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Machine guns on BART
BART Police SWAT team members are now riding on BART trains with machine guns in their hands. This is part of a pre-election homeland security initiative to "prevent another Madrid."
BART Police SWAT team members are now riding on BART trains with machine guns in their hands. This is part of a pre-election homeland security initiative to "prevent another Madrid."
We object to machine gun toting cops on BART trains for the following reasons:
It creates a police state atmosphere. Free countries do not need cops with machine guns on public transit.
It can be considered Bush administration inspired intimidation of Bay Area voters.
There is no evidence of specific threats to U.S. transit systems.
Our limited security resources should be used to guard facilties with greater potential public danger such as oil refineries, chemical plants and nuclear reactors.
Machine gun toting cops are not likely to deter a terrorist with a bomb.
The danger of collateral damage from machine gun fire is greater than the imagined potential increase in safety.
If you agree contact your local BART Board member and make it a campaign issue this year. Also contact the BART police chief at 510-465-2278 and/or the BART complaint line at 510-464-7022.
This is a not a futile effort. A few years ago BART tried puting cops with drug sniffing dogs on the trains. The public outcry quickly ended that practice.
We object to machine gun toting cops on BART trains for the following reasons:
It creates a police state atmosphere. Free countries do not need cops with machine guns on public transit.
It can be considered Bush administration inspired intimidation of Bay Area voters.
There is no evidence of specific threats to U.S. transit systems.
Our limited security resources should be used to guard facilties with greater potential public danger such as oil refineries, chemical plants and nuclear reactors.
Machine gun toting cops are not likely to deter a terrorist with a bomb.
The danger of collateral damage from machine gun fire is greater than the imagined potential increase in safety.
If you agree contact your local BART Board member and make it a campaign issue this year. Also contact the BART police chief at 510-465-2278 and/or the BART complaint line at 510-464-7022.
This is a not a futile effort. A few years ago BART tried puting cops with drug sniffing dogs on the trains. The public outcry quickly ended that practice.
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If you go to just about any major city in Europe, the police on patrol in the street or at airports, train stations, etc., carry automatic weapons.
Dumbass.
Dumbass.
Assault rifles on BART, way over the top, Pat. They can't even keep people from pissing in the elevators.
I was amused when BART said they shut down the bathrooms in downtown SF to enhance "security". You will notice this does not happen on BART in the 'burbs. Only in SF. Where people piss in the elevators instead.
Yeah they got a real handle on security all right.
I was amused when BART said they shut down the bathrooms in downtown SF to enhance "security". You will notice this does not happen on BART in the 'burbs. Only in SF. Where people piss in the elevators instead.
Yeah they got a real handle on security all right.
Two wrongs don't make a right. The argument shouldn't be to have police with machine guns on BART in the US because european transit agencies have them. The argument should be to abolish them in Europe and prevent them from being further deployed here.
What happens when the BART police whose record of civil rights abuse is one of the worst makes a mistake? I bet you'd hate to be theone they shoot by accident.
What happens when the BART police whose record of civil rights abuse is one of the worst makes a mistake? I bet you'd hate to be theone they shoot by accident.
Sit up straight and look directly ahead! What are you looking at, asshole? Did I call your name? Seriously, folks, they're not looking for you. Breathe deeply. They don't care about your pot. They don't give a fuck what you're reading or that your laptop is open to Indymedia. In short, you ain't that important so calm down. Jesus.
Too bad we can't shit on Pat Kincaid since we have no toilets at the BART train stations, an inexcusable public health outrage. This good Democrat (she goes so far as to support the anti-Democratic position that no other candidates should run against Bush against his twin, Kerrry, and she prefers Kerry), promotes every single fascist position loudly and clearly, reminding us all that we should never vote for Democrats or Republicans.
Of course, the real purpose of arming police with machine guns is so that they perpetrate terror, not prevent terror. The goal obviously is to prevent the election.
I wrote to the Chronicle 'this needs to be fixed' column about the bathrooms, and they said it was their most common request but that BART refuses because the bathrooms are the central node of the air system so anyone could release spores in there and kill everyone in the station.
The thing is, the terrorists could go to almost any station and not even pay to get in, but just throw their anthrax down onto the tracks or leave a bag in a trash can. This is all obvious to anyone. The real reason I believe there will be no more terrorism is because it is obviously easy for anyone to do something dramatic like Timothy McVeigh, or even easier - many many opportunities. Yet no one has done much since 2001. So with each increasing day that nothing happens despite opportunity and pools of angry people, that is proof that it won't happen. There has been no October surprise this month, and it's already the 22nd. There was nothing during the conventions.
The thing is, the terrorists could go to almost any station and not even pay to get in, but just throw their anthrax down onto the tracks or leave a bag in a trash can. This is all obvious to anyone. The real reason I believe there will be no more terrorism is because it is obviously easy for anyone to do something dramatic like Timothy McVeigh, or even easier - many many opportunities. Yet no one has done much since 2001. So with each increasing day that nothing happens despite opportunity and pools of angry people, that is proof that it won't happen. There has been no October surprise this month, and it's already the 22nd. There was nothing during the conventions.
If you go to just about any major city in Europe you will find universal healthcare and proportional representation, too.
I lived in Madrid last year, and the police patrolled the subway with automatic weapons for the four or five days after the bombing. For the month after that it was a combination of regular cops (with their service revolvers) and unarmed security guards. After that (around five weeks after the bombing) it was back to unarmed security guards and sometimes cops (again with their service revolvers and certainly not any automatic weapons) in the big stations.
Stop the militarization of the BART! I cancelled my BART commuter check today and emailed a complaint. We need to stop riding BART until the SWAT teams are removed. According to the BART notice "THERE IS NO SPECIFIC THREAT." But that the SWAT teams will remain on the trains until after the elections. Clearly this is a politically motivated act to keep the public fearful to maintain the current militarization of our society. Security is not freedom!
I also spoke to a BART manager on the train yesterday who was sitting next to me. He agreed that this current high level policing is unnecessary. He also told me that the best way to file a complaint with BART is by sending an email. That the people handling complaints respond more to email than phone calls. I propose that we email our complaints to BART and stop riding. The trains are running slower than ever with fewer cars, yet we have all this extra funding to have SWAT teams with machine guns on the trains!
Welcome to the police state!
I also spoke to a BART manager on the train yesterday who was sitting next to me. He agreed that this current high level policing is unnecessary. He also told me that the best way to file a complaint with BART is by sending an email. That the people handling complaints respond more to email than phone calls. I propose that we email our complaints to BART and stop riding. The trains are running slower than ever with fewer cars, yet we have all this extra funding to have SWAT teams with machine guns on the trains!
Welcome to the police state!
For more information:
http://www.bart.gov/news/press/news2004101...
carry a piece of paper on your person that says "<- POLICE STATE ->".
everytime you see one of these nitwits, whip it out and display it for your fellow passengers.
everytime you see one of these nitwits, whip it out and display it for your fellow passengers.
The Bay area has so many mentally ill people on public transit, although this is more true for buses than BART. But I wonder how long it takes for someone affected by post traumatic stress disorder to have an encounter with them.
"If you go to just about any major city in Europe, the police on patrol in the street or at airports, train stations, etc., carry automatic weapons."
...doesn't make it right.
...doesn't make it right.
See the link to Mobile Audit club for latest technological developments. Look for real reason. Beware of stun effect and unknown interrogations and medical procedures and other abuses in American Government Buildings, most likely international.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/index.html
San Francisco, you have my pity and just as I pity Mobile AL and Los Angeles and that stretch of road in between that has starting allowing forced injections and 3 days detention. That began in 2001.
Mobile Audit Club, tell your friends and associates to look for it on my search engines. We are under the Angelfire domain.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/index.html
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/index.html
San Francisco, you have my pity and just as I pity Mobile AL and Los Angeles and that stretch of road in between that has starting allowing forced injections and 3 days detention. That began in 2001.
Mobile Audit Club, tell your friends and associates to look for it on my search engines. We are under the Angelfire domain.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/index.html
For more information:
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyor...
maybe for all time at indybay. what *are* you folks on?
Boycotting Bart for those heavy artillery could be the solution, but the real threat is in what you can not see, but whose technology has you dancing like a Alabama Puppet Politician. Take a look at the real threats?
It is funny but, the Mobile Alabama courthouse has a top that reminds me of the Diode Pole Magnet. The Los Angeles Courthouse, the Airport Courthouse, reminds me of the solenoid. What were the twin towers? Transistors perhaps.
The two sets of books kept by some FDIC insured and approved banks will have you singing sueet carols with the office's humps fingers up your ass, just like the ARD and the Top Bottom Guy at FDIC San Francisco.
Send your friends to Mobile Audit Club by searching anywhere. We are in the Anglfire Domain.
It is funny but, the Mobile Alabama courthouse has a top that reminds me of the Diode Pole Magnet. The Los Angeles Courthouse, the Airport Courthouse, reminds me of the solenoid. What were the twin towers? Transistors perhaps.
The two sets of books kept by some FDIC insured and approved banks will have you singing sueet carols with the office's humps fingers up your ass, just like the ARD and the Top Bottom Guy at FDIC San Francisco.
Send your friends to Mobile Audit Club by searching anywhere. We are in the Anglfire Domain.
you people are morons, DC,Boston, and NYPD have 'swat' style teams patrolling thier trains, or are you so narrow minded you missed that
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