http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/06/opinion/don-phillips-tsa-vipr-teams/index.html Good article and I like that it points out - OPENS by pointing out - that TSA is pissing people off and not winning any friends who aren't wearing jackboots. "The possibility of TSA disbanding VIPR is remote." Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to work on the possibility of disbanding all of TSA, then, won't we?
I rather liked the part where VIPR team members were said to be easily mistaken for rats in the railyard weeds
Very good opinion piece! How would that be "mistaken"? At least in a rail yard there aren't any pitot tubes to climb.
well rats in rail yards are likely to end up dead (run over by trains or taken out by railroad security using suppressed 22 rifles- no joke thats what the rail yards locally do)
On the plus side, Chief O'Connor seems to "Get it" and really be on our (the passenger's) side on this. Only problem is, he's one man. And if here to suddenly, I don't know, RETIRE for some reason, there's no guarantee the next holder of that office won't be more... pliable.
No, if Chief O'Connor really "got it", he'd be a real leader and turn down any TSA money and not allow any VIPR team to conduct any "security" operation on Amtrak property and passengers. But of course Amtrak is not a private corporation and its funding by Congress is in continual jeopardy, and to do so would be political suicide (even though he's not a politician). I sincerely hope that inside, he does not believe that these TSA bag-swab tables are adding one bit of added security to his employer's trains. And looking back over the years, what external factors have caused the most deaths and injuries, and damage to Amtrak equipment? Nope, not terrorists, but cars and trucks at grade crossings, a barge hitting a bridge, and a drugged freight engineer.
Look, we can't let "perfect" be the enemy of "good" here. He could be a sniveling, sycophantic sissy like the airlines and roll over and let TSA do whatever they want, but he's doing the best he can, IMO, to keep them in check as much as possible. Considering that random bag checks were the only security pre 9/11, and it's still the same today, I consider that a minor miracle. And he's aware of that. That's why whenever he asks for more money for security, he asks for it to be spent where it will do good - patrolling the ROW, and not feeling up granny when she boards.
