Road block rage!!! Has it come to this?

A D.C. metro resident was fined $$$ for
"Road Block Rage".

From the Washington Post:
"Gerry Dunphy grew increasingly angry last summer about the new police checkpoints choking his Capitol Hill neighborhood. And one morning in August, as he was driving his son through one of three checkpoints to get to Union Station, his temper got the better of him."

"Dunphy, 70, recalls shouting at the officers that they should stop wasting their time on passing cars and worry instead about whether a bomb could be placed on a train passing through Washington. Law enforcement officials say that he went further than that, pointing at the U.S. Supreme Court and screaming that his son was "going to use the train and tunnel to blow up that building."

Washington Post

MSNBC

I recently went home (Washinton D.C.) on vacation and up until then I have not been to the states in about four years so I have not seen first hand the increase in security, road blocks, added check points in or around Federal office bldgs, etc...etc...

After reading the Post I started thinking, is America focusing it's stateside security efforts in the wrong places, ie: road blocks and not subways. If you've been to D.C. you know that the metro (sub) is the only way to go.

I would like to focus on two issues here (listed in order of importance):
1. Is America focusing its stateside security precautions in the wrong places? (the subway thing is just one example, I'm not just talking about that).

2. Please indicate in your reply if you think the punishment fit the crime for Gerry Dunphy (the raod block man).

I would really like to know what you all think, my lousy nine days back home was not enough.

[edit on 21-3-2005 by dev_add]

First of all I'd like to say that I wouldn't put up with checkpoints or roadblocks where I live on a permanent basis. While I could deal with it for a temporary police emergency in the case of a fleeing highly dangerous suspect or a child abduction situation, but on a regular basis just to make sure your not a terrorist I'd have to say "no way". When they step on our civil rights that way it becomes us vs. them. If they're looking to start a civil war then pull that crap in my neighborhood. If I can't kick their butts in the courtroom first I'll happily get rid of their evil by whatever means is necessary. They need to be reminded who they work for from time to time & maybe it's getting to be that time again.

As far as checking vehicles that are used to transport large amounts of cargo that could be carrying a large amount of explosives, I don't have a problem with checkpoints for those types of vehicles only, but not the family transport vehicle. At that point it becomes a prison state and thats what we have a second amendment for - so we can protect ourselves from that type of behavior from those who have overstepped their authority.

Obviously, their not looking to protect the people from suicide bombers because that's about all bombers could do on a subway and the fact is we don't have suicide bombers in the US yet, the real concern is someone blowing up the buildings they work in. & that couldn't be done from the subway at this point. So, yeah I'd have to agree with them that there is no need for checkpoints on subways, although that could change quickly with one ahole with a bomb.



[edit on 21-3-2005 by outsider]

I live in Rhode Island "The Ocean State".

About 500 feet from where my house is, there is an oil tanker dock where the oil tankers come from overseas(or from other parts of the country) to offload their oil.

These oil tankers are never searched. They are only tugged in usually by Coast Guard.

Also that there is only about 3 people that work on this dock. All they do is hook up the pumps to the ship and the machines do the rest pumping out all the oil. Very little manwork is required.

I have personally witnessed foreign nationals get off the ship, walk down the dock, and then never return.


Also in Massachusetts there are tunnels that commuter traffic goes through right under a government building. None of the trucks, tractor trailers, or cars are ever searched beforehand. All it would take is an oklahoma city bomb and not only would it collapse the tunnel and killing about 20+ cars worth of people, it would collapse the government building and probably kill another 100 (or how many ever people you can fit in a 10 story building).


I am more worried about how easy it is for illegals to enter the country from the borders, and ships. Even missiles, nuclear weapons, and biological weapons are pathetically easy to get into the country.

FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA are all a joke. But they only hire college graduates, so that explains it. Im sure they have real nice .pdf presentations about all the problems though, thats about it.

i can certaanlyunderstand this man's frustration and the police overeaction to it.

i was once stopped by ride an anti-drinking driveing checkpoint. i had just taken my friend to the subway from working the lateshift. i had the early shift the next morning under 8 hours away. i was in my opinion understandidly anoyed at being delayed over 20 min. i wanted to go to bed. aparently my answers to the oficer were a bit pointed. i ended up haveing to deal with extra screutiny as because i had a bad attitude there was a good chance i was guilty.

in north america we tend to all be rushing arround and we tend to be a bit on the defensive when stopped, without a good reason. why did the officer in question not realize that this man had obviously lost his temper and had begun to rant and rave. in all honesty i have to ask did the officer start to "push some buttons" in order for this man to loose control. was this in fact a case of mini interrogation?

perhaps instead of chargeing him they should have looked into what set him off. i wonder how many times he had been stopped, and asked the same questions. what was the officer's attitude towards this man?

i have been harrased by the police myself i was aked where i lived and other questions then the police tried to trick me by asking questions like, oh you live over there (pointing in wrong dirrection). asked me how long i had worked for my company, how the hell did he know where i worked in the first place, i didn't tell him? among others. needless to say i was pissed off. luckily i was able to hold my tounge and did not yell, i was extreemly close to blowing my top.oh yeah he tried to say he pulled me over because i had hit a parked car when i knew i hadden't.

welcome to the new north american police states. this includes canada where i live. do you have your papers please?

I live in New York City, the starting point of this whole War on Terror.

Well, once the martial law ended they kept a good portion of the National Guard troops around in areas like Grand Central Terminal and Times Square. Though the military pressence is usually kept out of sight of the tourists. We also have quite a number of fully armed, ready for battle personnel. I'm not sure whether they're military or NYPD but they're covered head to toe in armor reminiscent of SWAT tactical gear. Usually they're armed with a .9mm automatic, and an m-16 assault riffle. They make quite an imposing image standing in groups watching the crowds but I fail to see what good they'd do in the case of another 9/11. Not to mention a pitched fire fight with fully automatic assault weapons in an enclosed area like Grand Central, who's population reaches thousands at rush hour, would be a blood bath.

Roads are permanently blocked off in certain areas. They keep a one block perimeter around areas like the UN and Grand Central save for the taxi and bus stops. There're NYPD Mobile Command Centers located throughout the city at different times. (Yesterday one was parked outside of Krispy Kreme, no joke) Uniformed police pressence has increased, they created a new plan where police officers can earn overtime by simply standing around in uniform on their off duty hours. All NYPD officers have been forced to turn in their .38 revolvers and are outfitted with new .9mm automatics, though I believe some beat cops use a glock 9 semi-auto, but I could be wrong. Leg mounted gas masks are now general issue.

The subways here are I think the largest in the country if not the world, they're the arteries of this city. Here we have a credit card like system for the subway fares known as Metrocards. The metrocards can be purchased from a machine and there are generally between 2 and 8 machines in each station. Each machine has a scrolling LED marque above the touchscreen constantly reminding us to "Report any suspicious people or packages to a Police Officer" Standing on the platform you're likely to hear the same announcement over the loud speaker. Talk about Orwellian.

All in all I think these efforts are misdirected, and moreover I believe them to be nothing more than cosmetic. A permanent road block/check point is useless, terrorists would know about the road block and plan around it. Keeping an over fed SWAT team in crittical areas won't do much against another 757. Causing massive casualties in New York City doesn't take a brain surgeon, there're usually more people in any given 100 square feet than anywhere else in the country. If terrorists wanted to strike again, they would, and no subway announcements are going to stop them. When you really think about it, it wouldn't need to be terrorists. It could be anyone, and they could strike anywhere, at anytime. I think that right there is the major problem with "The War on Terror". Anyone could've hijacked an airplane and flown it into the WTC, we just collectivly hope no American would do that. I think the only route for our domestic security policies is an increase in domestic intelligence, which i fear has been the case thus far.

As for that man's punishment, maybe a few sessions of Rageaholics Anonymous and a few classes in not making an immature ass out of yourself in front of your child. I don't think he deserves jail time, he didn't hurt anyone and wasn't in possession of his normal mental faculty at the time of the incident. I don't think any judge would disagree with temporary insanity in the context of a commute through the DC area.