TSA Responsible For Over 9,000 Unannounced Checkpoints In Last Year
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
The TSA has been responsible for over 9,000 unannounced “security checkpoints” over the last year alone, as the federal agency’s VIPR program expands to become a literal occupying army in the name of safety.
“The TSA’s 25 “viper” teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year,” reports the L.A. Times.
The figure is completely independent from the federal agency’s role inside the nation’s airports, which costs taxpayers $5 billion a year, with the department having spent an additional $110 million in fiscal year 2011 for “surface transportation security,” while requesting a further $24 million for next year.
The extra money is being demanded despite the fact that there is “no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety,” according to the report, which also highlights how the TSA’s sniffer dogs are used to single out people for questioning if the dog smells the scent of the owner’s pets on their clothing.
The TSA is being used as a literal occupying army to ensure Americans who travel anywhere are constantly under the scrutiny of Big Brother, from highways, to train & bus stations, to NASCAR events, and even high school prom nights.
Back in October we reported on how Tennessee’s Homeland Security Commissioner announced that a raft of new “security checkpoints” would be in place over the Halloween period to “keep roadways safe for trick-or-treaters”.
Earlier that same month it was announced that Transportation Security Administration officials would be manning highway checkpoints in Tennessee targeting truck drivers.
After public outrage, the TSA attempted to neutralize the controversy by claiming that the inspections were carried out by State Troopers (the TSA agents were there to try to recruit truck drivers into becoming snitches for the ‘See Something, Say Something’ campaign), and that the checkpoints were merely temporary.
In reality, the program was the latest phase of the TSA’s rapidly expanding VIPR program, under which TSA agents have been deployed to shake down Americans at everywhere from bus depots, to ferry terminals, to train stations, in one instance conducting pat downs of passengers, including children, who had already completed their journey when arriving in Savannah.
Free societies do not subject their citizens to random “security checkpoints” at which federal goons are given carte blanche to abuse the public.
2012 will see a renewal of our efforts to push for the total abolition of this disgraceful agency and the shame it has brought upon America’s reputation as the so-called leader of the free world.
And there’s only one short step left until “papers please”
Oh heck, they already do that!
We’ve all given our “implied consent,” you see, to random stops and presentations of our IDs and insurance/registration “papers” absent even the pretense of probable cause. Merely to be driving on a given road at a given time is sufficient.
But ahm proud to be an Ahhhhmmmmmerrrican, where at least ah know ahm freeeee…….
They already have smartphone apps to report GPS coordinates of speed traps in real time. Pretty soon they’ll need to ad DUI checkpoints and TSA checkpoints, too. As long as all electronics in cars aren’t outlawed.
TSA is short hand for: FU to the American public. A free society does not deserve this and should not accept this.
It used to be that checkpoints (with no valid reason) were only found in totalitarian regimes.
American was a beacon of relative freedom for the rest of the world. If you did not bother other people you were generally left alone by the government.
Now it seems that the government is interfering more and more in the lives of its citizens without legitimate purpose. The reasons given by TPTB do not fill me with confidence.
The cost imo is not worth the claimed benefits. The government is spending hugh amounts of money with little benefit for the American people. There are imo serious erosion of rights that are inalienable to each human being.
The only checkpoint I want to see is at the border to check who comes in to the country. (Although if this BS keeps up they might also check who is trying to leave the country.)
Mithrandir:
You nailed it on the head with “…without legitimate purpose.”
Indeed; TSA has nothing to do with security. It is slave training, to accustom us to our NEW role as prisoners in a prison planet. It’s about breaking down boundaries; literally getting in your pants and in your face, making you submit and obey in the most humiliating, degrading ways possible. All ensconced in an atmosphere where it’s difficult, inconvenient, costly, socially isolating, and possibly dangerous to resist.
Try resisting, even verbally. Chances are you’ll be yelled at by your sheeple countrymen, abused by TSA, and probably arrested by the local Stasi.
Slaves don’t have rights. TSA is there to learn you good in that new lesson.