From: stephen@sprunk.org

On 17-Apr-14 12:27, Sancho Panza wrote:
> On 4/17/2014 11:09 AM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
>> On 16-Apr-14 22:57, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>> Stephen Sprunk  wrote:
>>>> On 16-Apr-14 08:58, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>>>> Any company official can make a police report for trespass,
>>>>> but that doesn't mean someone would have been arrested. If
>>>>> you don't want to be intimidated, don't let yourself be
>>>>> intimidated.
>>>>>
>>>>> It's not like these two people wouldn't have been known to
>>>>> their own police department.
>>>>
>>>> But they wouldn't be "known" or "untouchable" to railroad
>>>> police or federal agents; they'd be potential terrorists.
>>>
>>> Last I looked, making a false police report
>>
>> Who said the report would be false?  If someone is trespassing on
>> a railroad and asking questions about hazmat, and I correctly
>> report those facts to the police, that report is not false.  It is
>> up to the police to investigate whether a crime has occurred.
>
> The article says the Pan Am manager, who presumably threatened the
> two key civil officials charged with responsibility for handling
> such accidents, called the police. Not the F.B.I. Not the railroad
> police.

More on that below.

> It is more than notable that the fire chief in the photograph
> accompanying the article was prominently wearing a shiny badge and what
> looks like an identification tag, ...

... which anyone can buy at a costume/uniform shop or make at home.  How
are railroad employees, who pass through hundreds or even thousands of
local jurisdictions, supposed to be able to validate them?

> Once on scene, Ross said she and Targ were ordered by Rail General
> Manager Luke McCaul to get off the tracks. Ross said they were told
> they were trespassing even after the two identified themselves as
> Westford officials;

Even if the fire chief did have jurisdiction under state law to
investigate the accident (not claimed in the article, and probably
preempted by federal law anyway), the city manager did not and was
therefore trespassing after being ordered to leave.

> she added Police Chief Tom McEnaney then called to inform her he was
> contacted by Boston and Maine Railroad Police for reports of
> trespassers near the cars.

So, contrary to your claim above, the railroad employee _did_ call the
railroad police to report the trespassers, who then apparently put in a
mutual-aid call to the local police.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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