with Big Sis Napalatono herself.
Don’t pull over to take a leak on the side of the road anymore!
and wear your lead foil skivvies because no doubt they are using powerful xray equipment at these stops too
That title—fight terrorism?? You mean PROMOTE it?? You don’t need no steekin’ 4th amendment, because it doesn’t exist.
Just about every part of our Constitution has been violated at one time or another to the point where it’s a defunct and broken contract between the government and We The People.
This is why I can’t stand Bush 2. He eroded our rights in the name of “security” instead of closing our borders.
“It’s all meant to urge every driver to call authorities if they see something suspicious.”
I’m sure this is common for every agency, but my sister worked for OSI long before terrorism. She has numerous stories about people calling them to report conspiracies, sightings, strange events, etc. I’m afraid relying on the public to report stuff is going to result in the high expense of checking out the 99.99999% of off-the-wall nut stories.
Of course, spending money and hiring agents may be what this is about. If you want to actually increase security, you need to develop human intelligence at the source, not rely on granny to spot the dark-skinned, thickly accented man stuffing a suspicious bundle into back of a garbage truck.
As early as the Articles of Confederation the Congress recognized freedom of movement (Article 4), though the right was thought to be so fundamental during the drafting of the Constitution as not needing explicit enumeration.[4].
United States v. Guest 383 U.S. 745 (1966) is a United States Supreme Court opinion, authored by Justice Potter Stewart…. the Court also held that there is Constitutional right to travel from state to state.
The U.S. Supreme Court also dealt with the right to travel in the case of Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489 (1999). In that case, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, held that the United States Constitution protected three separate aspects of the right to travel among the states: the right to enter one state and leave another, the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than a hostile stranger (protected by the "privileges and immunities" clause in Article IV, § 2), and (for those who become permanent residents of a state) the right to be treated equally to native born citizens (this is protected by the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_under_United_States_law#cite_note-Mount-3
Fascism at it’s finest.
Now they have turned these JBT’s loose out of the airports, wonderful. In 10 yrs. they will as hated in the USA as the Stasi were in East Germany, assuming we are still the USA in 10 yrs.
I went to Law School; the fist thing they teach you is that the Constitution means whatever the Gov’t wants it to mean. The second thing they teach you is that the only rights you have are the ones the gov’t hasn’t co-opted yet.
Yup. For every lefty "The Constitution is a living document" type there's a conservative who spent the past decade spewing that the "Constitution is not a suicide pact". Bottom line - there is no Constitution anymore.
Do I get a gold star?
This government terrorizes me more than the terrorists do. This government is far more likely to cause me harm than terrorists are.
It is much older practice
From “The Socialist Phenomenon by Igor Shafarevich”
referring to Inca civilization
Residents from central provinces were dispatched to new regions, where they were entitled to
enter the houses of the subjugated people at any time of day or night and were obliged to report on any sign of
discontent.
Peasants were not allowed to leave their villages without special permission. Control was made easier by the
differences in the color of clothing and the varied hair styles. Special officials supervised traffic on bridges and at
gates. The state itself, however, carried on compulsory resettlement on a large scale. Resettlement sometimes
was occasioned by economic factors—people were moved to a province devastated by an epidemic or
transferred to a more fertile area. Occasionally, the reason was political, as with the resettlement of inhabitants
from the original provinces of the empire to newly conquered lands or, on the contrary, the dispersion of a newly
conquered tribe throughout the more loyal population of the empire. (56: pp. 99-100, 59: p. 58)
I buy a local paper which list all arrest in the Knoxville area per week. Few if any have Hold For ICE on obvious illegal alien arrest. It's all about money. They can call it what they wish but I-75/I-40 has long been known as a municipal cash cow for surrounding counties with longstanding questionable violations of forfeiture laws.
I know, if you have to argue the case on the law you’re going to lose!
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