Railworks America

From the Run8 board:

https://youtu.be/VsipYHlah6s

Obviously, in the simulation there is no organized crime robbing trains

This made National news here in the UK yesterday. Shocking. Containers were introduced in part to reduce theft at the Docks. 50 years later all they appear to have done is moved the theft locations.

mindenjohn wrote:This made National news here in the UK yesterday. Shocking. Containers were introduced in part to reduce theft at the Docks. 50 years later all they appear to have done is moved the theft locations.

Overseas containers of 40' are stuck solid in 40' wells on double stack cars, but there is room to crack their doors open in larger wells I suppose. And reaching to the upper layer of stacked containers isn't that hard either.

Obviously, no amount of lineside fencing or CCTV is preventing organized crime in places like these. And law enforcement doesn't bother itself with 'insured shipping' running over private property I think either.

Railroad police isn't there to fight ghetto crime, is it?

I would make a statement about law and order but it would be considered political by some so I will refrain.

At one time it was a Federal offence if arrested for burglarizing freight cars, now its a slap on the wrist. This was a couple of years ago, its got much more worse.
https://youtu.be/wtOOLilgYjg

Have there been any reports of this level of theft and pilferage outside California?

jgvaughan wrote:Have there been any reports of this level of theft and pilferage outside California?

As it so happens, yes. Well, maybe.


This is apparently in Chicago. No news stories yet, but if you search it up, it's a couple youtube videos, twitter videos, and a reddit post. Be warned: some of the video names are offensive.

Wonder if this will cause something. Chicago is the meeting point of 6 out of 7 North American Class 1s. If all those companies see their trains getting robbed, things might get interesting.

any ethnic and social profiling done? Or is it already obvious??

Interesting bit of information that UP forgot to mention...

The Union Pacific Police department has jurisdiction over the 32,000 miles of track Union Pacific owns. Many of these “special agents” used to patrol this now infamous stretch of track. According to the source, the number of patrolling officers has been cut from 50 to 60 agents to eight, which the worker thinks has led to an increase in train robberies.

https://www.lataco.com/union-pacific-th ... e-laid-off

The screenshot of the "Locals" ripping off the containers is a full video. I was looking for that particular one, but it was removed.
If you can locate it, I would like to see it again. Note, it was a slow moving freight in the Englewood neighborhood.
EDIT: Found it.
https://youtu.be/hB6lIqYoamo

Gavin Newsom visited the area and promised funding. The big issue is on the district attorney's side. It is basically catch and release. You can spend millions to try to stop this but until people are convicted and incarcerated there is no deterrent. Because this is interstate commerce why is there no federal response to this, or did I answer my own question?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... theft.html

AmericanSteam wrote:Gavin Newsom visited the area and promised funding. The big issue is on the district attorney's side. It is basically catch and release. You can spend millions to try to stop this but until people are convicted and incarcerated there is no deterrent. Because this is interstate commerce why is there no federal response to this, or did I answer my own question?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... theft.html

Valid questions. I suspect the answers will not be forthcoming anytime soon since this all seems to be a finger pointing mission by law enforcement instead of looking for solutions.

"catch and release" seems to be the new world way of law enforcement and we are now seeing the results. It appears the problem isn't so much with the police as with the judicial breakdown.

buzz456 wrote:"catch and release" seems to be the new world way of law enforcement and we are now seeing the results. It appears the problem isn't so much with the police as with the judicial breakdown.

This is very true. Unfortunately, in states like California, law enforcement has their hands tied. They cannot do their jobs properly when the state restricts them so heavily and the DAs/judges are simply releasing criminals back into the streets. Ultimately, the ones to suffer are the victims and the police officers putting their lives on the line for nothing at this point.