Union Pacific railroad pleads with the Los Angeles district attorney to take action as some 1-in-5 trains gets robbed almost daily. Thieves take what they want, toss your package on the tracks, and live free to steal another day. If freight lines can’t move their goods from Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach without crippling losses, who’s to blame?
Video above hosted at Rumble.
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29 replies on “Lawless Angeles: D.A. Yawns as Thieves Rob 1-in-5 Trains, Toss Your Package on Tracks”
Isn’t this a federal offense? Interstate commerce. Transportation subsidized by the federal government? These are the basis that the DOJ has used to make things illegal and federally investigated.
I guess the DOJ is busy making local government voters terrorist subjects. Or getting local police departments under federal management because of questionable racism charges that the local government can’t afford to fight in federal court.
Guys, UP does have their own security! But, the obviously can’t shoot. And when they arrest, the LA DA lets the perps go.
We are being led into a pen of slavery, to a marxist takeover. The gate is closing, we must resist.
There are no warning shots since bullets fired into the air or into the ground have no predictable landing zone or possible ricochet point. Armed guards shooting warning shots will only lead to armed looters and gunfights between the looters and the guards.The answer, in my opinion, is that the railroad, which already has its own police force, must be able to lock up looters in a separate jail from the local communities and have the looters charged under federal law since interstate commerce is involved. This takes the miscreants out of the jurisdiction of the local authorities who are too willing to promote criminal behavior.
Why don’t you use the word “anarchy”? That’s exactly what is happening on the Left Coast. And, LA/LB Harbors are the railheads of the national railway system. If LA choses not to protect it, why don’t the feds?
It boils down to the Elites in the world’s major corporations and governments wanting more power. But it’s harder to get most people to accept System X if Americanism hasn’t collapsed. So, no security, for the same reason Leftist culture is manufactured to promote helplessness and dependency. Not to mention mental illness and rage. Thats why Leftists say math and critical thinking are white priviledge, which must be opposed and, the world has had 12 years to live since the 90’s. If people are contented because they can expect to get their packages from Amazon, they are less likely to revolt, so that small scrap of satisfaction has to go. I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but anarchy implies a lack of a plan.
Now that I think about it, if I remember right, Union Pacific’s guards do legally have police powers. Or at least they did once. Not that it helps much if they can’t get away with using them in todays political enviroment.
Well a while back Gov DeSantis invited all the shippers to bring their ships to ports in Florida. I think those shipping companies should just vote with their feet, or their rudders.
Between the out of route miles and dealing with the Panama Canal that idea is dead in the water. It will never happen short of a nuclear war.
It was pointed out in the vlog Chief MAKOi that the numbers for the diversion don’t line up. It is more cost effective for a ship to wait 21 days in the west coast than to head to the east coast to unload including fuel, Panama Canal fees and going off their normal route on a round trip from California to Florida and back then get back on their normal route between the far east and the west coast only to have to do the east coast trip all over again. Shipping is not a charity concern, it is a bottom line concern.
It was obvious just from being a truck driver.
Reminds me of the 60’s (?) when the country was dealing with rioting and looting.
The Chief of Police in Miami released a public statement that said “looters will be shot”.
There was no looting in Miami.
Or the cops stealing guns from the Rooftop Koreans during Rodney King.
Every inch of railroad rail in the United States is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Railroad Administration. Which is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). Which is under the “leadership” of Pete Buttjudge as Secretary of Transportation (SECTRANS).
This problem could be quickly and easily solved if Pervy Pete would just go to Congress and request authorization and funding for a Federal Railroad Police Force.
I know, I know … “OMG! You’re suggesting ‘big government’ solve this problem!”
Hear me out.
Los Angeles City/County does not care about this problem with railroad theft. All that stuff on all those railroad cars is going somewhere else. Everything that gets moved from the ports at San Pedro (which is Port of Los Angeles) and Long Beach into the L.A. greater metro area leaves the ports by truck.
This allows a cheap, easy ‘virtue signal’ by county and city governments because hey, everyone in Los Angeles is getting their stuff. All the stuff on those trains is going somewhere further away so … “We don’t care and look how wonderful we are for not persecuting those poor, unfortunate homeless people. We’re not only not persecuting the homeless, we’re saving a ton of your tax money on law enforcement too. FIGJAM (F**k I’m Great, Just Ask Me.)”
I have no problem with Government doing what it is supposed to do. Regulation of Interstate Commerce is a role assigned the Federal Government by the U.S. Constitution. Regulation includes protection among many other facets.
Sometimes we need the local and state Governments to protect us from the Federal Government. This is the case in some Western US and Alaskan locales where the state governments have refused to go along with anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment rules attempted by the Federal Government.
Conversely, sometimes we need the Federal Government to protect us from the local and state governments. Does anyone seriously believe that were it not for the Second Amendment and the fact that California is a state in the United States of America too, that private gun ownership would have been outlawed in the State of California decades ago?
This is one of those cases where the Federal Government needs to protect us from the absurd policies of local and state government in the Soviet Socialist Repooblik of Kalifornia.
Like Bill points out, if the railroads hire their own personal security those security guards who actually do their job will be persecuted and prosecuted. That’s not a problem with Federal Agents acting within their Constitutionally defined jurisdiction.
So this is a problem that not only can be but should be solved by Federal intervention.
On another note … I wasn’t aware this thing with the railroads was happening. Considering the fact that rail transportation is vital to the U.S. economy and this is a threat thereby, I have to wonder how many other things are slowly and quietly being eaten away by Leftist policies dominating local assets that have a national impact.
Gun rights in America’s South Africa are more a function of lawsuits than a federal government that doesn’t respect them either. Also don’t forget Butgig was hired because he is ideologically part of the problem. LA was emboldened to kick non union truckers out of it’s ports not long after he got the job. Hell will freeze over before he helps. If Federal Agents did step in I wouldn’t be surprised if he treated them like ICE. It doesn’t matter if the Feds should help, help isn’t coming while our domestic enemies have the power to stop it.
I’m sorry, maybe I didn’t make myself clear. I wasn’t suggesting a solution, The solution is obvious and requires no suggestion. My comment was intended to amplify on what Bill was saying and to inform others. A lot of people may not know that railroads are Federal jurisdiction and The Guys didn’t mention it.
I was pointing out that the jurisdiction and fault lie with Pervy Pete. I don’t expect him to be any help. I’m sure he was placed in that position for just the opposite of being helpful to our economic prosperity. This is clear when his fake family takes precedence over his posting as SECTRANS and he uses that fake family as an excuse for a 3 month vacation at taxpayer expense.
I do expect people to realize that he is at fault and could fix the problem fairly easily. My point was that a solution isn’t unattainable and being as the solution is clear and simple those who refuse to resolve the problem do so willfully with intent.
As far as …
… goes — Lawsuits are a function of Law and are irrelevant where lawlessness obtains. When a lawsuit challenges and prevails over an unlawful law, precedent is established and the lawsuit becomes the law. A government “respects” something because if it is compelled to abide by the law. Whatever form that compulsion assumes be it enforcement, lawsuit or the voting booth.
I don’t like or promote rabid dogs and so do not favor them — But I have a healthy respect for them. I’m not calling gun owners “rabid dogs”, I’m merely providing an example where someone might not side with a thing while still respecting it.
A rattlesnake would serve as well as a rabid dog and does so via the Gadsden Flag. Having served in the Marine Corps I have a peculiar affinity for that flag as it was carried by Continental Marines during the Revolutionary War.
Your point proves my point so I’m not sure where you’re going with that. It seems like a circular argument to me.
I’m not sure I’d give Uncle Sam much credit for defending our gun rights if we have to drag him to the fight by his hair…
But the rest makes sense now that you’ve hooked up a winch to pull the point out of the details.
Just to be clear, I’m not giving anyone, including Uncle Sam, any credit for anything at all. Though I am laying considerable blame exactly where it belongs.
I was taught way back in my school days by good teachers. Who made it clear that government is always a necessary evil and never to be trusted.
Uncle Sam doesn’t “defend our gun rights”. Uncle Sam didn’t give us those rights and Uncle Sam can’t defend those rights. We do that or it doesn’t get done. That’s why the Founders gave us power over our government and spelled out our natural, God Given “Endowed by our Creator” right to arms.
If you’re waiting around for Uncle Sam to defend your gun rights you haven’t been paying attention or don’t understand how all this works.
The challenge is in not letting our fellow citizens exercise more power than we do and give the whole show away for a song, a dance and a “howdy do to you too.”
There is no aspect of Uncle Sam that was put there except by intention on someone’s part and/or neglect on the part of someone else.
“The gubmint” isn’t our enemy. It is sure as hell not our friend either. It is a dangerous but necessary tool and if we don’t keep a very close rein on it, it will turn around and cheerfully eat us. This is nothing new, it has always been the case. It will eat us with exactly the same gusto it does anything else. This is what governments do naturally.
You can’t blame governments for acting according to their nature. You might as well blame a skunk for its smell. That doesn’t mean you want to be infested with either skunks or bad government.
The enemy is POWER. No matter who wields it or which side they are on. The government is just a channel for that enemy, it is not the enemy itself. That enemy will use a Republican with all the enthusiasm it will use a Democrat, if it can do so to further its own agenda.
It is the enemy itself that needs to be fought, Fighting the government, or demonizing it as some sort of cogent entity, is a huge mistake that siphons off efforts in the wrong direction to combat the real enemy.
If people don’t wake back up to that fact we all might as well crawl into big hot dog buns and cover ourselves in ketchup. Because we’re lunch if that happens.
Power plays for keeps.
You certainly have a point about the enemy being power itself. Big companies that implement any version of ESG are as dangerous as the state of California or the Federal Government. Robert Heinlein even called Coca-Cola Holdings scary in his novel Friday.
Hah! Another Heinlein fan! Welcome aboard!
Evil loves power because evil by it’s nature must spread itself everywhere it can. Evil must dominate or evil would become inconsequential. Power is the tool evil prefers above all others, all others are ancillary tools.
Some concentration of power is unavoidable. Our Founding Fathers knew that well. They sought to restrain evil’s access to power and were successful.
So evil had to divert from the original map laid out by the Founders and find new avenues of power.
It’s all the same evil, it’s all the same quest for power. Evil must be restrained and its access to power restricted, no matter what form that power takes. Evil will use deception, guile, subtlety and craft to find it’s way to power.
Having grasped power evil will seek to destroy its enemies directly in proportion to amount of power it wields. This is one of the sure signs of evil at work.
The “Anti-Voting Rights Act” now being promoted by elements of Evil is a prime example and an obvious telltale. The Cold War provides another … The West never had the goal of destroying the U.S.S.R., merely to contain and limit it to its own spaces. While the Communists most certainly did have the goal of destroying the West and openly stated so often. Yet another example is demonstrated by Big Tech’s censorship of voices not supporting the Leftist narrative.
We cannot fail to recognize this or we tie our own hands behind our backs and will fall on our own faces.
And the fact is that our Secretary of Transportation doesn’t care. Remember that he took a so-called “maternity leave” while ignoring what he absolutely knew was happening. And I think you can easily guess who paid for that leave.
These people don’t care about what happens to the United States as long as their desires get promoted. I can’t help but think that we are getting closer to another civil war, and those of us in flyover country will be encouraged to use our Second Amendment rights should a sudden shift in legal activities take place. God help us all.
So I will pose a killing two birds with one stone type of solution.
A massive federal agency was create about 20 years ago with the interesting name of the Transportation Security Administration. From their website:
MissionProtect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.
VisionAn agile security agency, embodied by a professional workforce, that engages its partners and the American people to outmatch a dynamic threat.
Speaking only for myself, this agency is an abject failure at its mission. They catch virtually nothing and certainly do not aide in “Freedom of Movement for people” However, it is notable that their mission also includes commerce. Now there are 10s of thousands of TSA workers. Some in LA/CA. Since part of their mission is freedom of movement of commerce, they can ride the rails an be security in the box cars.
No need to hire more, just reassign them from airport duty to boxcar duty. The travel experience at airports (if anyone is using those) would improve and Petey can say he “did something” which is all any Pol cares about. Not if it worked just that they reacted.
ACTS – How the hell do you type this much regularly? I need a nap 😉
I type somewhere north of 90 WPM, I’ve been typing since high school. A friend of mine named Eric and I were the only boys in our high school touch typing class. Both of our parents owned typewriters (mine was an old Royal) so we just decided it would be a good skill to acquire. I don’t know if Eric still types or not, he works in the industrial side of National Defense.
So I type at about the same speed as I talk, or think, it’s a thought flow processing thing for me. I can take dictation in full text typing too, no need for shorthand or a steno machine.
It takes me about the same amount of time to type something out as it takes you to read it.*
I had no idea when I learned touch typing that computers, and thus keyboards, would become an ubiquitous thing in the future. Turned out to be one of the better academic decisions I made but solely serendipitous even so.
It’s a pretty weird experience for people to find out I can do that. I look more like a biker than a computer geek. I always had to meet grooming standards when I was in government service so when I left that I decided to grow some hair while I still could. I also avoid using black ink for handwriting and now use fountain pens exclusively with various colors of bottled ink.
I have a lot of weird quirks. Like my wristwatch obsession …
Back to the topic …
I didn’t know that Transportation already had it’s own cops but I should have. It seems like there’s a Federal cop for just about anything so why would Transportation be any different?
That commerce is being affected by robbery of trains would certainly seem to fall under the jurisdiction of those Transport cops. That they’re not being deployed against that kind of thing is also telling. The Feds love to throw their weight around, moving or adding more Transport and Commerce cops would be a good excuse for a budget boost. So not doing that and allowing a situation like described by Bill above means not that there’s some sort of obstacle, it means there’s a lack of will to do so.
I doubt this situation has just cropped up out of nowhere after Potato Joe took office. It’s more likely to have existed for a longer period so then the question is “Why didn’t Trump, or Obama, do something about this?”
(*Just for fun I went back and timed how long it took me to read this. It took 1 minute and 4 seconds. That’s about how long it took to actually do the typing too. Plus error correction and editing for clarity so maybe 3 minutes tops to type everything in this reply except this paragraph. Like I said, quirks.)
Those “tire thumpers” you may have seen for sale at truck stops aren’t really for tires. Just saying.
My first thought was bring back the Pinkertons. But Bill is probably correct, the first time someone gets hurt it will be the private security the railroad hired who will go to jail.
BTW – If you like a good detective story and want to read a series set in the early 1900s when train was the fastest mode of travel and communication was by telegraph, try the Clive Cussler Isaac Bell series. Found them very entertaining. And the various private security for railroads are included as characters.
I’ve actually got one of those I grabbed at Goodwiil, but haven’t read yet. Gonna look forward to having time more now.
You all talk as though this was not a planned extension of the Cloward-Piven-inspired Antifa/BLM/COVID-19 (dangerous “vaccines”, lockdowns, and ineffective masks) that the Democrats and their GOPe allies have foisted on us…
It’s hard to say which is craftily planned, which is an unintended but welcome consequence and which is stupidity when it comes to the Democrat Left.
A certainty is that they are great opportunists and will seize any excuse to further their agenda.
In any case, I prefer not to give them undue credit for their intelligence because “malice” covers it all any way you look at it.
As Kurt Schlichter once wrote, “Ther difference between LA and Mogudishu is… two weeks.” His point was that if you keep the shipments of food in the trucks & trains out of LA, in two weeks you will have total anarchy. Sadly, to people like GIv. French Laundry, ruining the lives of Normals is a feature, not a bug