Heroic national crackdown on anything “suspicious”

While it sickens me to see this happening in the United States, the fact is that the federal government — in the form of the detested TSA — is no longer confining itself to airport security, but is now operating on the nation’s highways:

PORTLAND, Tenn. – You’re probably used to seeing TSA’s signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).

“Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate,” said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.

Agents are recruiting truck drivers, like Rudy Gonzales, into the First Observer Highway Security Program to say something if they see something.

“Not only truck drivers, but cars, everybody should be aware of what’s going on, on the road,” said Gonzales.

It’s all meant to urge every driver to call authorities if they see something suspicious.

Got that? Not terrorism, but “something suspicious.”

They want us to be a nation of informants, with neighbors spying on neighbors, and terrorism is simply being used as a pretext. I can just imagine the actual percentage of accused terrorists the TSA and Homeland Security have tripped up in comparison to carriers of nail clippers and oversized toothpaste tubes. But put these petty tyrants on the roads, and what do you think they’ll use their powers for?

If you thought “drug war enforcement” you were right.

Remember, the code language is not “terrorist threat” but “something suspicious.”

In practice (and in funding), this will be translated into warrantless drug war enforcement. The power-drunken bureaucrats openly admit it:

“Somebody sees something somewhere and we want them to be responsible citizens, report that and let us work it through our processes to abet the concern that they had when they saw something suspicious,” said Paul Armes, TSA Federal Security Director for Nashville International Airport.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol checked trucks with drug and bomb sniffing dogs during random inspections.

“The bottom line is this: if you see something suspicious say something about it,” Gibbons said Tuesday.

I looked into this VIPR outfit (is that an admission that they’re actually proud to be a den of vipers?), and I only saw confirmation of what was already obvious:

The VIPR teams detain and search citizens at railroad stations, bus stations, ferries, car tunnels, ports, subways, truck weigh stations, rest areas, and special events.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Isn’t that nice to know that these, um, people claim the power to search and detain you almost anywhere, including at a rest area?

Their powers seem limited only by sinister bureaucratic imagination:

“To sort of invent the wheel in advance in case we have to, if there ever is specific intelligence requiring us to be here, this way us and our partners are ready to move in at a moments notice”^[25]

“What we’re looking for are threats to national security as well as immigration law violators” ^[25]

“We’re also looking at one of our main initiatives, which is [unintelligble] cash smuggling” ^[25]

“seek out illicit radiological sources that may present a threat to the public.”^[26]

“ship boarding and inspection; container/cargo inspection; port employee vehicle inspection checkpoints; and vehicle inspection checkpoints for truck and passenger vehicles”^[9]

“VIPR teams are an essential part of protecting highway transportation vehicles and other critical infrastructures.” ^[6]

X-ray trucks for “explosives, weapons, anything unusual”, “radiation, explosives, and drugs”. Perform “safety inspections”^[27]

Honestly, I don’t know what to say. This is almost surreal. I never thought I would live to see the government violating the rights of citizens in any way it wants, according to government whim. They think they can do anything. And sorry to be a bore again, but if they can do the war on drugs, if they can criminalize every last thing they want, if they can do Obamacare, then yes they can.

Clearly, the Constitution is not working.

What do we need? What will it take?

I don’t want war.

At the very least, I would like to see the sorry excuses for human people who are doing this to their fellow citizens being made ashamed of themselves. Is there a way to at least refuse to pay them?

As things stand now, the bastards think they are heroes. That has to stop.

UPDATE: As commenter Scott H points out I “don’t need to go to Tennessee; take a trip up to Flint” (MI) whose local sheriff  has decided that the Fourth Amendment does not apply:

Motorists driving on expressways around Flint are getting surprised by a stunning tactic that the Genesee County sheriff has been using to fight the flow of illegal drugs — one that legal experts said will not withstand a court challenge.

At least seven times this month, including Tuesday, motorists have said they have seen a pickup towing a large sign on I-69 or U.S.-23 that depicts the sheriff’s badge and warns: “Sheriff narcotics check point, 1 mile ahead — drug dog in use.”

[…]

“We’re doing everything by the book,” Genesee County Undersheriff Christopher Swanson said. “We think there’s major loads (of drugs) coming through here from all over, every day. And this is one of the tools we use — narcotics checkpoints.”

The legal experts quoted are unanimously pointing out that the Supreme Court has ruled precisely such checkpoints illegal, so I don’t know who wrote Sheriff Swanson’s “book.” The Stasi, perhaps? I hope someone sues and ends up owning the county.

Bad as the Flint searches are, I think the VIPR operation is more egregious, because involves federal agents conducting searches for any reason they want.