… Because something tells me trying to run one of these will not go over too well with the power-tripping high-school drop-outs hiding behind their blue uniforms and tin badges:
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security on Tuesday partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and several other federal and state agencies for a safety enforcement and awareness operation on Tennessee’s interstates and two metropolitan-area bus stations.
The agencies conducted a Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) operation at scale complexes where trucks and large vehicles are weighed. The VIPR operation was also conducted at two regional bus terminals in Nashville and Knoxville.
Yes, this "VIPR"* bullcrap is currently confined to weigh stations and bus terminals, but there was a time not too long ago when it was confined to airports – how long before "weigh stations" get expanded into "inspection stations", and all vehicles are subject to "enhanced screenings"? The slippery slope can only be a fallacy if it is not rushing past you…
What really irks me, though, are statements like this:
"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.
Not to Godwin myself, but do you know what that reminds me of? Nazi Germany. Or, to avoid that particular internet meme, Soviet Russia. In both of those cultures, significant amounts of their citizens’ time was consumed keeping an eye on all of the other citizens so that if anyone slipped up in the smallest, most inconsequential fashion, they could turn them in. Why? Well, on the one hand, it was viewed as a way to curry favor with their governmental overlords, and the only way your situation ever improved was if someone above you liked you, but on the other hand, it was also due to the ingrained knowledge that everyone else was watching for you to slip up to, so if you could take them out first, that is one fewer pair of eyes to worry about. It go so bad in the former society that children were turning in their parents for trivial, but verboten, offenses.
And here we go, happily skipping down the same blood-splattered path.
And no, do not even dare to say, "The terrorists did this to us". We, the American people, have allowed this to happen on our own soil. We, the American people, have tolerated the groping, sexual assault, and abuse of our citizens in the name of "security". We, the American people, have allowed unsafe, dangerous, and cancer-inducing machines to be spread across the country. And now, we the American people, are tolerating gorramed checkpoints on our own soil, limiting our freedom of movement and travel.
I guess I should not be surprised – checkpoints have been commonplace in Kalifornistan for years, now…
* – How much effort did it take to come up with that high-speed-low-drag acronym? And do you really want to "prevent" intermodal freight? Idiots.
(Courtesy of Oleg Volk.)
What’s phase two?
Replacing all “Welcome to Tennessee” signs with Checkpoint Charlie-esque “You are now leaving the American sector” signs?
I went through a seatbelt check a few weeks back. Thing is, the past two years the local County Mounties have tried unsuccessfully to raise taxes because they were too terribly understaffed.
If they’ve got the time to sit in the middle of the road and block traffic, obviously their staffing levels are more than adequate. In fact, I don’t think it’d hurt to pare it down a little further!
You’re not “Godwining” yourself. The whole ‘use the citizenry to spy on each other’ actually started under Woodrow Wilson, the national socialists learned that from us.
I’m glad others are writing about this, because I still haven’t been able to come up with a coherent post on this evil. I keep getting too pissed.
Run flat tires, way down the list. Worry more about your OnStar system spying on you or remote monitoring of your Tire Pressure Monitoring System or even the hijacking of your Bluetooth. Of course GPS tracking, drive around license plate readers, and your car’s EDR (Event Data Recorder) permit Big Brother monitoring that O’Brien could only dream about.
Not only is this a terrible precedent for the Fourth Amendment, it is a waste of taxpayer money. Pastor Martin Niemöller needs to stand up against GovFed.
@ wfgodbold: I do believe Oleg beat you to that quip
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But, in all seriousness, Phase 2 is either expanding this “program” to other states, or expanding it down to include passenger vehicles. I would love to say that neither ends well, but I think we both know that would be a lie…
@ alcade: Good to know I am not the only person whose first thought upon seeing things like that is the opportunity cost being expended for little-to-no return!
@ deadcenter: It probably goes farther back to things like the Inquisition and whatnot, but point well taken.
@ Jake: The presence of the checkpoints does not really surprise or anger me – it annoys me, to be certain, and it disappoints me that our country has come to this, but everyone knew, in the back of their minds, that the TSA was eventually going to get to this point.
What angers the hell out of me is the complete and utter lack of reaction on the part of the American public. We know better. Our history is fighting for better. And here we sit, merrily going along with it.
… And people wonder why I hold little to no faith for the future of our nation.
@ Gaston: 2008 Ford, so no OnStar and no bluetooth, and TPMS only has a range of about 30 feet. And I was mostly being fascetious
. The problem is that governments have gotten better over the years at making the increasing tightening of their grasp so incrementally small each time they do it that it generally slips below most people’s attention levels… I mean, who cares about a few checkpoints in some flyover state, right? If you just keep turning that dial slowly enough – with the occasional “incidents” or “validated threats” to give you those jumps you need – you can probably get away with it.
@ Linoge:
Cough, cough… I think you meant to type “easily from 130 feet”, see this old research paper:
http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/~Gruteser/papers/xu_tpms10.pdf
This cites 40 Meters. All of these are in the Public domain as the means of monitoring. I am sure the paranoid and spook community are way ahead of these. Add in all the worries with “asset tagging” RFID (Passport/Real ID driver’s license), it seems difficult to NOT be able to track someone.
Run flats won’t stop you from technologies like this:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091021/1759416629.shtml
Again only OnStar for now but given the ever increasing computerization of cars, it is only a matter of time before Law Enforcement requests access be built into every car, just like CALEA.
I fully agree with your analogy. If you turn the heat up slowly, then the frog will not jump out of the pot of water. The sublimation of Rights seems inexorable and self perpetuating. One shoe bomber and everyone takes of their shoes to fly. Sound a lot like the George Orwell quote, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
I sit corrected
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At this point, though, there is scant little we can do about any of it, apart from taking out the stationary tracking devices as we can. The problem is less that the government wants to monitor, track, and control us – that has always been the case – but more that our fellow citizens and neighbors want the government to. Until that changes, and I doubt it will, we will just keep having that noose custom-fitted around our necks.
Unfortunate side effect of having had the appearance of a reasonably polite and non-corrupt police force for all of living memory; the group-think believes that these powers will only be used for good.
Thta is the thing, though – while we have had such police forces in our country, not only is history replete with examples of police forces gone wrong, but other countries are full of them at this very moment. The sheer ignorance of people who unerringly believe that the police/government is always right is kind of impressive.
It’s not as though the appearance has matched the reality in the time period either