CBSNews.com: U.S. Mass Transit Jitters

[question everything]

U.S. Mass Transit Jitters

NEW YORK, July 25, 2005

Police arrested a man following a bomb scare that emptied Pennsylvania Station and disrupted service on Amtrak, commuter trains and city subways for about an hour.

The busy commuter hub was evacuated after the man allegedly threw a backpack at an Amtrak agent and said it was a bomb, said Marissa Baldeo, a spokeswoman for New York City Transit. The threat was a false alarm, and service on all lines was soon restored.

(snip)

Meanwhile, an apparent bomb hoax forced a Southwest Airlines flight to return to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif., on Sunday. The afternoon flight had been headed to Phoenix. Authorities said a caller from the Phoenix area said a bomb was aboard the plane. It returned to Burbank and the crew and 120 passengers aboard were evacuated.


(snip)

The American Civil Liberties Union said the inspections violate protections against unreasonable searches. Edward Barocas, legal director of the group's New Jersey chapter, said it was too early to determine what, if any, action the group would take.

(snip)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/25/terror/main711315.shtml

[Fovea]

1. ironically

Gas tanker trucks on the freeway pose a much greater terror threat to the average American than a bomb on Amtrak.

Imagine a suicide bomber in LA rush hour traffic popping off a gasoline tanker.

Now imagine it under several strategically important highway overpasses, tunnels at once...

But don't worry, I am sure HSA has a tight control over that possibility.

[TriMetFan]

2. As a Transit driver the people that I'm more scared of are

like these want to-be jerks. But there is only one group of people to blame for all this! Bush and Thugs. Have I told y'all how much I Hate these Ass Holes!

[NYC Liberal]

3. Even though it was a hoax, this shows that these "random" searches

don't provide any real security. They're just an ILLUSION of security.

What if the man who'd thrown the backpack actually HAD a bomb? He could have and it would have exploded. But those searches would have prevented it...right??

[wookie294]

4. Empire's a bitch !

Ain't our empire great? I love spending trillions to protect corporate profits abroad so we can take off our shoes at airports and evacuate train terminals and piss off everybody around the world. What fun!

[fujiyama]

16. Yeee Haaa!

Shoot first ask questions later....just like bomb first, ask questions later.

[sattahipdeep]

5. That's the plan too....

I don't see rove in the news any more.

[Roland99]

6. The Patriot Act will solve all of these problems.

[SlipperySlope]

7. Time to rethink mass transit...

The very idea of centralizing people and transportation makes it a desirable target, and keeping it secure will be increasingly difficult.

I've only used mass transit in my life a handful of times. Cities that are overly reliant on it should start studying cities that have managed to not get hooked on the practive for ways to decentralize transportation.

An (overly simplistic) but true observation; if there were no subways, there would be no subway bombings.

[phantom power]

8. we need more mass transit, not less.

I live in one of those cities that isn't hooked on mass transit: Phoenix, whose urban area is 600 square miles of suburban sprawl. We're hooked on wasteful individualized cars, spewing CO2 and smog.

As a country, we use mass-transit less than almost any modern country. We've replaced it with massive urban sprawl, which is going to kill us as the oil runs out.

[uppityperson]

14. No cars means no car accidents

No people means there would be no deaths at all.

More people get killed in individual cars than terror attacks. Way more. But they are not as newsworthy or sexy, so they get ignored. We are used to them so they are accepted. Mass transportation is needed. Much more than individual cars.

As far as terror, on an individual murder/hurter level or mass level: There will always be people who want to hurt other people. You cannot protect against everyone and everything, but can figure out ways to lessen the reasons behind the bac things, and ways to protect yourself better.

[Bridget Burke]

15. Yes, it would be nice to live in cute little villages.

Where we could walk everywhere. But it's not possible in the cities where many of us prefer to live.

There's a choice: encourage mass transit or keep building more freeways. Since you're "above" mass transit--do you walk everywhere or ride your bike? Or just drive?

[KamaAina]

17. *Israel* has yet to "rethink mass transit"

the suicide bombing capital of the planet has not and will not knuckle under to the terrorists that way.

What would happen if we did do away with mass transit? Everyone (except the young, the old, and people with disabilities, but never mind us) piles into their cars and SUVs. The cars and especially the SUVs suck up more and more oil. The profits flow to Big Oil, Halliburton, and oppressive regimes like Saudi Arabia's, which uses them to finance more militant Islam*, and so on in a vicious cycle.

Time to rethink your rethinking...

[question everything]

18. What about mass gathering?

Last New Year's Eve in Manhattan we could not get closer to 60th St on Broadway to watch the crystal ball fall. There were more than a million people there all squeezed together.

[SlipperySlope]

19. mass gathering

I think that security is managable for special events. I don't think it is manageable day-in, day-out, at every train station, bus station, subway station, in the US.

[LisaL]

9. Oh wow! Our police is behaving better than British police.

Notice the article says they arrested the man, not shot him 8 times in the head.

[LoZoccolo]

10. Who does stuff like this?

The busy commuter hub was evacuated after the man allegedly threw a backpack at an Amtrak agent and said it was a bomb, said Marissa Baldeo, a spokeswoman for New York City Transit.

I don't have a tinfoil hat and think that what this guy did was some plot to try to justify more surveillance, but I'm still left with this question...what kind of joker would do something so stupid? It's not even funny or clever as a prank, much less one that could get you in so much serious trouble were you to get caught.

[LisaL]

11. If he was in London, he would be dead by now.

[LisaL]

13. Maybe he is suicidal or mentally unbalanced?

WTF knows. Obviously he isn't a real suicide bomber, as he didn't have a bomb. Just an idiot, probably.

[sattahipdeep]

12. Who stands to gain from all of this?

They want us to think it's obl but if it is, why isn't he caught?

If this is a world wide plan who is putting it together?

Who could be so evil as to be the head of it?

[bassman79]

20. You sound like a Thought Criminal, I'm reporting you!

[osaMABUSh]

21. Dilemma: drive at $2.30/gal or go mass transit and worry?

3rd option not being widely discussed is tele-commuting. A viable option for millions of American workers - everybody wins so why isn't Washington talking about it? (Hint: GOP (gas oil petroleum))