Posted on
May 2, 2012 in
When we spoke to the METRO board of directors last week, it struck me that some of the things that I consider common knowledge might not be. Chairman Gilbert Garcia asked me for links to my blog posts on the subject of the meeting, by which I think he meant TSA and its VIPR teams.
I’m not the best resource for either, but I can point the METRO board in the right direction.
For TSA’s airport depredations, and an introduction to TSA’s culture of contempt for American travelers’ dignity and freedom, see Lisa Simeone’s TSA News.
For the direction that TSA is taking, exporting its culture to the surface-travelling public, see this post by Simeone.
The Amtrak police chief barred VIPR teams from Amtrak property after their illegal harassment of passengers disembarking in Savannah.
Garcia, the chairman of METRO’s board, seems to recognize that the buck stops with him. If Chief Rodriguez bollockses up METRO’s relationship with its passengers and the community by inviting VIPRs to town and demanding papers from disembarking passengers, it’s the board that will be held accountable.
The statute authorizing VIPR teams requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to:
(3) …prior to and during the deployment, consult with local security and law enforcement officials in the jurisdiction where the VIPR team is or will be deployed, to develop and agree upon the appropriate operational protocols and provide relevant information about the mission of the VIPR team, as appropriate; and
(4) …prior to and during the deployment, consult with all transportation entities directly affected by the deployment of a VIPR team, as appropriate, including railroad carriers, air carriers, airport owners, over-the-road bus operators and terminal owners and operators, motor carriers, public transportation agencies, owners or operators of highways, port operators and facility owners, vessel owners and operators and pipeline operators.
So before VIPR teams operated at or on METRO facilities, METRO should have been consulted. The board wasn’t consulted; Chief Victor Rodriguez set up the METRO-VIPR operation without consulting the board. I have heard that Tom Lambert, METRO’s ex-chief and now-VP, runs interference for Chief Rodriguez. Whether that’s true or not, the first step the board should take in preventing further community outrage is to make federal operations affecting METRO a matter for the board.
Mark- Good blog. Those are some excellent links. Based on Chairman’s comments, I take it that he is an intelligent man who cannot be happy with a loose cannon running the Metro Police Force. The chances for a major federal lawsuit being filed against METRO seem to grow daily as the police abuse seems to continue unfettered.
Robb Fickman
Good post. I am not British, but I thought “bollocks” was already plural. Where is Johnny Rotten when you need him?
“To bollocks” is a verb, usually used with “up.” The third-person present tense is “bollockses.”
Grammatically correct British slang. Who knew?
What no one seems to notice, is that the TSA and Homeland security receive their paychecks from the IMF, chaired by UN General Zukand, a former advisor to the Communist Chinese, and the whole thing is run by George soros, former director of the russian stazi. This is about incremental transition and corporate restructuring of america through socialism and fascism to communist global governance.
And its fast becoming less incremental of a transition.
You might also say that he’s made an ‘Ethan Hunt’ of it.
Just as an aside, the statute linked to Mark’s blog authorizes appropriations for VIPR teams for fiscal years 2007-2011. We’re in FY 2012.
Sure sounds like a violation of the Antideficiency Act to me. Where is the U.S. Attorney’s Office when we need them.
And, Mark, you’re missing the big picture. Of course those TSA shakedowns were related to terrorism as defined in the statute creating homeland security. It reads:
(16) The term “terrorism” means any activity that—
(A) involves an act that—
(i) is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources; and
(ii) is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State or other subdivision of the United States; and
(B) appears to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping
Anyone with a brain can see that the Secret Service has just proved that prostitution (the main law violation found) is terrorism. Why do you think there is that big stink about the Secret Service and hookers.