Domestic Terror Charge in Rail Sabotage WA State

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

2 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

They should build a causeway from Racine to Saugatuck!

Or a 'trucks only' tunnel under Chicago. 

[gowlerk 1,904]

1 minute ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Or a 'trucks only' tunnel under Chicago. 

Oh good God. Imagine being caught in a wreck in the middle of that!

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

1 minute ago, gowlerk said:

Oh good God. Imagine being caught in a wreck in the middle of that!

Ever been through the "Big Dig" in Boston?

Something similar. 
Trucks only so (in theory ) professional drivers.
Moderate speeds (say 50 mph-80km/h) mandatory following distances. No passing. No placarded hazmat.

Enforced by cameras. 

[gowlerk 1,904]

1 minute ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Ever been through the "Big Dig" in Boston?

Something similar. 
Trucks only so (in theory ) professional drivers.
Moderate speeds (say 50 mph-80km/h) mandatory following distances. No passing. No placarded hazmat.

Enforced by cameras. 

I have not. I have not been that way for more than 10 years. It's out of range for me on my one week on truck share thankfully. 

[billvon 2,393]

4 hours ago, gowlerk said:

Almost like throwing someone else’s tea into a harbour. String the  commies up! Do it now!

I think the appropriate response is to "put them up against a wall and shoot them."

[olofscience 420]

4 hours ago, markharju said:

Kindly stop calling me a liar.

With zingers such as the number of mosques in Edinburgh, especially for us in the UK, your track record of truth isn't very good.

[obelixtim 100]

As for disrupting a country, one nerdy hacker, with a click of a mouse, can bring the whole infrastructure of a country to a halt. Damaging a railway line is small bikkies compared to that. 

 Lying to the populace as to the danger of a virus can cause a lot of deaths as well. 

 Who is the bigger "terrorist"? 

[riggerrob 558]

Holy thread drift Batman!

This thread started with markharju quoting a recent arrest near Bellingham, Washington.

Then the thread rapidly devolved into personal attacks about whether the saboteurs were communist or anarchist or fascist or ...

I don't really care what their political bend is because tampering with public transport - in a way that might injure innocents - is a crime! No different a crime than Viet Cong killing civilian farmers, Pol Pot killing Cambodian urbanites, Stalin killing Ukranians, Hitler killing Jews, Stalin exiling Tatars, etc. all those acts of public violence are crimes.

This alleged sabotage happened near Bellingham, Washington, little more than a hour's drive from where I type my response.

[gowlerk 1,904]

9 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

This thread started with markharju quoting a recent arrest near Bellingham, Washington.

Then the thread rapidly devolved into personal attacks about whether the saboteurs were communist or anarchist or fascist or ...

That is because the OP was not commenting on rail safety. He was commenting on a political level. This was not thread drift at all. It was the intention of the post. 

[billvon 2,393]

51 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

I don't really care what their political bend is because tampering with public transport - in a way that might injure innocents - is a crime! No different a crime than Viet Cong killing civilian farmers, Pol Pot killing Cambodian urbanites, Stalin killing Ukranians, Hitler killing Jews

I agree, it's a crime.  But "just like Hitler?"  Come on.

What this sabotage does, specifically, is cause the track to indicate that that block is occupied.  In other words, the train gets a red light.  Now at that point they can get out and find the shunt and remove it.  Or they can ignore the red light and proceed.  If they do that, they run the risk of hitting another train because they ignored a red signal or (as in this case) tripping an emergency braking system that prevents trains from ignoring red signal lights.

It's definitely a crime.  But it's sorta different than Hitler killing Jews, don't you think?  It's more like kids throwing snowballs at cars, or vandals spraypainting the windshield of a bus.  Could either one cause a crash that kills a bus full of schoolkids?  Absolutely - and that's why they are illegal.

Let's keep things in perspective here.