When the nuts are running the Asylum (homeland security)

[Dutchrailnut]

September 03, 2009

WASHINGTON — (Trains.com) Secretary of Homeland Security Janet

Napolitano this week suggested citizens should call law enforcement when

they see someone taking a picture of "critical infrastructure."

Photographing rail lines from public property remains perfectly legal,

but Napolitano suggests citizens should call police anyway.

"One of the things we ask people to do is when they see something

unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking

photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to

make any sense … to report that to local law enforcement so it can be

followed up on."

 

[Guest]

September 03, 2009
WASHINGTON — (Trains.com) Secretary of Homeland Security Janet

Napolitano this week suggested citizens should call law enforcement when

they see someone taking a picture of "critical infrastructure."

Photographing rail lines from public property remains perfectly legal,

but Napolitano suggests citizens should call police anyway.

"One of the things we ask people to do is when they see something

unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking

photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to

make any sense … to report that to local law enforcement so it can be

followed up on."

here we go again,guess Amtraks "policy" about railfans taking pics of stations/trains etc. will have to be clarified again!This is typical of what happens in agencies in Washington that are staffed by zealous law enforcement beauracrats with guidlines provided by politicians!the last time this happened was in the 50s when the witchhunters were after "commies" and wanted everyone to turn into informers!I feel so much safer knowing that foamers will not be allowed to take pictures of rail activities and not be allowed to hangout around yards and stations!sigh

 

[WhoozOn1st]

"One of the things we ask people to do is when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to make any sense … to report that to local law enforcement so it can be followed up on."

I'm 100% behind Secretary Napolitano on this. Homeland Security should waste no time and spare no expense in compiling and issuing a comprehensive list of pieces of critical infrastructure that don't seem to make any sense. This would result in a better-informed public, and people would be free of the burden of continually taking pictures of, say, a certain bridge in Alaska. In turn, law enforcement resources thereby conserved could be redeployed to truly crucial tasks such as ferreting out the hordes of terrorists known to be hiding under every bush in Flotsam's Mistake, South Dakota.

 

[Bob Dylan]

"One of the things we ask people to do is when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to make any sense … to report that to local law enforcement so it can be followed up on."

I'm 100% behind Secretary Napolitano on this. Homeland Security should waste no time and spare no expense in compiling and issuing a comprehensive list of pieces of critical infrastructure that don't seem to make any sense. This would result in a better-informed public, and people would be free of the burden of continually taking pictures of, say, a certain bridge in Alaska. In turn, law enforcement resources thereby conserved could be redeployed to truly crucial tasks such as ferreting out the hordes of terrorists known to be hiding under every bush in Flotsam's Mistake, South Dakota.

Interesting sight yesterday heading NORTH on a UP freight through Austin!Two cars loaded with brand new Border Patrol SUVs,no doubt assembled in Mexico! :lol: and probably headed for South Dakota to help ferret out all those terroists that Patrick worries about! :lol: :lol: At least they cant harras Amtrak trains there!!

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Photographing rail lines from public property remains perfectly legal,but Napolitano suggests citizens should call police anyway.

call police for doing something legal? notice part of her name is napo like Napoleon. hmmmmmm. Also so what if amtrak clarifies it's rules for railfanning the DHS plays by its own rules and makes rules up as it goes along.

 

[mercedeslove]

"One of the things we ask people to do is when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to make any sense … to report that to local law enforcement so it can be followed up on."

I'm 100% behind Secretary Napolitano on this. Homeland Security should waste no time and spare no expense in compiling and issuing a comprehensive list of pieces of critical infrastructure that don't seem to make any sense. This would result in a better-informed public, and people would be free of the burden of continually taking pictures of, say, a certain bridge in Alaska. In turn, law enforcement resources thereby conserved could be redeployed to truly crucial tasks such as ferreting out the hordes of terrorists known to be hiding under every bush in Flotsam's Mistake, South Dakota.

I wouldn't drive on that bridge, it won't get you anywhere

 

[DET63]

"One of the things we ask people to do is when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of a piece of critical infrastructure that doesn't seem to make any sense … to report that to local law enforcement so it can be followed up on."

I'm 100% behind Secretary Napolitano on this. Homeland Security should waste no time and spare no expense in compiling and issuing a comprehensive list of pieces of critical infrastructure that don't seem to make any sense. This would result in a better-informed public, and people would be free of the burden of continually taking pictures of, say, a certain bridge in Alaska. In turn, law enforcement resources thereby conserved could be redeployed to truly crucial tasks such as ferreting out the hordes of terrorists known to be hiding under every bush in Flotsam's Mistake, South Dakota.

I wouldn't drive on that bridge, it won't get you anywhere

Tophill Trestle, a bridge to nowhere

 

[Dakguy201]

In turn, law enforcement resources thereby conserved could be redeployed to truly crucial tasks such as ferreting out the hordes of terrorists known to be hiding under every bush in Flotsam's Mistake, South Dakota.

Our own cops have assured us they are capable of protecting every inch of Amtrak routes is South Dakota without any help whatsoever from Homeland Security! However, if the feds want to send so money to aid the effort, we will accept it and redouble our protection efforts.

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

The problem with this latest pronouncement from the head of the organization that has us pouring our lotions, salves, potions and unguents into tiny bottles when we fly is that it doesn't have any meaning. What is "critical infrastructure"? What is something "unusual", and, in her vacuous example, what might someone be doing that "does not make any sense"? She proposes leaving the national security to casual observers rather than going after terrorists. She proposes leaving the interpretations of her vague statements to the same people who recently needed a five month extension in the conversion to digital TV.

 

[PetalumaLoco]

She proposes leaving the national security to casual observers rather than going after terrorists.

Wow, she did that? Didn't know she ran the FBI too.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Remember, suspicious looking people come from the middle east, have long beards, and... Boy, I can't even bring myself to continue with this satirical nonsense.

Really, we live in a country where people become more green by buying new cars. Please. How can we expect the politicians these idiots elect to be any smarter than the imbeciles that elect them? How can we, indeed, expect the nincompoop elected to appoint intelligent people to posts? This is symptomatic of stupid, banal, unimaginative thinking that has been running this country onto the rocks for the past several decades. Expecting more than this? Get real.

 

[Neil_M]

I should really be saying I feel sorry for you lot being governed by these muppets, but our muppets are just as bad......

Tip. Man with camera viewfinder to eye probably not a terrorist. Man with rocket launcher eyesight to eye probably is. and have a badge on saying "Terrorist". Just to make it easy. h34r:

 

[GG-1]

I should really be saying I feel sorry for you lot being governed by these muppets, but our muppets are just as bad......
Tip. Man with camera viewfinder to eye probably not a terrorist. Man with rocket launcher eyesight to eye probably is. and have a badge on saying "Terrorist". Just to make it easy. h34r:

Aloha

Sometimes I wish the "Muppet's" were candidates for Office. With almost no exceptions I never vote for an incumbent, I would at least like new mistakes. And your visualization of a terrorist has me rolling on the floor laughing. :lol:

 

[Neil_M]

I should really be saying I feel sorry for you lot being governed by these muppets, but our muppets are just as bad......
Tip. Man with camera viewfinder to eye probably not a terrorist. Man with rocket launcher eyesight to eye probably is. and have a badge on saying "Terrorist". Just to make it easy. h34r:

Aloha

Sometimes I wish the "Muppet's" were candidates for Office. With almost no exceptions I never vote for an incumbent, I would at least like new mistakes. And your visualization of a terrorist has me rolling on the floor laughing. :lol:

You have to laugh or you would cry. Brain dead the lot of them.

So every tourist that takes a photo in New York is a suspect? The Police are going to be very very busy.

In the UK now it is illegal to take a photo of a policeman or soldier if it's to be used for terrorist purposes....

All of you American tourists snapping the guards at Horse Guards or the changing of the Guard at Buck Palace better watch your step...............

 

[MattW]

Perhaps it would have been better if Anubis had succeeded at Antarctica... [/stargatereference]

This stuff makes me sick. It's not like they're just flat out taking everything away at once, a little here, a little there. Kinda of like whittling, start with a big block, shave the wood down a little at a time till there's nothing left.

 

[sueb]

This is just one of many reasons we are taking the train on our vacation and not flying. Last time we flew overseas they hand searched my handicapped son in his wheelchair and took samples of his lower leg brace material (plastic) away and tested it to make sure it was not some kind of disguised explosive - at least that's what the TSA people told us. Now, to make things worse, since my ex-husband is very Italian looking my son is also very dark and Latin/Middle Eastern looking. And he is non-verbal so if someone asks him a question he won't answer. I have nightmares about what could happen if we were separated while traveling.

I just bought a digital camera to take photos on our train vacation (leaving 9/14!!!). I'll let you know if we get hassled.

 

[GG-1]

I just bought a digital camera to take photos on our train vacation (leaving 9/14!!!). I'll let you know if we get hassled.

Aloha

I probably taken a couple of thousand pictures on around trains, and only once the the last 20 years did anybody say anthing, So dont let the story's worry you.

 

[DET63]

Remember, suspicious looking people come from the middle east, have long beards, and... Boy, I can't even bring myself to continue with this satirical nonsense.
Really, we live in a country where people become more green by buying new cars. Please. How can we expect the politicians these idiots elect to be any smarter than the imbeciles that elect them? How can we, indeed, expect the nincompoop elected to appoint intelligent people to posts? This is symptomatic of stupid, banal, unimaginative thinking that has been running this country onto the rocks for the past several decades. Expecting more than this? Get real.

Personally, I try to keep an eye on anyone with green hair and a green beard.

 

[sueb]

I just bought a digital camera to take photos on our train vacation (leaving 9/14!!!). I'll let you know if we get hassled.

Aloha

I probably taken a couple of thousand pictures on around trains, and only once the the last 20 years did anybody say anthing, So dont let the story's worry you.

I expect you are right. This is our first LD train trip, so I am worrying too much about everything right now.

 

[jis]

As usual I took gazillion pictures while on my jaunt down to Florida by Amtrak this last weekend. Pictures included detailed shots of the wheel trucks on which my Viewliner was riding and the nice clean P42s at the head of the train, and not to mention platforms of the famous train station in the nation's capital too, and other such suspicious pieces of infrastructure. No one hassled me. Amtrak staff was standing next to me while I was shooting away.

 

[Rumpled]

The host of guntalk has had a lot of fun with the ridiculous advisories of who might be terrorists. He's even created some fake PSA's to turn in everyone with a cell phone camera and a notebook as a terrorist.

You listen to them on his website guntalk.com

Sorry, can't provide a direct link to them as work blocks access to that site.

 

[mikefm101]

Hi,

Do all of you really have an issue with this??? Are all of you truly clueless as to what a piece of "critical infrastructure" could be.

NYC has run for years a "see something...say something" campaign that encourages passengers and civilians seeing abandoned bags or suspicious activity to report it. Boston has copied it, and probably a few more cities by now as well. This is what she is talking about. You really have a problem with that?

If I see someone taking a voluminous number of close up photos of a large bridge I will definitely wonder "why is he doing that". Maybe he is an engineering student studying bridges, or maybe he is looking for a convenient place to hide a bomb, either way, it is fair to find out what is going on because that is far more suspicious than someone taking a photo of a locomotive and its wheels,

On 9/11 I lost a high school friend and my mother was in the midst of the towers collapsing so yeah, I am suspicious, not frightened, but definitely aware that vigilance is mandatory in the 21st century.

What does frighten me is that all of you are so cavalier about this. Yes, the TSA is undoubtedly inefficient and full of ego's, I have stories about their ineptness too, but asking Americans to keep their eyes open is such bad thing?

Mike

 

[George Harris]

I would say, just when you thought it could not get any worse, but at the current time my main question is, how much worse is it going tobe before we decide to dump the whole crowd of inmates running this asylum, or if we ever do.

I take detailed pictures of track, bridges, equipment, have boxes of them, many focusing on the details down to switch machines and close up of turnout parts. Somewhere, I even have a series of pictures put together to get all of a major bridge together. They are probably coming for me with the handcuffs now. Oh, yeah, I am also of the demographic on the latest watch list - white, southern ancestry, rural connections that have access to diesel fuel and fertilizer in quantity. The country won't be safe until I am locked up. It is a wierd thought to realize that I am considered a danger to the country since, or maybe it is because?, I have spent most of my life in construction or design of various, mostly rail, transportation facilities.

 

[George Harris]

I typed the above before seeing guest_mikefm101's post, and I will say this: Don't even begin to play the "I had a loss in the 9/11 incident" card. A lot of people did and still do not think what the government is doing now is relevant to real securty, or little more than a waste of money and resources that distract from the real problems. The people doing or wanting to do this stuff are not going to be out doing the obvious.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I typed the above before seeing guest_mikefm101's post, and I will say this: Don't even begin to play the "I had a loss in the 9/11 incident" card. A lot of people did and still do not think what the government is doing now is relevant to real securty, or little more than a waste of money and resources that distract from the real problems. The people doing or wanting to do this stuff are not going to be out doing the obvious.

Couldnt have said it any better!Right on!No matter what your political beliefs,we as Americans cannot excuse imcompetence and loss of rights to police agencies in the name of "security"!Im proud of our country and the civil servants that man it,its the so called elected leaders that we have the duty and right to replace and it seems that no matter who we elect/they appoint the inmates end up running the aslyum!

Harrasing people taking pictures is not going to make anyone safer,this campaign,while well intentioned,is the stuff of tyrants and we need look no farther than the ****s/the communists and the fanatical homelands of those that wish us ill to see what turning into paranoid witch hunters does to our land of the free and the home of the brave!Especially crazy is harrasing railfans taking pictures of stations and trains and trstles and bridges, the crazies like the OP said are not going to do the obvious!

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,for sure,but eternal paranoia is the residence of fools and scared sheep!Relax and take a train ride,itll cure the soul and make it whole!