DHS has begun exploiting Americans fear by claiming we need more security of our mass transit system.

Counterterrorism experts are arguing that security on America’s mass transit lines must be tightened in light of the  foiled plot to attack a Toronto passenger train.

Fox News reports that  the  plan to attack Canada’s transit system highlights  security holes that exist in America’s commuter system, and the challenges involved in reinforcing security. “The millions of Americans who take public transportation need to be assured that everything possible is being done to ensure their security and safety,” American Public Transportation Association president and CEO Michael Melaniphy told Fox News on Monday, adding that federal funding should be increased.

Security analysts say that public transit systems are hard to defend  because of their open architecture, many access points, and large number of passengers. R recent incidents, however, only serve to emphasize the need to make public transportation more secure.

Scott Weber, a former counsel for DHS, told Fox News that “the threat lies everywhere.”

“This country has to change its outlook on day-to-day life,” Weber said. “We can’t let out guard down.”

Melaniphy thinks investments should be made on state-of-the-art surveillance, explosive and chemical-detection systems,  enhanced communication technology, anti-terrorism patrol teams, first responder training, and public education campaigns.

DHS, through its Transit Security Grant Program, has given more than $547 million to sixty mass transit and passenger rail system in twenty-five different states. The Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for allocating the money, divided the funds on a “risk-based prioritization in determining eligible passenger rail and transit agencies, funding allocations and evaluations for award,” according to TSA Web site. In 2012 the grant program provided $87.5 million to beef up security measures at the country’s passenger rail, intra-city bus networks, and ferry systems.

The police state build-up: Checkpoints in Metro D.C. area:

Article first appeared in CopBlock.org:

During evening rush tonight in Arlington, Virginia, the build up of the massive police state was pretty well known at the ticket gates of the courthouse metro station. Members of the TSA and special units of the DHS were present there, where they have no legal authority. They were assisting police officers of the Washington Metro Transit Authority, who also had no legal justification or authority to be doing what they were doing. K9 teams were also present. Tables were set up for bags and personal belongings to be unlawfully searched by these coward and rogue cops, most of which (TSA and DHS) by our american law and constitution aren’t even supposed to exist, let alone have any law enforcement role in a state like the Commonwealth of Virginia or any other of our nations 50 states.

It’s totally illegal for Metro transit PD to conduct warrant-less searches, and this illegal checkpoint was also trying to prohibit photography of both the checkpoint and the men and women in uniforms with badges who were conducting the Nazi-Germany-like searches. Under our 1st amendment, photography is allowed anywhere deemed public in america. Being that federal taxes, as well as local taxes, help pay for metro services, you can know the whole metro system is a public space, and anything federal is also public. Under our 4th amendment, it’s against the law for any law enforcement to stop us, ID us, check our things without proper consent or established and articulated probable cause or maybe even a warrant signed by a judge. Our 5th amendment protects us from talking to the police; we do not under any circumstances ever have to answer any question the police may ask us.

The TSA and the DHS teamed up with the metro transit cops tonight in Arlington,Va and set up a huge, unlawful, illegal checkpoint. It’s not the business or authority of any police agency to know who you are, where you live, what you have in your work briefcase or bookbag, etc.If you want to enslave yourself and follow the sheep into the metro station, allowing yourself or belongings to be searched, fine, that is your choice…but you may regret it one day.
http://www.copblock.org/30218/the-police-state-build-up-checkpoints-in-the-metro-d-c-area/ 

Boston and the Obama Administration's use of false emergencies to undermine freedom:

 Article was written by Andrew Napolitano and first appeared in Lew Rockwell.com:

The government's fidelity to the Constitution is never more tested than in a time of crisis. The urge to do something – or to appear to be doing something – is nearly irresistible to those whom we have employed to protect our freedom and to keep us safe. Regrettably, with each passing violent crisis – Waco, Oklahoma City, Columbine, 9/11, Newtown and now the Boston Marathon – our personal freedoms continue to slip away, and the government itself remains the chief engine of that slippage.

The American people made a pact with the devil in the weeks and months following 9/11 when they bought the Bush-era argument that by surrendering liberty they could buy safety. But that type of pact has never enhanced either liberty or safety, and its fruits are always bitter.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It was written to create and to restrain the federal government. Every person who works for any government in the U.S. has taken an oath of fidelity to the Constitution, not unlike the presidential oath, which induces a promise to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

The pact with the devil occurred in the fall of 2001, when then President George W. Bush and Congress decided that they would use the machinery of the federal government to secure safety, rather than liberty. So, the Bush-inspired Patriot Act permits federal agents to write their own search warrants, and the Bush-inspired new FISA statutes permit search warrants of some Americans' phone calls without a showing of probable cause as the Constitution requires, and the Bush-era intimidation of telephone service providers permitted our overseas spies to snoop on our domestic phone calls. None of this has enhanced safety, and all of it has diminished liberty.

In the Obama administration, the devil has demanded more. In the past five years, we have seen federal spies capturing the keystrokes on our computers, local police using federal dollars to install cameras and microphones on nearly every street corner, and, the latest lamentable phenomenon, the use of false emergencies to undermine freedom.

The Obama administration's radical reinterpretation of the natural and constitutional right to remain silent is unprecedented, terrifying and disingenuous. Think about this: The governor of Massachusetts, the superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, the mayor of Boston, the Boston police commissioner, and the head of the Boston FBI office all proclaimed on Saturday morning that the danger had passed and Boston and its suburbs could return to normal. Yet the attorney general in Washington told his FBI agents in Boston to disregard those officials and instead pretend that the public safety was still jeopardized and then expand a 10-second window to 72 hours.

The Constitution was written to preserve freedom by restraining the government. The courts from time to time have required the government to respect the natural law, as well. But when the attorney general arbitrarily changes the law to suit the demands of the people when they are weeping, it fundamentally undermines our freedoms. And a pact with the devil is the most dangerous of all, because his appetite can never be sated.
 
http://www.lewrockwell.com/napolitano/napolitano97.1.html