The Graffiti Attacks Continue

ZOBEX · **Joined:** Tue Nov 03, 2020 2:39 pm **Posts:** 69

Ed Kapuscinski wrote:
You will be hard pressed to find a city in the United States run by an actual "leftist" despite what Fox News, Oann and Newsmax will try and have you believe.

Portland... Seattle... New York City...

If Jenny Derkin, Ted Wheeler, and Bill Di Blasio don't meet your threshold for "leftists", then you're gonna have to fill us in on your definition.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I went to a Social Justice rally in Portland and took this video -
[url]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2xlQaimsGg[/url]

Later we stood around a bonfire and sang "Kumbaya" then expressed our selves on the police station and Costo . Artistic expression and outrage at social injustice and Daddy did not buy me a new Corvette.

It's all in perspective. French l'art pour l'art. Not vandalism .

.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2020 7:46 pm

The point of my first threads on this topic was not debating the politics.

The point was "This could start coming to hit you, no matter how apolitical your organization."

Further "warning":

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/l ... 16325.html

Quote:

Two Bellingham women were charged with a terrorist attack and violence against the BNSF Railway Company after they allegedly interfered with the railroad’s safety features last weekend by placing a shunt on the tracks near Bellingham.

Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, and Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23, were booked into the Whatcom County Jail on Sunday, Nov. 29, each on suspicion of malicious injury to railroad property and second-degree criminal trespassing. Jail records show both were transferred into federal custody on Monday, Nov. 30.

Brooks and Reiche appeared in federal court in Seattle on Monday, when they were charged with terrorist attack and other violence against a railroad carrier, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.

A shunt is an object that disrupts the low-level electrical current on railroad tracks and disables various safety features and can cause derailment, decoupling or failure of gates at crossings, endangering the public, according to the release. Shunts are comprised of wire and magnets stretched between the track so that they can disrupt systems that normally would show when a train is on the tracks.

“Since January there have been 41 incidents of shunts placed on the BNSF tracks in Whatcom and Skagit counties — causing crossing guards to malfunction, interfering with automatic breaking (sic) systems, and, in one case, causing the near-derailment of tanks of hazardous chemicals,” U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in the release. “These crimes endanger our community.” . . .

The FBI’s Terrorism Task Force had been investigating shunts being placed on BNSF tracks in the area since Jan. 19, 2020, according to the criminal complaint.

Shortly after the first shunts were discovered in January, the release said that a claim of responsibility was published on an anarchist website.

On Saturday, Nov. 28, BNSF police viewed video surveillance of two people kneeling on tracks near a Bellingham crossing, according to the release. Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputies responded and arrested Brooks and Reiche for trespassing.

Brooks and Reiche had a paper bag containing wire, a drill with a brush head and rubber gloves, according to the release, and the wire was similar to that used in other shunts that had been left.

(Emphasis added just in case someone wants to claim that this is just some "youth expressing themselves" or it's a "false flag operation)"

More at the link, as usual.

We've spent some time and pixels fretting about "if/when the next Gettysburg/Medina will happen." To my mind, it seems just as likely and worrisome there will be a "next Amtrak Sunset Limited sabotage derailment", and not just on Amtrak..........

I already know of one operation that now has a general notice prominently posted on its crew bulletin board to "watch closely for objects being placed on the rails in an attempt to derail"............... Of course, there are operations in more urban settings where this has always been the case (B&O RR Museum's "First Mile," Baltimore Streetcar Museum's track, etc.).

p51 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2020 10:58 pm

I worked with a guy many years ago who argued that all graffiti was 'art', no matter what it was. As someone who'd just finished art school and was getting published, naturally I took the contrary position.
Funny thing; one day, his car and fence got covered in gang tags. From that moment, he never saw it as "art" again. I used to mock him often, and savagely, for ever saying it was art when it happened to someone's else's stuff.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

The point was "This could start coming to hit you, no matter how apolitical your organization."

Further "warning":

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/l ... 16325.html

We've spent some time and pixels fretting about "if/when the next Gettysburg/Medina will happen." To my mind, it seems just as likely and worrisome there will be a "next Amtrak Sunset Limited sabotage derailment", and not just on Amtrak..........

It was only once something serious (and Federal) got threatened did anyone take it seriously. Otherwise, it's "first amendment covers any insane thing you wanna do" nonsense that proves how few people have actually read the constitution (and scary enough, many of them with badges/guns or gavels).
The truly frightening thing now is that punishment is so sporadic and lawmakers so terrified of pressing laws, we now have a generation who think that anything they want to do, no matter how insane, is justified in their minds.
That fact alone should keep you all awake at night.

joe6167 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 03, 2020 3:40 am

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

The point of my first threads on this topic was not debating the politics.

The point was "This could start coming to hit you, no matter how apolitical your organization."

Further "warning":

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/l ... 16325.html

Quote:

Two Bellingham women were charged with a terrorist attack and violence against the BNSF Railway Company after they allegedly interfered with the railroad’s safety features last weekend by placing a shunt on the tracks near Bellingham.

Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, and Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23, were booked into the Whatcom County Jail on Sunday, Nov. 29, each on suspicion of malicious injury to railroad property and second-degree criminal trespassing. Jail records show both were transferred into federal custody on Monday, Nov. 30.

Brooks and Reiche appeared in federal court in Seattle on Monday, when they were charged with terrorist attack and other violence against a railroad carrier, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.

A shunt is an object that disrupts the low-level electrical current on railroad tracks and disables various safety features and can cause derailment, decoupling or failure of gates at crossings, endangering the public, according to the release. Shunts are comprised of wire and magnets stretched between the track so that they can disrupt systems that normally would show when a train is on the tracks.

“Since January there have been 41 incidents of shunts placed on the BNSF tracks in Whatcom and Skagit counties — causing crossing guards to malfunction, interfering with automatic breaking (sic) systems, and, in one case, causing the near-derailment of tanks of hazardous chemicals,” U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in the release. “These crimes endanger our community.” . . .

The FBI’s Terrorism Task Force had been investigating shunts being placed on BNSF tracks in the area since Jan. 19, 2020, according to the criminal complaint.

Shortly after the first shunts were discovered in January, the release said that a claim of responsibility was published on an anarchist website.

On Saturday, Nov. 28, BNSF police viewed video surveillance of two people kneeling on tracks near a Bellingham crossing, according to the release. Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputies responded and arrested Brooks and Reiche for trespassing.

Brooks and Reiche had a paper bag containing wire, a drill with a brush head and rubber gloves, according to the release, and the wire was similar to that used in other shunts that had been left.

(Emphasis added just in case someone wants to claim that this is just some "youth expressing themselves" or it's a "false flag operation)"

More at the link, as usual.

We've spent some time and pixels fretting about "if/when the next Gettysburg/Medina will happen." To my mind, it seems just as likely and worrisome there will be a "next Amtrak Sunset Limited sabotage derailment", and not just on Amtrak..........

I already know of one operation that now has a general notice prominently posted on its crew bulletin board to "watch closely for objects being placed on the rails in an attempt to derail"............... Of course, there are operations in more urban settings where this has always been the case (B&O RR Museum's "First Mile," Baltimore Streetcar Museum's track, etc.).

Did you guys know that earlier this year in Canada, BEFORE covid, a bunch of fake indian protesters (anti-pipeline white boys from Ontario being funded by the Rockefeller Brothers) shut down the entire CN system in Canada for maybe 2-3 months, by blockading the line in a few key places? Complete with sabotage and all kinds of really stupid crap.

The railway had nothing to do with anything they were protesting. Most importantly, the authorities WOULD NOT DO ANYTHING to stop or arrest these people.

Also, these people have no idea how the physics of trains work, if you know what I mean...

ZOBEX · **Joined:** Tue Nov 03, 2020 2:39 pm **Posts:** 69

In The News Today
-------------------------------

Ellen Brennan Reiche, one of two women charged this week in Seattle for allegedly attempting a terrorist attack on a railroad, was reportedly the deputy field organizer for the Democratic Party in Washington state.

US Attorney Brian Moran announced the charges, saying that the 23-year-old Reiche and Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, were arrested on Saturday night after they allegedly placed a "shunt" on BNSF railroad tracks in Bellingham, Washington. A shunt is comprised of wire and magnets stretched between the tracks to disrupt the low-level electrical current and can be used to derail a train, cause train cars to decouple, or stop safety gates from coming down at railroad crossings, Moran said.

--------------------------------

Why does this not surprise me, Democratic Party in Washington State.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:46 pm

There has already been debate in this forum over the ever-increasing prospect (once laughable, now very much not so) of legal actions or sanctions being carried out against our operations for visible (or even invisible) carbon emissions and/or the continued use of fossil fuels.

The proverbial can was simply kicked down the road, with one notable exception: The Grand Canyon Railway (which, admittedly, has the National Park Service to worry about).

We can strive to be apolitical for good reason, but we ignore politics at our vast peril.

jayrod · **Posted:** Sat Dec 05, 2020 11:30 am

Sigh.... I don’t know why I keep reading this thread. But, I’m just gonna throw this non-political “opinion” out there for contemplation. I’ve observed increasingly over the past few years that a fair portion of the planet’s population seem to have an awfully hard time separating fact from opinion. Or fact from fiction. This “observation” has worked well for others over the millennia in whipping the ill-informed into a frenzy. The truth is out there if you care to look. I fear our collective future.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:44 pm

jayrod wrote:

The truth is out there if you care to look. I fear our collective future.

RCD · **Posted:** Sun Dec 27, 2020 7:40 pm

First of all if you want to deal with vandals you have to think like a vandal now if I was a vandal would really piss me off is if someone vandalized my vandalism. An example of somebody putting their tag over my tag or gets randomly spray painting crap over what I just did. Also an idiot talk about erasing history please show me where there was Stalin statue in Russia or Hitler statue in Germany.

ZOBEX · **Joined:** Tue Nov 03, 2020 2:39 pm **Posts:** 69

RCD wrote:

First of all if you want to deal with vandals you have to think like a vandal now if I was a vandal would really piss me off is if someone vandalized my vandalism. An example of somebody putting their tag over my tag or gets randomly spray painting crap over what I just did. Also an idiot talk about erasing history please show me where there was Stalin statue in Russia or Hitler statue in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_of_Joseph_Stalin

Many statues can be found at Fallen Monument Park, Moscow.
Bust at his tomb in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow.
Bust in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow.[11]
Statue of Stalin along with Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the All-Russia Exhibition Center, Moscow.
A large Stalin statue stood at the All-Russia Exhibition Center until 1948.
A large statue of Stalin (created in 1952 by sculptor E.V. Vuchetich) stood in a southern suburb of Volgograd until 1961. A huge statue of Lenin, created by the same sculptor, was set up in the same spot and on the same base in 1972.
A bust stands at the Memorial of Glory in Vladikavkaz.
A bust stands at School No. 2 in Ardon, North Ossetia.[12]
There is bust of Stalin in the Communist Party's regional headquarters in Bryansk.[13]
A bust of Stalin is in Kizel.
A statue in Nogir [ru], North Ossetia–Alania.
A statue of Stalin is in the yard of School No.2, Ardon, North Ossetia–Alania.
A bust of Stalin in the village of Chokh, Dagestan.
A bust of Stalin at a square in Derbent, Dagestan.

RCD · **Posted:** Sun Jan 03, 2021 12:08 am

ZOBEX wrote:

RCD wrote:

First of all if you want to deal with vandals you have to think like a vandal now if I was a vandal would really piss me off is if someone vandalized my vandalism. An example of somebody putting their tag over my tag or gets randomly spray painting crap over what I just did. Also an idiot talk about erasing history please show me where there was Stalin statue in Russia or Hitler statue in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_of_Joseph_Stalin

Many statues can be found at Fallen Monument Park, Moscow.
Bust at his tomb in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow.
Bust in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow.[11]
Statue of Stalin along with Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the All-Russia Exhibition Center, Moscow.
A large Stalin statue stood at the All-Russia Exhibition Center until 1948.
A large statue of Stalin (created in 1952 by sculptor E.V. Vuchetich) stood in a southern suburb of Volgograd until 1961. A huge statue of Lenin, created by the same sculptor, was set up in the same spot and on the same base in 1972.
A bust stands at the Memorial of Glory in Vladikavkaz.
A bust stands at School No. 2 in Ardon, North Ossetia.[12]
There is bust of Stalin in the Communist Party's regional headquarters in Bryansk.[13]
A bust of Stalin is in Kizel.
A statue in Nogir [ru], North Ossetia–Alania.
A statue of Stalin is in the yard of School No.2, Ardon, North Ossetia–Alania.
A bust of Stalin in the village of Chokh, Dagestan.
A bust of Stalin at a square in Derbent, Dagestan.

So where are the Hitler statues? We don't have statues of Benedict Arnold. But we know who he is.

Connie4800 · **Joined:** Mon May 28, 2018 11:28 pm **Posts:** 90

Woah golly, yet another political hand-wringing ohmahgawshing thread where we talk about the very railroad-preservation oriented things such as... how all of mexico, apparently, is run by gangs, and the universities are communist, and this is communist and that's communist and the communists are taking your trains and ruining your cities.

How many more times will the geinus boomers of RYPN insert their idiotic politics into a train fourm?

RCD · **Posted:** Sun Jan 03, 2021 12:44 pm

Quote:

You're actually lamenting the take down of Hitler statues?

It's good that we have these discussions so that we can see who's what and where. Now I understand why so many people are afraid of these discussions...

Nice try, I'm just pointing out the idiocy a certain political viewpoints that say taking down statues of traitors such as those that took place in the Civil War on the Confederate side is not erasing history just as Germany taking down statues of Hitler is not racing history. Speaking of people with political ideology vandalizing historic landmarks I doubt it's a Biden voting crowd that has shot up that Emmett Till sign in Mississippi. In fact the vandalism to the Emmett Till Memorial has gotten so bad they had to replace it with a bulletproof version.

Connie4800 wrote:

Woah golly, yet another political hand-wringing ohmahgawshing thread where we talk about the very railroad-preservation oriented things such as... how all of mexico, apparently, is run by gangs, and the universities are communist, and this is communist and that's communist and the communists are taking your trains and ruining your cities.

How many more times will the geinus boomers of RYPN insert their idiotic politics into a train fourm?

yeah I agree but as long as it's in railfanning nobody cares.

Bobulltech · **Joined:** Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:24 pm **Posts:** 139

joe6167 wrote:

RCD wrote:

First of all if you want to deal with vandals you have to think like a vandal now if I was a vandal would really piss me off is if someone vandalized my vandalism. An example of somebody putting their tag over my tag or gets randomly spray painting crap over what I just did. Also an idiot talk about erasing history please show me where there was Stalin statue in Russia or Hitler statue in Germany.

Are you actually comparing American Historical figures and history to Hitler and Stalin?

Do you have any understanding of nazism and communism? Every day I get to walk in streets where actual nazi jackboots marched. Every street corner in my city has a memorial to where the nazis executed people in one random house or another.

Heck during the war Hitler ordered the systematic destruction of this city, with German troops moving block by block setting demolition charges or using flamethrowes. Over 90% of the city was looted and destroyed, with a focus on things of historic or cultural value. It took decades to recover, and to this day there are still building riddled with bullet holes.

Not to mention the fact that they murdered million upon millions of people. And took millions more as slaves

And then the communists came. As bad as the Germans were, I can tell you that Poles hate the Russians/Communists even more.

Erasing history is a standard tactic of the communists.

All this freedom you presently enjoy under your constitution... it's not going to be around for much longer. At this point, you can likely measure it in weeks. The communists are on the verge of winning.

I saw the communist takeover of Canada happening, so I packed up and left. I didn't think it was going to spread to the whole world, but thanks to this damn virus, they found a way...

The Russians quickly eliminated partisan forces in Poland after their use was done in the german defeat.

I have seen the same american influence graffiti in Sicily of all places.

It's very interesting seeing how my Polish colleagues look at the world. While they are based in Krakow the ones from a rural background seem less influenced by these changes. When I was working at Slupsk there was almost none of this influence

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:11 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

Ed Kapuscinski wrote:

So why isn't that your first presumption here, too? That it's a bunch of red hatted kids doing this to make BLM advocates look like vandals?

Because "red-hatted kids" (which, BTW, is something I've not actually seen) in theory: 1) actually respect the concept of private property and 2) have JOBS and/or schoolwork.

Ouch. This post didn't age so well...