FEC Sued for Arresting Trespassers.

[Kyle]

jimnorton

Mac:

In other terms, news worthyness aside........All trespassers are trespassers.  And, all trespassers are subject to loss of life or limb.  I think we all can all agree on this.

However, there is one demographic of trespassers who inflicts untold property damage, costs the railroads money, compromises operations (i.e. reporting marks)  and effects safety (i,e, reflective striping).  It ain't the joggers, the pedestrians nor the photographers!   Psssst,,,,,,its the one many of you think is harmless and not worth apprehending......(the vandal.)

 

Here is my rub.  By excluding the vandal from trespassing concerns the railroads appear to be doing an admirable job of keeping future brides, fitness nuts and shutterbugs off  the property.   But to acknowledge that the same property is being over ran by a legion of spray paint toting armies would be an admission of epic failure. 

The hypocrisy on behalf of the industry is staggering.  Ignore the trespasser which actually costs the company money while pursuing the ones which don't.    Hmmmmmm.

Maybe if there where more joggers, photographers, and pedestrians that safely are near RR property (or on if they don't pass no trespassing signs and stay a safe distance away from the tracks), than they could help the RR by contacting the RR or local police when they see vandals.  That would make everyone happy, except te broke vandals who would be cleaning graffiti off of rolling stock and structures.

[Paul of Covington]

   Now that this thread has become a continuation of the anti-graffiti one of a few weeks ago...

   I don't know how much graffiti is done in active yards, but I'm sure it is very little, and pretty sure it is close to zero percent on active mainlines like the FEC line, so if the RR police apprehend very few graffiti artists, it's most likely because there aren't many there.

[Semper Vaporo]

I really don't understand why some of you are claiming the RRs do not arrest the vandal tagger... where do you get that stupid notion?

Sure, you see media coverage of the arrests of railfans, the casual trespasser or the child on the rails.  But that is because they are doing their trespass in an area where the RR police see them the most often.  Ask any RR police officer or former officer and they say they would arrest any trespasser, regardless of why they were trespassing... some might get a lecture and released without formal charges, but those that only get a lecture would be the casual trespasser, not the vandal.

The vandal gets away with it because they hide from the police, they do their ignorant deeds at night on property that is not patrolled by the RRs, they do their vandalism in areas where it would be hard to detect them.

THINK for a while about where RR cars are stored when not in motion.  Sure, some are stored in active yards where there are employees that can watch for trespassers, but many are stored on sidings in out-of-the-way places where it would be very fiscally irresponsible to hire someone to sit and watch the cars so no idiot (sorry Mookie, they are "IDIOTS" in any sense of the word) can access them. How much would it cost to fence in all the RR tracks... with a fence that is impenetrable by the idiot intent on committing vandalism?  (The Secret service cannot even protect the Whitehouse!)

Besides, many cars are left alone on property that does not belong to the RR and that area is not patrolled by the owner of that property.  It has been said that some graffiti is done by the employees of those companies that have RR cars on their property, do ya think they're gonna arrest themselves!

Now, THINK about the number of all trespassers that do not get arrested or even accosted by the RR police.  How many hunters wander down RR tracks seeking game and nobody even sees them?  How many joggers use RR ROW for their morning exercise and don't get caught?  How many children cross tracks at other than sanctioned places and don't get hassled by anybody?

I really cannot count how many of the above their might be, but I would wager that the number of unapprehended casual trespassers is 1000's of times more than unapprehended vandals.

I say that those that are apprehended are just so stupid that they do their idiocy where they CAN be apprehended.  I hate to say this, but maybe the idiot vandal is a wee bit smarter than some of the casual trespassers and that is why they don't get caught as often.

Gheesh, how can you think that the RRs give vandals a bye?  Now that is approaching the same level of idiocy as the casual trespasser.

[jimnorton]

Paul of Covington:  You would be surprised where tagging takes place.  I used to think it was under the cover of darkness.  Its not.  Go to you tube and watch videos of vandals defacing railroad property anywhere and everywhere.  Believe it or not, despite this being a crime and destruction of public property its there for all to see.

I recently watched a BNSF reefer being tagged on Youtube.  It was daytime on a visable siding with a stream of automobiles going by on an adjacent street.   The fact it is done with so little concern for being apprehended makes it all the more maddening.  

Sorry to redirect this thread but when somebody is hassled for walking on the right of way and just down the way an 89' autorack can be literally covered top to bottom and side to side with spray paint it just ain't right to be preaching the ills of trespassing.

[blue streak 1]

wanswheel

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.793371,-80.192589,17z

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A look at the map shows that this route will be for both AAF and intermodal traffic to the sea port.  It will be double tracked (CTC) in the future to the AAF Miami terminal.