The shooter had a TWIC and subsequently disarmed a guard and killed another. I’m sure that the fact he had unrestricted access will be brought up. I mourn for the victims family but wonder what the fall out for the rest of us TWIC holders will be.
Any thoughts?
Really tragic event. When I was in the Navy, we underwent a dry docking period at PSNS Bremerton. I have to say a lot of the people who had access to the ship, based on my first impressions, were pretty sketchy characters. Some seemed like they were meth heads, others had mental illnesses or developmental issues. In the case of the latter, I’m not against finding work for these people, but is this really the right environment?
Regardless of the people I encountered while in the Navy yards, I obviously have no idea who this whack-job was that disarmed the guard and started shooting. All I know is that the Navy should reconsider who it employs/contracts (both civilian and military).
As for TWIC, I’m not a mariner yet (just got accepted to an academy), but if it is anything like other issues relating to our government, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just slow the process down and make it more difficult for honest, trustworthy, hard working mariners while at the same time granting TWICs or Navy facility access like candy to people like I mentioned…shadey people as to avoid stereotyping/discrimination accusations…(TSA screenings??)
Hopefully this tragedy will eliminate this waste of time and money. This card is not even acceptable ID to get into a USCG REC.
We just finished a job at Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville. In the middle of the job, the Security Staff at Mayport’s front gate started using fancy new bar code or chip reading guns to scan ID’s. (like the price scanners in grocery stores) None of the TWIC cards registered correctly. We were told they were invalid. But of course they were good. TWIC card reading technology is a big failure. Fortunately, Mayport has some really cute women Shore Patrol at the front gate, strapped and packed with big pistols that made the whole mess more enjoyable.
At the APM terminal in Portsmouth, Va, they use fingerprint readers for access into the terminal. Seams to do alright. Just hope the navy does not make every one get the rapid gate pass makes the twic cheap over a hundred and a quarter a YEAR. This is also run by the crooks in the beltway.
[QUOTE=Pilot;133857]At the APM terminal in Portsmouth, Va, they use fingerprint readers for access into the terminal. Seams to do alright. Just hope the navy does not make every one get the rapid gate pass makes the twic cheap over a hundred and a quarter a YEAR. This is also run by the crooks in the beltway.[/QUOTE]
I don’t think mis-identification was the problem … the nutjob didn’t start shooting because no one knew who he was. It just shows how absurd it is to think that the TSA or any other of the Gestapo agencies can protect anyone from some whacko who gets up in the morning and decides to do something like that.
This sort of thing only proves how ridiculous and pointless the whole “security” industry has become under the promotion of the defense lobby as it is forced to retool. They won’t stop until we are each escorted from our cells each morning to our place of work and guarded by some kind of robot that automatically tests for drugs, weapons, things that might become weapons, impure thoughts, and incorrect ideas.
Ah, the scent of 1930s Berlin is wafting through the hallways of Congress.
Security Theater at its finest. It’s actual mission is attempting to make the rest of us feel safer as we get patted and probed. It’s really nothing but a form of conditioning and requires heavy doses of fear-mongering to maintain.
Apparently the guy had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter and cocaine offenses… hmmm
Why doesn’t this surprise me??? How did they not learn their lesson after the last Navy shipyard shooting!? That shit heard discharged a firearm in Seattle city limits and NOTHING WAS DONE to prevent that guy from getting access. What a FARCE. So many of these tragedies could be prevented it seems if people actually did their jobs of doing thorough checks in these people!
[QUOTE=Saltgrain;133969]http://www.nbc12.com/story/25092148/sources-gunman-in-norfolk-navy-shooting-identified-as-ex-convict
Apparently the guy had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter and cocaine offenses… hmmm[/QUOTE]
It really does show what F’ing morons are running the show and how the whole process is a criminal waste of tax money and nothing more than a welfare program for the next generation of Gestapo agents and social control freaks.
I think the victim’s and POOW’s family should sue the Navy, Lockheed, the DHS, TSA, and Secretary of Defense for this obscene example of a lobbyist wet dream gone bad.
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The ice-cold reality is the Gestapo morons will just do more and deeper anal probes at the gates while charging more to ensure our “security.” Someone please provide us security from the idiots who run these programs.
[QUOTE=Steamer;133976]It really does show what F’ing morons are running the show and how the whole process is a criminal waste of tax money and nothing more than a welfare program for the next generation of Gestapo agents and social control freaks.
I think the victim’s and POOW’s family should sue the Navy, Lockheed, the DHS, TSA, and Secretary of Defense for this obscene example of a lobbyist wet dream gone bad.[/QUOTE]
Is it legal to sue someone on someone else’s behalf? Maybe we could get a little pool going here on gCaptain, under John’s supervision of course, and launch a little lawsuit or our own against the outright stupidity of the entire TWIC program, which is killing us and even congress doesn’t like.
Well said. If the news would stop focusing in these damn media circuses like Jody Arias and Justin Bieber, and shift their focus onto the incompetency of people running these “security” agencies, maybe we would get somewhere. Nope, not going to happen as it’s not “in” to talk about that stuff. The public isn’t concerned with actuality nor are the agencies. If they are able to provide the illusion of security, make John and Jane Doe flying out of bum fuck nowhere USA FEEL “safe” then their mission is accomplished. Too few people actually question whether or not they’re ACTUALLY “safe.” All talk, no action.
Yup, I’m a coke dealing, using mo-fo with a felony murder conviction driving a truck onto the worlds largest Navy base. But, by golly, I’ve got my TWIC. Don’t mind the ‘dirty’ bomb I’ve got on board. Bring back the Marines standing guard duty at the gates. There are going to be, or should be, some big heads rolling in this. Hopefully, the press stays on this story even with their lack of knowledge of all things military. Between 2 articles, USNI News and gCaptain, I finally have a picture of what went down. Thanks g.
The TWIC is no better than a library card- this according to some Congress critter.
CH in portsmouth NH playing trivia at the Rusty Hammer. God Bless the Ferdinand Hassler.
“The beleaguered Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, known by the initials TWIC, has been dealt a serious blow with a determination by the Department of Defense that it doesn’t meet DoD standards, and won’t be recognized for department purposes.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/420-million-tsa-program-doesnt-work/#RYkoAoQRiygSL8xC.99
“ILWU member William Ericson had his application for a TWIC card rejected in 2009 because a background check wrongly showed he was involved in a forgery case. Ericson had worked at the Port of Seattle for 12 years, but couldn’t work for 6 months, exhausted his savings, and came very close to losing his house through foreclosure. Another longshoreman from Seattle was denied because he was born on a military base overseas, that he was an American citizen. He also exhausted his life savings while waiting for his documentation from the military to satisfy the TWIC requirements.”
As we can now see, killing someone is OK but being wrongly listed as being “involved” in a forgery case comes close to a life sentence and prohibition from employment. Just wait until these security nazis start promoting internal passports like the Ruskies used to do … funny how we now seem to be doing all the things to each other that we based our entire defense industry on stopping back in the 50s and 60s.
http://www.ilwu.org/twic-flunks-latest-test/
It is time for heads to roll, start with the DHS, TSA, Secretary of Defense, the president of Lockheed, the base commander at Norfolk, and every individual who handled the documentation of the killer with a TWIC. Dump the TWIC and dump the whole homeland sekurity structure that has never, ever, managed to locate or identify a terrorist or prevent a terrorist attack or threat. The only people they have managed to reduce to harmless wrecks are the growing number of mistakenly identified souls who can no longer board a plane, keep their employment, or function within the escalating police state that our fathers and grandfathers went to war to stop outside our borders.
Let’s not let this incident fade, let’s make sure the news media, and the useless dregs in Congress know that we are disgusted with the loss of real security that a free people enjoy. We are neither secure or free.
“It is time for heads to roll, start with the DHS, TSA, Secretary of Defense, the president of LOCKHEED, the base commander at Norfolk, and every individual who handled the documentation of the killer with a TWIC”
You answered your own question, as long as Lockheed makes millions or billions off this boondoggle, it will never end. Some congresscritter from lockheeds district is explaining more Rigamoreroll and checks are needed (i.e. more Lockheed equiptment) is needed and Lockheed should get another contract. And Lockheed employees are saying “yeah, bring on the jobs”.
Twic is all about another jobs program created by the govt along with the TSA, Homeland security and most of lockheeds work.
[QUOTE=Doodlebug;134041]
You answered your own question…[/QUOTE]
Hell, I didn’t ask a question, I made a statement, a demand, that every bastard who has anything to do with the TWIC card program should be in the unemployment line Monday morning. And I mean every single one of them down to the former street people who man the TWIC centers. Shut the whole stinking thing down, fill the cesspool and sue Lockheed for non performance. Cancel every contract with Lockheed and prevent any Lockheed executive from ever being employed in any government contract job again.
Then open an investigation of every congress creep who ever took a single $ from Lockheed or any other TSA or DHS lobbyist.
[QUOTE=Steamer;134053]Hell, I didn’t ask a question, I made a statement, a demand, that every bastard who has anything to do with the TWIC card program should be in the unemployment line Monday morning. And I mean every single one of them down to the former street people who man the TWIC centers. Shut the whole stinking thing down, fill the cesspool and sue Lockheed for non performance. Cancel every contract with Lockheed and prevent any Lockheed executive from ever being employed in any government contract job again.
Then open an investigation of every congress creep who ever took a single $ from Lockheed or any other TSA or DHS lobbyist.[/QUOTE]
True, you didn’t ask a question only a statement, my error. You are correct and I agree with you 100%. Problem is it will never happen, Defense contractors (Lockweed) own the system.
I have been around TWIC from the start. It is/was a joke from day one.
Example: In 2009 while working at a Marine Terminal in Norfolk, I pulled up behind a dump truck at the gate as he was passing thru. He was delivering fill or something for all the construction there. He stopped waved at the “Guard” at the gate and kept on going. Longshoreman, and all others that work on the terminal are made to stop, hand the policeman your card and he looks at it and you, then you pass. Maybe asks a couple questions. I asked why the tuck driver didn’t pass his TWIC to him and he said it it none of my business.
Most likely the same for the pizza delivery guy coming onto the terminal. But The entire system is a joke and should be trashed.