searches -- involving asking for IDs and addresses and names -- will be routine (CNN)

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I wonder about this "type" of activity....

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/07/22/train.stopped/index.html

Police stop Amtrak train in Newark
Spokesman says searches may be routine ahead of political conventions

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Police stopped Amtrak train 170 Thursday in Newark, New Jersey, for what Amtrak called "police activity" after a note was found in a bathroom, an Amtrak official said.

The train was allowed to continue its Washington-to-Boston trip after a search.

Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said, "Train 170 was stopped at 7:52 a.m. this morning in Newark, New Jersey, for police activity."

"The passengers were kept on the train ... and there was a check of passengers' IDs," Stessel said. "Because so many passengers on that particular train use monthly passes, it was important that we understood exactly which passengers were on that train, and so when police conducted their investigation, they wrote down the names and ID information of everyone onboard."

"There was no threat to the train," he said. "The police used canine units that swept the train, and there was no reason to believe there was any type of device or anything of the sort onboard."

There was confusion over how the note was found and what it said. Stessel said a passenger found the note in a bathroom, but a law enforcement source told CNN an Amtrak employee had found it.

Although Amtrak would not disclose the content of the note, the law enforcement source told CNN it was threatening but did not indicate there were explosives on the train or that it was related to terrorism. The note was given to agents from the Newark FBI.

Stessel said these types of searches -- involving asking for IDs and addresses and names -- will be routine through the Republican National Convention, which begins in late August in New York.

He referred to the police activity as a "routine sweep."

A passenger on the train, Jeffrey Rodgers, told CNN that officers with dogs came onto the car where he was riding. He said they also videotaped the car and its passengers.

Rodgers said the train's engineer came on the train's intercom and apologized for the delay. He said the engineer said police needed to conduct a search but added there was no danger.

Amtrak said the train was carrying around 800 passengers. After the search, it left Newark for New York City's Penn Station about 10 minutes before 10 a.m. ET. Amtrak said the train would continue to its final destination of Boston.
 
K80Geoff - :)

"If you do not hand over zee papers, you veil be shot!"

It's probally not a bad idea. In America are the police allowed to randomly stop & search cars, with checkpoints etc?
 
In some states, usually under the guise of checking for drunk drivers. The stops are supposed to be "random" to "eliminate the possibility of such seizures being used to targets certain individuals or groups".

Which makes me feel better. :rolleyes:

There has been some outcry about the use of officers who regularly work undercover wearing balaclavas (cause cops aren't supposed to eat Greek pastries) while participating in such random checkpoints.

It takes a tortuous reading of the Constitution to justify, but "driving, after all, is not per se a 'right'."
 
This is more priming for the "changes" to come.

Roadblock checkpoints were common in the former West Germany in the late 70s onwards that I saw - probably before - with stop and searches considered quite normal. This has become the "norm" in the United Kingdom as well.

Expect "the war" - as it progresses - to make it "normal" here too. Don't worry! The Ministry of Love, really loves you!
 
No need to worry.

Amtrak has cracked down on the legal carry of arms, according to their site. Club like instruments, aerosals (peppersprays were not specifically listed the last time I checked but what are the odds that they would be permitted?), and firearms are prohibited onboard Amtrak trains. This ban evidently involves travel within the borders of concealed carry states as well as inter-state travel. They do .... or did... permit the carry of "pocket knives" (I need to review the specific language used).

As long as you aren't well heeled and have your ID, you should be little more than inconvenienced if the train is boarded. At least you will be safe, except from those awful knives (until they are written off the trains), cocooned by Amtrak's regulations and metal detectors, right?

Not a big deal at the moment, at least by some perceptions, so long as we have the resources to travel freely by automobile. I suspect, however, that Amtrak wont be the final conveyance - or venue - to opt to disarm law abiding Americans.

The Armed American is an endangered species, moreso now than ever before. Our country is becoming like that micromanaged prison, the "Nation without Walls", that David Drake created in his grim "Lacey" stories a few decades ago as the general public herd toward governmental shephards in search of safety, the same shephards who have and continue to let us down.

Jeff
 
I've lived off-shore in a country where asking for your papers was common place. They were called Ausweis papers and I had to have them on my person at all times. I hope Shrub and his Dr. Stangelove advisors come up with a plan to insert chips here - carrying papers isn't fun. Remember, it'll be "for the children".
 
In some states, usually under the guise of checking for drunk drivers. The stops are supposed to be "random" to "eliminate the possibility of such seizures being used to targets certain individuals or groups".

Alcohol checkpoints are legal federally as long as the stops are NOT random. For instance, they may stop every car that comes by, or every 4th. car, etc. That's not random. They can not search on an alcohol checkpoint stop unless they develop probable cause. Some states still prohibit alcohol checkpoints despite the federal OK. Narcotics checkpoints on the road are not constitutional. Neither are terrorist checkpoints as far as I know.
 
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