TSA VIPR Teams – Coming To A Transportation Nexus Near You Soon

“Are YOU Ready?”

Has anybody of the TSA VIPR teams yet?  Basically they do the same thing they do at airports except now they’re taking their dog and pony show on the road and going to places like subways, train stations, etc, and conducting searches there.  Someday you might get off the bus and find a VIPR team there waiting to pat you down and go through your bags while the drug dog sniffs you up and down.

With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals. Not everyone is happy. -NY Times story

What’s not to love?  People who have avoided flying since 9/11 can now start up again, because pretty soon it’s not going to matter how you travel.  The TSA is going to be there to make sure you’re not a filthy terrorist ready to blow up your fellow bus passengers or concert goers.

Civil liberties groups say that the VIPR teams have little to do with the agency’s original mission to provide security screenings at airports and that in some cases their actions amount to warrantless searches in violation of constitutional protections. -NY Times story

Here’s another great quote:

TSA officials like to point out that the acronym stands for Transportation Security Administration, not the Airport Security Administration. And that’s where VIPR comes in.

Source

Do I sense just a trace of arrogance there?  Is this what our country is coming to?

VIPR (or VIPER) stands for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team, sometimes Visible Intermodal Protection and Response (VIPR, or VIPER)

VIPER?  Sounds like one of the death squads on the GI Joe franchise that’s out right now doesn’t it?  C’mon folks.  We’re in the heartland of America.  Are we so willing to give up all our rights that we’re going to allow this to happen in our country?  Pretty soon we’ll need papers to travel from city to city while government agents check our vehicles and pat us down to make sure we’re not carrying contraband.  Just to be sure we’re safe.

Every time this happens it makes me think we’re that much closer to a police state.  All you have to do is look to the increasing use of SWAT teams for things like serving warrants to realize that we’re already heading down that road.

Know what the TSA VIPR said when asked how many acts of terrorism they’ve stopped?  “That’s classified.”  Of course it is.  The TSA keeps getting bigger and more arrogant and scared Americans keep turning their heads and saying, “That’s ok.  I feel safer with them out there.  I have nothing to hide.”  It makes me want to puke, I swear to God.

At this moment it might not amount to a whole lot, but if we keep letting this go the way it’s going soon we’ll only be as free as they say we are.  And we’ll like it.

Questions?  Comments?

Sound off below!

-Jarhead Survivor