Our government is stepping up its plans to search EVERYONE, ANYWHERE, whether you're travelling by air, rail, ferry or bus.

Beginning this week and almost four years since writers warned Americans that our government wants to search people on trains, its finally become a reality!

The Baltimore Sun reported Amtrak will begin searching all passengers: “Passengers failing to consent to security procedures will be denied access to trains.”

“I don’t know if that level of security we have at airports would be practical at train stations,” said Vernon Herron, University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security. “Washington DC and New York City—our financial district and our seat of power in Washington DC. Those types of targets are always going to be on their radar.”

What does this mean for anyone taking a government train (Amtrak)? It means EVERYONE will be subjected to airline style boarding procedures. In Europe, you won’t find pre-boarding ticket checks on any international intercity train line except Eurostar (between London and Paris, for border control purposes). By importing the security theater of air travel, DHS, sorry I mean Amtrak will treat EVERYONE like a suspected terrorist!

Just who will be conducting these security procedures?  Why, Amtrak employees and police of course. If an Amtrak employee questions you, its because they're trained to suspect EVERYONE.

Since 2010 Amtrak's' Blue Campaign' has been used as an excuse to identify suspected human traffickers.

Men — traveling with children will be subject to enhanced scrutiny. Perhaps Amtrak's employees will engage children in conversation or demand a statement of their relationship status with the accompanying adults.

"Over 8,000 Amtrak employees overtly or covertly examine passengers for the validity of their identification, their level of stress, how they interact, and their conversations."

On July 25, 2012, DHS held an event to update stakeholders on recent activities and to provide a platform for participants to offer individual feedback regarding the department’s Blue Campaign efforts. (This is all about profit & surveillance)

Don't be alarmed if you see men in tactical gear with an attack dog approaching you, it's for your safety, wink, wink!

Those men in black fatigues are Amtrak's police or "Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response" (VIPR) teams which conduct baggage searches and interrogate anyone. VIPER has a nice ring to it doesn't it? Oops, sorry I meant VIPR no government snakes here, RIGHT?

Herron points out DHS deploys VIPR teams, which include agents in uniform and bomb-sniffing dogs and agents out of uniform, designed to blend in with passengers.

 

Below is a picture of a VIPR team:

 

 

 

In 2011 the TSA news blog reported VIPR teams conducted 8,000 unwarranted searches of Americans on buses, trains, ferries and even highways!

 

Doing the math that means, since 2011 VIPR teams have conducted over 32,000+ unwarranted searches!

 

Just how bad are Amtrak's VIPR teams? Click the following links to read more:

 

- Amtrak/DHS is spying on passengers and letting police access records without warrants.

 

“Citizens have to be the extra eyes and ears of public officials,” Herron said.

 

 

In other words, DHS/Amtrak wants Americans to spy on each other, you know since we're all terrorists!

 

"What the powers-that-be understand--and Americans remain oblivious to--is the fact that by constantly pushing the envelope and testing the limits of what Americans will tolerate, the government is thus able to ratchet up the level of intrusiveness that Americans consider reasonable John Rutherford said."

 

There are numerous private railroad police in America that will soon be searching Americans for no reason other than you MIGHT be a terrorist.

 

Private rail lines CSXT, BNSF, KCS, UP, and others maintain their own private police. The Amtrak Police is the largest with more than 450 sworn officers

 

FYI, railroad police even have 'Council Charter Homeland Security Memberships'.

 

Private railroad police officers licensed in every state, have been accused of physical assaults, racial profiling and harassment according to lawsuits, interviews and court records. The records and interviews show that there have been numerous complaints and dozens of lawsuits filed against railroad police officers in recent years.

 

"Most states have a statute that authorizes railroad corporations to hire and appoint railroad police officers. Generally, these laws are found in the railroad or public utility sections of a state’s consolidated statutes. A railroad police commission is issued by a specific state agency, usually from the state police but sometimes from the governor’s office. The remaining state code sections regarding railroad police often require the employing corporations to bear all liability; the officers to take an oath and wear a badge indicating that they serve as railroad police officers for a specific railroad corporation; and local police agencies to accept persons arrested by railroad police."

 

"If the requirement to accept prisoners is not explicitly stated in the railroad police statute, the police powers conferred upon sworn and commissioned railroad police officers in the enabling law will convey that they possess the same legal authority as state and local police or peace officers."

 

Railroad police are trained using the same standards as local police departments, right? WRONG!

 

“Once we do a background check, we pass the information on to the governor’s office which approves or denies the applicant,” said Terry Baker, training and research manager at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “That’s the full extent of our dealings with railroad police.”

 

Anyone who passes a background check can become a train cop and then go on to train SWAT teams nationwide!

 

 

Privately run 'secret' railroad police have trained 85 SWAT teams in 13 states!

America's SWAT teams and police are being trained by privately run police who's only requirement is to pass a background check! What kind of psychopath's are training police officers and SWAT teams across America?

It's unknown if railroad police officers receive any psychological testing. At least DHS run police departments force new cops to undergo some psychological testing, see below:

"Right now we give cops a test called the MMPI-2, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. So we pretty much determine that they're not psychopaths. I think that's a low bar." Former Police Chief  John DeCarlo said.

It's not just national train police, it's local commuter train police that are abusing our civil rights with immunity:

See Something, Say Something—Unless It's MBTA Police Brutality:

 

"In March 2014, Mary Holmes was at the Dudley Square MBTA station in Roxbury when she saw Officer Jennifer Garvey scream at and shove an older Black woman. The situation worried Ms. Holmes so she tried to calm the woman and asked Officer Garvey to stop being so aggressive. When these efforts failed, she called 9-1-1 for help. In response, Officer Garvey and her partner, Officer Alfred Trinh, pepper-sprayed Ms. Holmes in the face, beat her with a metal baton, and arrested her, handcuffing her hands behind her back while forcing her to the ground."

“The MBTA has signs everywhere telling people ‘if you see something, say something.’ This is exactly what Ms. Holmes did. She saw something wrong, and she spoke out. We need more people to follow Ms. Holmes’ lead and do the same,” said Jessie Rossman, staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Unfortunately, the officers’ reactions are part of a broader, troubling trend, in which police officers mistreat individuals exercising their constitutional rights. It has to stop.”