Oops, my mistake!
http://rt.com/usa/new-york-gun-seizure-678/
It wasn’t Bloomberg that was busted – it was the two Yahoos from the Carolinas who had been recruited by undercover police to bring guns into New York – carrying them on the low cost buses run by the Chinese that STILL don’t require you to show a picture ID – so Homeland Security can’t track every person (OMG, I’m so scared!)
Bloomberg is one evil man. This police organized sting operation is being trotted out to try to justify Bloomberg’s policy of conducting random searches of Latinos and Blacks without probable cause.
One sign of hope is they had to go to the Carolinas to find two people stupid enough to fall for this.
My cousin in Boston regularly rides the Megabus (another Chinese run bus company) from Boston to/from New York. He prefers Amtrak – but has learned you can’t buy a last minute ticket on Amtrak even though the trains are half empty – the reason is that Homeland Security “needs” to screen everyone riding the train. Note that this isn’t true of commuter rail which goes into the same stations using the same bridges and tunnels.
You can never be too secure.
Wow. That implies that they have government employees eyeing each ticket purchase, or an overnight batch job. Shocking the government waste started by the two incumbent political parties.
Just for grins, I tried to see if it was feasible to take Amtrak from Chicago to Charlotte NC. I was shocked to learn there is only one train a day from Chicago to New York – and it is split at Albany – a part of the train goes South to New York and the other part goes to Boston.
You can also take the Senator Byrd memorial train through West Virginia to Washington DC or go via Pittsburgh and Philadelphia…. But no matter the choice, you wind up in Charlotte on the one train a day to Atlanta that arrives in the really seedy part of downtown at 2 AM
For completeness, I checked Megabus and Chinatown bus companies – their schedules are a bit schetchy – since the ICC no longer regulates interstate buses, they aren’t obligated to print schedules and tariffed prices. The two routes I found were Chicago to New York and New York to Charlotte or Chicago – Toledo – Atlanta – Charlotte… But it wouldn’t be cheaper than the airlines.
Unlike Greyhound or trailways with their legacy ICC thinking, the China buses don’t stop at every little town, which costs time and creates problems with unexpected capacity issues – you also now can’t ride Greyhound buses without a picture ID and those are also fed to police databases – you’ll see an arrest from time to time where they realize someone they’re looking for is on a bus.
You know, we’re just about at the point of having the infrastructure in place for Soviet Union style “internal passports”, requiring government approval to travel outside your own city. License plate readers and EZ pass toll gates could become effective enforcement mechanisms.
I’m surprised King Bloomberg didn’t come out and demand an end to the Chinese bus companies coming into the city
Interesting. I guess there is always some new way to beat the laws. This is scary – Megabus parks their buses in our transit garages. Hopefully, there are no bombers riding these days.
The only bus bomber I can remember is the one that had everyone glued to their seats 20 years ago. Fortunately Sandra Bullock saved everyone… and the result is a new federal agency.
CC – Good one! Keanu Reeves helped too 🙂
It’s been quite a while since a bus was hijacked to Cuba