Posted on 08/06/2013 8:18:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON — As hundreds of commuters emerged from Amtrak and commuter trains at Union Station on a recent morning, an armed squad of men and women dressed in bulletproof vests made their way through the crowds.
The squad was not with the Washington police department or Amtrak’s police force, but was one of the Transportation Security Administration’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response squads — VIPR teams for short — assigned to perform random security sweeps to prevent terrorist attacks at transportation hubs across the United States.
“The T.S.A., huh,” said Donald Neubauer of Greenville, Ohio, as he walked past the squad. “I thought they were just at the airports.”
With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals. Not everyone is happy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Have we seen any more of these “freeze” drills, where entire terminals filled with people just freeze in place on command?
ROTFLMAO! I work in a building we share with a corp that provides support (training I think) for TSA, so TSA types are constantly entering and leaving our building. You have insulted every mall cop reject in the country.
Rand Paul had a well-publicized run-in with TSA at an airport a few years ago.
Also, both of his parents were harassed in Florida by the TSA thugs when the couple were trying to board a plane at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention last year.
If Senator Paul were president, there’s a good chance he would greatly rein in this out-of-control agency, although shuting it down would be even better.
The local Sheriff needs to arrest these b0z0s and put them in the tent city.
Wickard v. Fillburn has, since 1942, declared that the intrastate commerce impacts interstate commerce and thereby allows Congressional regulation thereof.
Shutdown would be easy, just look at their page on what the TSA is and compare with Amendment 4:
Amendment IVSo their whole operation is predicated on violation of the 4th Amendment, this is a felony:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
18 USC § 241 - Conspiracy against rights
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/reading_list/indices/book_425.html
Vin’s “Lightning Squads” made real.
This is nothing a Free Country needs.
Wickard has no application here. There is no impact to an interstate market by virtue of an individual's movement within a State.
Tell that to GONZALES v. RAICH, which said: even if there is no interstate market, the federal government can still regulate intrastate commerce because if there was a market, they could regulate that.
Despite the logical nullity, this is the reasoning that they use.
Your papers please....
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” - Barack Obama 2008
T.S.A. officials respond that the random searches are “special needs” or “administrative searches” that are exempt from probable cause because they further the government’s need to prevent terrorist attacks.
***************************************************
They are creating supra authority outside the Constitution on vagaries.
Why would you think that? Did people confront the TSA at airports in large numbers? Did people refuse to fly? Did our neighbors remove Obama after his first four years?
Even if I have no money I can still have a Bentley convertible because if I DID have money, I could have one.
They say it’s to make us feel secure.
Actually, it’s to make us feel like sheep.
Yes. That is pretty much the reasoning of Raich.
There is no possibility of an interstate market on a commuter train that doesn't go anywhere close to a state line.
Despite the logical nullity, this is the reasoning that they use.
I have long dispensed with the bogus rationales of the black robes as regards the plain interpretation of constitutionality.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.