TSA bus-riding agents make 14 arrests in Houston. 12 are African-Americans.

[Fire Walk With Me]

None were terrorists.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Houston is apparently late in the 'random bag check' field...

See this 2005 NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/nyregion/22york.html?pagewanted=all

[awoke_in_2003]

2. and the police state...

just keeps on expanding

[Justice wanted]

4. +1000000000000000000

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. When I encounted these assholes on the San Diego trolley...

Last edited Mon Apr 30, 2012, 02:52 AM - Edit history (1)

and I told them I wasn't flying today and they could fuck themselves their exact words were "Chill out, were just looking for (mexicans)"

[Justice wanted]

5. AND when did Mexicans become terrorists? Also WHY are they looking for Mexicans?

[gtar100]

6. Finally the authorities are doing something about all that terrorist activity on Houston busses

that has been all over the news lately.

I'm sure they're very proud. I missed how many of those arrested were charged for planning terrorist activities. I think it was somewhere around zero.

[TexasTowelie]

7. Blame it all on that evil weed.

Everyone knows that marijuana is the gateway to harder things: coke, organized crime, becoming a Muslim, terrorism.

[Scuba]

8. Next week they'll be checking people in Escalades, Beemers and Benz's. Yeah, that's it.

[guardian]

9. First airports

then bus stations
then sporting events
then supermarkets
then places of work
then private vehicles on the public street
then your home

It's all for your 'safety' don't you know.


?w=640

[lovuian]

11. Agreed Guardian Americans don't feel safer

they feel they are living in a POLICE STATE

[Marrah_G]

10. WTF?

I'm at a loss for words.

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. It's no longer approaching. It's here.

WHAT terrorists? TSA are terrorists.

[woo me with science]

13. With bipartisan support.

Occupy.

[suffragette]

14. TSA and Border Patrol both received funding increases

This at a time when so many areas face local, state and federal cutbacks.

With the money increasingly being diverted to this security economy comes the continued branching out of these agencies actions in order to justify the money.




TSA Funding Up in 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act

By: Mickey McCarter

12/29/2011 ( 4:00am)
http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/today-s-news-analysis/single-article/tsa-funding-up-in-2012-consolidated-appropriations-act/d2de1c5444b43c89e10cfc663d96c869.html

Although overall appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are down slightly this year from Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) remains a consistent winner in the battle of the budget.

In the FY 2012 consolidated spending act (Public Law 112-074) signed by President Barack Obama last Friday, TSA received about $7.85 billion, up $153 million from 2011. TSA and US Customs and Border Protection, perhaps two of the three most visible DHS agencies along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, both received increases although the total DHS budget dropped to $39.6 billion in base discretionary funding in FY 2012, down about $111 million from last year.




We've seen it up in WA state with the Border Patrol expanding their territory, stops and even branching out to areas such as 911 dispatching. This even as a whistle blower noted they are having to create work to spend the $$$.


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/suffragette/83

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018081205_bordersuit27m.html


edited to add:


Think Arizona is bad for immigrants? Try our Olympic Peninsula
"Do you have your papers?" As if Forks were in Eastern Europe 60 years ago.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2018096560_danny29.html

[Fire Walk With Me]

18. Thanks for that!

TSA get $8 billion; schools get de-funded (so they can be privatized).

Someone is making a LOT of money off of all this. Follow the money.

[suffragette]

24. Yep, huge amounts of money

And education and social services are being decimated as this transfer of funding is occurring.


Here's more links related to the ones below about Geo Group and Wells Fargo.

In my above post, I had the info on the border patrol's increase in funding and increase in patrolling and branching out into traditional police/fire areas (with no appropriate oversight since those aren't their traditional areas of operation).

And, as with TSA in the OP, they are targeting people of color.

From this article about tomorrow's May Day demonstrations:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2018104150.html

In recent years, a growing number of immigrant advocacy, labor and Occupy groups have called on Wells Fargo and other lenders to distance themselves from companies that profit from immigrant detention — including GEO Group, which owns and operates the Tacoma Detention Center.

Searching for info on this led to this about the expansion of its facilities:
http://nwdcroundtable.org/awareness.html

Authorized by the Tacoma City Council in 2002, the NWDC was built in an industrial area, at 1623 “J” Street in Tacoma. The first detainees were transferred to the facility, from Seattle, in April 2004. It initially had a 500-bed capacity, organized by “pods” of about 250 beds each. Its capacity was expanded to 950 in 2006 and 1,575 in 2010. The NWDC is administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of Department of Justice. Internal services are provided under government contract by the GEO Group, a publicly-owned, for-profit corporation specializing in prison management.

Sourcewatch has more info on the GEO Group, including ties to ALEC and lobbying info:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Geo_Group
GEO parent Wackenhut Corporation has been a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
~~~
Between 2003 and 2011, GEO hired 72 lobbyists in 17 states to advocate on their behalf. It also made campaign contributions to over 400 candidates for state office within the same timeframe,

[felix_numinous]

15. Gotta fill the jails, it's big business

http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/map

[guardian]

16. That is coming.

For now TSA is an unconstitutional, ineffective, useless, bloated, pain in the ass that is staffed and run by morons with an ego complex.

TSA already made Chertoff rich from mandating and buying the scanners. Hauling tens of thousands off to prison will be next after the corporate prison system gets their hooks into TSA.

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. Wells Fargo are huge investors in private prisons.

[FarCenter]

17. 7 arrests for prostitution out of the 14?

Of course, we know that Columbian prostitutes are a danger to national security!

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. my gawd

[Blue_Tires]

21. i'd asked in the other thread:

how do you arrest someone for prostitution on a bus??

[guardian]

25. I assume

the police used their 'night stick'. hahahahahahahahaha

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. Sheila Jackson Lee - whines on airplanes to get the 1st class seats of regular citizens

this is the lady who brought TSA to Houston:

Preferential treatment

According to the Houston Press and The Hill, Jackson Lee has also reportedly been involved in several altercations with airline flight personnel over her requests for a complimentary upgrade to first class based on her celebrity. [6]

As reported by The Hill, During a full flight on Continental Airlines Jackson Lee was denied a complimentary upgrade to first class. According to a witness interviewed by the Capitol Hill newpaper, "When she saw that she had to sit with other people, she started shouting that she was in Congress and worked hard. She was really loud. Everybody in the plane could hear." Later in the flight she is reported to have had a "friendly visit" with the displaced passengers. [7]

The Press further reports that Jackson Lee has a reputation on Capitol Hill as a "high-maintenance" employer and has exhibited one of the largest staff turnover rates for years [8]. Several former employees have cited her demeanor and incidents such as the travel arrangement altercations as a major reason why so many staffers leave her office. The Houston Chronicle reported that one staffer even quit after she threw a cell phone at him.[9]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sheila_Jackson_Lee

[EmeraldCityGrl]

23. No political donations this year, The ACLU Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union...

along with DU (of course) will be getting my hard earned money.