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No need for TSA on buses

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee held a press conference last week to discuss the details for Houston’s newest safety initiative, which will supposedly help the METRO transportation system.

In a nutshell, the Transportation Security Administration is going to have some counter-terrorism experts conduct random searches with passengers on METRO buses. Hopefully these experts won’t be the same touchy-feely, crotch-groping people the TSA hires at the airport.

Houston is the guinea pig for this program known as “BusSafe.” It started in Houston last week but will eventually be implemented in other metropolitan cities.

The TSA counter-terrorism experts will ride the buses citywide, randomly check bags, randomly question passengers, do K-9 sweeps and have plainclothes officers at all the bus stops and rail platforms to keep their eyes peeled for “criminal” behavior.

How about no? My backpack is my backpack, my laptop is my laptop and my pockets are my pockets. Citizens may be in public but the content of their belongings are not.

This program will do little to prevent terrorism, and do more to invade the privacy of innocents while apprehending an occasional marijuana smoker or graffiti artist.

Since the TSA is going all Big Brother on the METRO system, we might as well start wearing black, bulky trench coats, throw on a pair of mirrored sunglasses, carry duffle bags and ride the METRO rail from UH-D to Hermann Park. At least then the counter-terrorism experts will have some probable cause to justify their invasion of privacy other than finding a joint in some kid’s pocket.

The BusSafe press release contained a quote from METRO Police Chief Victor Rodriguez, which highlights the problem with their reasoning on safety and prevention of terrorism:

“We have one of the safest transit systems in the world in Houston. One way we are able to keep it that way is through the use of deterrents such as uniformed and plainclothes officers patrolling our system and aggressively addressing suspicious and criminal activity.”

So people might be safer with TSA agents eyeballing their belongings. Safety shouldn’t be a replacement for freedom. And deterrents are not synonymous with prevention. You don’t prevent the flu by locking up people in clean rooms during the winter.

As low-level as it is to bring in a strawman, people are going to say things like, “Do you want another terrorist attack?” and “The cost of freedom,” blah blah blah.

Let me answer these now: There has not been, nor will there likely be, a terrorist attack on a Houston METRO bus. Why would Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the infamous underwear bomber, want to light his pants on fire on some no-name bus route in the middle of Third Ward? How would that bring down the US capitalist dogs oppressing people of the world? It wouldn’t, but for some reason the TSA thinks it’s likely enough to happen that we need agents on the bus.

This TSA BusSafe program is fascism. That’s an overused buzzword these days, but BusSafe meets the definition. And it’s not the fun kind of fascism like Batman assaulting criminals in alleyways or the Galactic Empire sending the imperial army to kill the rebel alliance. This is the kind of fascism that makes you want to vomit.

METRO already has a tough time as it is selling bus passes and encouraging people not to drive alone in cars. They’re going to have a much tougher time doing so with the TSA breathing down everyone’s necks.

David Haydon is a political science senior and may be reached at [email protected].

18 Comments

  • We’ve had this “Security Theater” in Boston for several years now.
    What a waste! Sheeple stand in line to hand over their civil rights while TSA screeners act like jerks to compensate for their failure to pass the police exam.
    Law enforcement loves this Homeland Security nonsense because it’s an excuse to search minorities and the poor. When they find cash in almost any amount, the cops then claim that some poor guy’s rent money or SSI check is really drug proceeds – which the cops can then claim – get this – even without making an arrest or charging anyone. And good luck to anyone trying to get their cash back.
    These TSA and Homeland Security searches are nothing more than an excuse for highway robbery of those too poor to afford their own vehicle.

  • Why did you people vote for Sheila Jackson Lee? If you vote for fascist freaks, you are forced to live their fantasy, which most people would define as dystopia.

    Shame on you! If you were real Americans you would boycott the buses and drum Sheila Jackson Lee out of office, but you won't. You'll endure those jack-booted thugs abusing your city's poor on the buses, and thank God you have enough money to drive your care.

    You'll tell yourself these fascist scum will never attack a "good person" like yourself, and for a short time you'll be correct. The middle class is mostly safe for now. They will come for you in due course, after they've finished off the less fortunate people you refused to protect.

    • not only the 'poor' ride the bus… you would be amazed how many business people ride buses and a lot of students do too. I agree with the rest you say but trying to be green and avoiding traffic does not make you poor…

    • "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, November 11, 1755.—The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, vol. 6, p. 242 (1963).

      That is your answer to why the people need to speak up LOUDLY to this. Remember Germany in the 20's and 30's started similar program to keep down the "rif rafe" that was brought about by the depression. And look where we as the world ended up after that. Nope sorry but this program and those who support it need to go.

    • Aiden,

      I heard the same kind of thing when the Bush administration was placing warrentless wiretaps on phones. People like you said "well, if you aren't calling terrorists, you shouldn't care."

      My grandfather, my father, my brother and I all served in the military to protect Americans' rights. One of those, specifically enumerated over 220 years years ago, was freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

      Who are you to decide which of my rights and freedoms can be bargained away?

      • 10 years of service 35 months deployed been there done that to go along with the last 3 generations of my family's service in WW2, Vietnam and the Cold War
        and even though i despise bush i could care less about my phones being tapped since i have nothing to hide

        • Aidan, Respect your service to the country. But what happens when your nothing becomes something to those in charge? When dose a legal nothing get turned over to that something? That is my concern. You give these people an inch they will take a mile. You give up a little bit of liberty or a garunteed right and they will keep going, see that in other states to the bill of rights all the time.

          • as along as we live in a system were 50% + 1 person decides who makes the rules we'll always have this problem. right and wrong is just a persons point of view. to some people shooting and killing a person for breaking into your house is legit where somewhere else its murder.
            i don't want my kids to learn creationism in school but if 50% + 1 decides to force it on my kids then it becomes legal

            • So it is alright that you are stoped, questioned and searched for no reason your ok with that. Because %50 +1 decided so?
              That is the biggest cop out I have heard.

    • I'd rather not restore everything back to the way it was, women and anyone other that white protestant males would no longer be able to vote. Think about the consequences of what you wish to impose on others before you speak out.

      • Right, because that makes sense. Move on troll. I'm talking about restoring everyone's Constitutional rights. Thanks for trying to make it about sex/race. Impose on others…smh.

  • Why don’t they care about improving the bus service instead? Metro buses are pretty old, dirty, noisy and driven by drivers who not even say good morning to people. Such bases are like “noisy cans” that demand to be replaced asap. Secondly, such schedules they have are just impractical On weekends one has too wait “very little” time for a bus to arrive: 45 minutes. Simply unbelievably. Instead of looking for “terrorists” in the buses, they should worry about providing people with a first world bus service.

  • Of course, most of the terrorists they hope to capture will blend in. Maybe even a team of 1 suspicious acting terrorist, to draw the attention, and calm,all-American looking terrorists to carry out the real mission.
    Or worse. The terrorists bring a bomb, and set it off,when the agent is in the kill zone. 1 less “protector”.

    Now that this weed has rooted in mass transit, people have to take a stand, and boycott / do a day long NATIONAL Strike to send a message.

  • Aidan – That’s why this is a republic and not a democracy. The protection of the rights of a minority. The “50% plus 1” is a tyranny, just as is any other type.
    The protest “I don’t have anything to hide” is a thin blanket. The definition of “something to hide” is protean, and subject to devious change. Currently, the concerns tend to be voiced by 2d amendment activists. (Yes, I’m one)
    Next change might be sodomy laws.

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