TSA Thugs
By Mary Theroux • Monday February 14, 2011 3:30 PM PDT • 80 Comments
I am frequently stopped on the street and asked for directions. In my volunteer stints I quickly establish an easy rapport with the diverse people with whom I come in contact. I get warm returning smiles in shops and restaurants. In short: most people apparently view me as non-threatening. It has thus been surprising to learn that in the eyes of the TSA I am viewed as but a common criminal, and may be treated accordingly, with impunity and without recourse.
My adult stepson and I traveled together last week to the Midwest. As we made our way through security at the Oakland airport, I was directed towards one of the new, “enhanced” screening machines. Being aware of the health concerns these untested machines have raised—especially given my having undergone medical X-rays earlier in the week—I refused. As the TSA agents held me in waiting for the “female assist,” for the “pat-down,” I advised them that they might, in the interest of their own health and safety, want to investigate the dangers of working near the machines.
My stepson had preceded me through security through the regular screening machine, and as I was ordered to “assume the position,” took out his camera phone to record the proceedings. A TSA Officer told him to stop, and when my stepson asked on what authority, was told that it is against TSA “procedures.” I advised my stepson to not argue with the agent and he quit recording. Meanwhile, from the moment I was stopped to go through the enhanced screening machine, throughout the “pat-down,” and as we left the area, I carried on an extremely loud, running verbal protest against the proceedings as invasive and unconstitutional, attracting the attention of other passengers in the area—most of whom looked uncomfortably away.
Once “cleared,” my stepson and I went to the boarding area, then boarded our flight and settled down in our seats near the rear of the plane. Ten minutes prior to take-off, a blue-uniformed TSA Supervisor, accompanied by two men wearing brown uniforms (21st-century Brownshirts?), and a man in a plain suit came down the aisle and told my stepson he had to go with them. I explained that he had simply been trying to provide loving support as I resisted being treated as a criminal, and outlined the urgency of our trip. The plain-suited official told the TSA Supervisor that all they needed was name and flight information, so I handed him our boarding passes, bearing both. The TSA Supervisor officiously insisted we had to leave the plane with him. With take-off time growing ever closer, we accompanied the four agents to the jetway, where a large, second plain-suited man and an airport/airline employee who looked like a baggage handler also waited. Both left as I launched into a protest of the proceedings.
The four men who had boarded the plane encircled us on the jetway just outside the plane. The plain-suited official reiterated that all they needed was name and flight information—which they had in hand—but the TSA Supervisor insisted he needed our drivers licenses. As he recorded our information from these on his clipboarded form, I recorded the names of the officials present from their ID badges: the blue-uniformed TSA Supervisor Darrel Robinson and plain-clothed Supervisory Transportation Security Officer Michael Simmons.
After Supervisor Robinson had returned our drivers licenses, I asked if we were free to reboard, to which he gruffly replied “In a minute.” After a few more moments, we were “released,” and reboarded the plane without further ado. As I later learned, this constitutes being under arrest, and I guess time will tell to what extent I now have a “record,” since I was advised of nothing, provided no information as to why we had been summarily ordered off of our flight, or to what use our identification information was going to be made.
Yet the entire incident made absolutely no sense: following our having cleared security, my stepson and I had spent at least 25 minutes in the waiting area of the small Oakland airport, on a day with few passengers travelling, and thus could have been easily approached well before we boarded the flight. We had already been cleared—even through their enhanced security techniques—and had thus established, by their own standards, our innocence and the safety of the other passengers. We had violated no laws: TSA’s own website says:
TSA does not prohibit the public, passengers or press from photographing, videotaping or filming at security checkpoints, as long as the screening process is not interfered with or slowed down.
My stepson was sitting, 6 feet away from where my person was being violated during the “pat-down,” and turned off his cell camera when told to by a male TSA agent not involved in the procedure—if this slowed down their process it was by their discomfort with having their actions recorded, not our interference.
Yet this uniformed contingent chose to board the plane after all of the flight’s passengers had been seated, to make an extremely public show of escorting us from the plane, enacting proceedings heretofore understood to be those reserved for suspected criminals, in front a captive audience.
What other possible purpose, then, than a very deliberate, public show of force making it clear to all witnessing the spectacle that those who will not submit quietly will be made examples of?
But such bullying is not the least unpredictable. Investing petty clerks with arbitrary and unchecked powers always leads to their visiting ever-increasing humiliations and violence on the politically impotent. As this past 10 years of escalating “homeland security” well confirms, thuggery not resisted grows ever more bold. Tunisia’s recent uprising may have been sparked by a young man who set fire to himself after being harassed by a low-level government official, as Egypt’s was by three policemen killing a young man posting evidence of their petty corruption on YouTube, but the fuel for each had been built up over decades of tyrannies small and great. The only question here is how far down the road we blessed with a heritage of security in our own persons and property will quietly submit before turning on “our” Brownshirts and saying “No. Go.”
Tags: Civil Liberties, Civil Society, Constitution, Corruption, Criminal Justice, Defense, Law, Liberty, Personal Liberty, Police, Power, Privacy, Propaganda, Property Rights, Surveillance, Technology, Terrorism, The State, Transportation 
Mary, you nailed it. This is not about security; it’s about power and control. If we submit to abuse, the abuse will continue. They’ll continue to push the boundaries until something happens. Will it take someone lighting himself on fire in this country before we tell the government thugs, “Enough!”?
Steve Hogan | Feb 14, 2011 | Reply
Can you press charges for any of this?
Ryan Murphy | Feb 14, 2011 | Reply
Beautifully written. And chilling. Too many of our great country’s citizens are acting as the frog slowly boiled to death as the heat is slooooowwwwwly increased. How can we NOT be noticing as our liberties are stripped more and more every day.
Kari H. | Feb 14, 2011 | Reply
I’m puzzled as to why you find any of what you experienced to be out-of-the-ordinary in a Fascist State. Perhaps I’m wrong: maybe you don’t find it so; it’s possible that you simply were reporting one of many incidents that take place all over our formerly free Republic.
As de Tocqueville pointed out years ago, it’s much easier to install mild despotism than the harsh type. Plus, as Edward Bernays (“Propaganda”, 1928) demonstrated when he was in cahoots with the United Fruit Company in Guatemala, it’s quite easy to manipulate a populace.
The Republic of the United States of America exists in name only.
Scott Haley | Feb 14, 2011 | Reply
One just has to look at their historical inspired naming and realize that T-SA are Transportation-Stormtroopers in spirit and action.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung)
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1775)
Ben Dover | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
Very depressing, and it will get worse .
ralph | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
As we support the Egyptians in their struggle for freedoms, we Americans are loosing ours faster and with serious consequences. How this Administration can be so 2-faced is beyond me. Restore Americans rights and dignity before we start to criticize other governments. Our country was founded on basic human rights, and we let our government strip us of this without a peep. Maybe time to take it to the streets, as it appears to work in other countries.
Tom | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
You paid good $$$ for tickets and even though you complained the entire time you still allowed TSA to do to you what they did to you.
Listening to complaints and intimidating people is now part of their job description. And TSA will continue operating as long as people continue to buy air travel and keep complaining but get on the airplane anyway.
The airlines have refused to confront TSA on its excesses. Some pilots have been suspended for refusing to put up with TSA’s tactics. Not only that but some people have gotten doubly screwed because the airline won’t refund the price of tickets after unhappy passengers have gotten to the airport, seen what TSA is doing, and said “Now way!”
You are absolutely correct about this being an issue about power and control. It goes even further. There is one class of society (politicians and their agents) who make rules and laws that the rest of us must live under but that they and their families are exempt from. TSA agents don’t cop a feel on Obama’s missus and daughters; nor Dubya’s missus and daughters; nor Bubba’s missus. In fact Bubba’s missus actually said she calls TSA’s screening an “offensive” measure she “wouldn’t want to experience.”
How’s that for “equality under the law?”
Susan | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
Most definitely, all this “homeland security” is about power – “very deliberate, public show of force”.
I applaud you, Mary, for “carr[ying] on an extremely loud, running verbal protest against the proceedings as invasive and unconstitutional, attracting the attention of other passengers in the area”. This is exactly the action I urged in online comments months ago for those who had determined that air travel was a true necessity, rather than inwardly fume. Those who “looked uncomfortably away” were likely individuals who think that all this security theater is really keeping them “safe” and that the government always knows best.
It is unfortunate that you did not know for sure ahead of time what the TSA’s own rules were about photo taking at security checkpoints. If so, a printout of that webpage shown to any objecting TSA agent would (or should have) immediately stopped that. A copy would seem to be a “must” item when traveling by air, just as I keep among our border crossing papers an up to date copy of this page from Customs & Border Protection for any border guard who makes an issue of when my Canadian husband can enter the US after a 6 months visit—https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/619 (We live 6 months in each of our legal residences, mine in Arizona and Paul’s in Ontario Canada.)
Something for everyone to keep in mind: The politicians and bureaucrats— rulers—do *not* get out into the field and enforce their own legislation/decrees/mandates/etc. Instead they depend on the enforcers to do the dirty work. Therefore the enforcers are the key! Politicians and bureaucrats simply talk and write, even when it is to give orders.
Had your stepson been able to photograph those TSA agents and get their names, this would have enabled others who disagree with the actions that they take to Socially Preference against them—withdraw voluntary association—if these agents continue in this job of “homeland security” despite attempts to logically convince them otherwise.
This selective (discriminating) association to exclude those who cause harm – and also toward those who support such harm-causing—is a potentially very powerful method of non-violent action, referred to as ostracism and shunning by many down through the ages. It is included in Gene Sharp’s 2nd volume (of 3), “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”, Chapter 4, “The Methods of Social Noncooperation”. I and husband Paul Wakfer use the term “negative Social Preferencing” for purposeful non-voluntary association (contrasted with positive Social Preferencing towards those who do provide value) and have described how it is the ultimate effector of social order in a truly free society (The Freeman Society)—http://selfsip.org/solutions/Social_Preferencing.html
Photographs of “blue-uniformed TSA Supervisor Darrel Robinson and plain-clothed Supervisory Transportation Security Officer Michael Simmons” would assist others in public negative Social Preferencing them, but their names and the location of Oakland California is a good start.
There is much more that can be done beyond groaning, hand wringing, clenching jaws and writing online articles/comments of apocalyptics/complaint (as is often seen). One need not—and should not, if thinking in one’s own long range best interest—accept as inevitable the current government practices and/or pronouncements as attempts to tighten some noose.
Someone yesterday tweeted part of a fuller Howard Zinn quote: “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” My tweeted reply—”True! When many shun #gov enforcers—those who initiate phys force, few will keep/take such jobs & rulers kno this! #liberty”. This exchange was in regard to current Middle East protests against tyrannical regimes but it applies to the many daily acts of U.S. government enforcers everywhere, including the military outside this country—the reason for the existence of most true physical harm aimed at USers.
Kitty Antonik Wakfer | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
Of course its about intimidation. You didn’t respect their authority, so they had to make an example out of you. Those of us who have spent the last few years working on the issue of the TSA are surprised by how mild your treatment was, although I had not heard of pulling a passenger off the plane in order to look at their ID.
You must immediately file a complaint against the agents who pulled you off the plane. I’m sure the TSA will do nothing about it.
So, did you also get the name of the grope agent?
Ayn R. Key | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
On the plus side, the numbers of those saying “no” are growing. Are we a critical mass yet? Not by a long shot, but there is evidence of a growing trend (see recent elections of Tea-Party members, the recent showing at CPAC, the rising membership numbers within the Libertarian Party, etc… etc…). Sadly, the despotism is growing at the same or a greater rate, which diminishes our chances for a peaceful resolution of the tyranny that has taken root in our once great nation.
As a traveling businessman, I have had similar “run-in’s” (far too often) as described here, the most recent one involving the pat-down followed by the drug screening machine mysteriously ‘beeping’ thus causing me to be taken into a back room for a much more humiliating “pat-down”, and every article of clothing and every article in my brief-case being swabbed, and an hour later being “allowed” to run full-sprint through the airport and just make it to the gate as the door was being closed.
As more people experience this kind of abuse, numbers within the liberty movement grow. This has been my observation as a member of the Libertarian Party. I often wondered why California has so many members as a percentage of population, while Wyoming and Montana had so few. But closer examination reveled to me that where the tyranny is greatest, so too is the resistance to it. Which makes me sadly conclude that before the necessary critical mass is achieved, things are going to have to continue to get worse, and I fear a lot worse—BUT, things getting worse improves the odds of eventual reform, as to the complacency that has riddled our country for the past several decades… With luck, our reform will be more like the current wave in Egypt, as opposed to the founding of the French Republic.
joe4liberty | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
This sure sounds like the typical story that is being told by much of the flying public. It seems that TSA are getting bolder with there intimidation tactics & bullying passengers for their own agenda and I think what needs to happen is more peoples out there need to resist against the TSA & send them a very firm message and that being that one will not be intimidated or bullied of worse by these uniformed hooligans.
Robin | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
No disagreement from me with the assertion that giving vast power to petty bureaucrats brings on this sort of abuse. My own son was harassed by a TSA agent on a Boy Scout trip, and I was pleased that he took the time when he got home to call the agency and complain (not that it did much good, but at least he didn’t take it silently!)
The painful fact is that most Americans seem to support the TSA, and are easily scared into submission: “Better to put up with it than have another 9-11 attack!” Risk avoidance seems to be one of the characteristics of a comfortable, wealthy society. What we really need is intelligent profiling like the Israelis have, which is far more likely to find the bad guys and leave the rest of us alone—good luck getting that through the wall of political correctness.
Jonathan Taylor | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
FYI:
I’m fairly certain it is against TSA procedures/rules/whatever to tell your stepson to stop recording. In fact, that right there was a violation of your rights.
I’d say almost all of what happened to you is legally dubious. Asking for a diver’s license is dubious, and you should have asked what they wanted you for anyways.
I’d recommend contacting somebody like the ACLU and pursuing this legally.
Steve Verdon | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
Mary, They clearly violated the law. You have 3 places to file a formal complaint at minimum. The thug site http://www.tsa.gov has a formal complaint form, http://www.epic.org is collecting stories like yours for their lawsuit vs DHS (TSA) which goes to trial in early March, and http://www.aclu.org although they seem less aggressive than EPIC.
I personally would have refused to go with the TSA staff, and instead would have summoned a police officer to arrest them as the TSA are not law enforcement officers.
Jeff Pierce | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
Dear Susan,
One major conundrum of all this is is that in terrible economic climes that surround us in American, some of us have absolutely no choice but to get on a plane. For me personally, what makes it worse is that I have in-laws overseas and at a moment’s notice one could wind up with failing health and pass away, get injured in some way or something else bad could happen. In that instance I would have no choice, and out of duty to my family I would go. But that doesn’t make me a hypocrite. It makes me principled. I don’t want my genitals groped, rubbed or otherwise. I don’t want potentially harmful radiation blasted at me. I certainly don’t want any of that to happen to my wife either. You have to remember, this is not only an issue of air transportation, it is soon to be an issue at bus stations and Amtrak terminals as well. I hate that this is what my country has degenerated to, and I firmly stand by those opposed to it.
JDB | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
I certainly agree that this behavior is thuggery at its beginning stages, but public transportation is a privilege not a right. We as Americans have become too pampered in the way we travel to wherever we go. We feel that if I pay this certain amount that I should be whisked away to my destination without any distractions. As far as the rules go, you were right and the TSA agent was wrong but he bluffed you and you did not question it, so your loss was his gain. Move on and next time, either stand your ground and fight for your right to record or be quiet and follow their rules. To compare them to the brown shirts of the Nazi party is totally wrong and meant only to draw attention to your situation. The fact is, our government is flawed and so is the security of our airports so as of right now, these are the measures that are being taken to secure the safety of travelers.
Keep in mind, I do not agree with the TSA, and in doing so I CHOOSE not to fly ANYWHERE, because flying is a choice that you have taken for granted that you assume is your right. Your rights seem to have been violated, but you did nothing to protest it until now because you did not want to miss your flight.
Really??
You were more worried about missing a flight than the injustice of having your rights violated? Seems that you are crying foul over mistreatment of your rights but you are unwilling to protest that by NOT flying. There are many countries that do far worse than giving you a pat down. Next time print out the rules and regulations and fight for your rights... it might mean you miss your flight though, so good luck.
Dexter | Feb 16, 2011 | Reply
This is why I don’t fly—I actually love flying, only been up in small craft twice in my life. . . but I know what would happen if I tried to fly commercially.
I am militantly incapable of keeping my mouth shut when someone is being an idiot, or abusive. . . and I don’t back down from threats of violence—I enjoy them, it gives me an opportunity to let my Dark Side of it’s chain. . .
Next time you travel, bring a half-dozen large friends— the first problem you have, turn them loose.
The_Rev | Feb 16, 2011 | Reply
Steve Verdon said, “I’d recommend contacting somebody like the ACLU and pursuing this legally.”
Uh, yeah, right. As if complaining to the mafia boss would do anything to stop his thugs from doing a shakedown.
Although “something” might happen if a complaint was lodged, more likely nothing or next to nothing would be the result, case in point, see one of the many examples that happen all the time, such as this one:
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2011/02/dont-resist-refrain-of-rapists-police.html
“When he removed his hands from the vehicle, the officer told him, “I’m going to handcuff you. You’re not under arrest.”...
“You’re not under arrest; stop resisting arrest!”"
clark | Feb 16, 2011 | Reply
When will you and your son find the backbone to refuse illegitimate demands from TSA? He stopped recording, you both got off the plane, you gave them your IDs. None of these were required of you—you CONSENTED. Stop consenting to your own oppression!
When the elite libertarians of the world, like you, are too cowed to politely tell the thugs “I know my rights, p*** off.” then it’s far too much to ask that the general public mass in the streets and fix the corrupt system.
To begin your education, watch the videos from:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FlexYourRights
Starting with “Busted!” and “10 Rules for Dealing with Police”. They’ll train you on all the simple rules for asserting your rights in the face of cops who are well trained to ‘convince’ you to do the opposite.
John Gilmore | Feb 16, 2011 | Reply
@John Gilmore:
In the real world in which I live and operate, I can choose to provoke individual TSA thugs to further immediate violence against my person—on their turf, where they hold all the guns and I none—or, I can judiciously navigate the minefield at hand to reach my immediate objective: the business at hand that requires plane travel—and survive to reach higher ground from which I have a fighting chance at winning the war.
The same applies equally to my decision to leave my house, in a community with police empowered far beyond any imagined by our Founders; or use the telephone and internet that have warrantless wiretaps enabled; or any other of my other daily activities constrained by myriad violations of my rights and liberties.
The war against our rights as sovereign individuals, secure in our persons and property, is not going to be won by my personal confrontation against TSA Supervisor Darrel Robinson and his immediate minions. It will be won by a critical mass or paradigm shift in what is acceptable. TSA is but a highly visible symptom of the security-state mentality the world has grown to accept. And, any idea that has been accepted, can just as easily be rejected.
This is the point.
We don’t have to be martyrs to the death on the molehills. Each of us can exercise civil disobedience judiciously, and each of us can communicate the principles of liberty to our sphere of influence, and pretty soon there are 100 million of us saying “No,” and these tyrants, petty and large, will have to find honest labor or starve.
Will we then stop abdicating responsibility for our own liberty and safety?
Best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Feb 17, 2011 | Reply
I used to be a 50,000+/year flyer, and have cut back over the past couple of years due to the TSA. The acceleration of the thuggery, and the bureaucratic drive toward power and domination rather than toward cost-effective security, has led me to refuse to fly. I have no scheduled flights for 2011.
In my case, two of the conferences/speaking engagements that I’ve turned down have been willing to work with me so I can participate remotely via web conference. Not an ideal substitute, but one that my conscience and principles require, and I am pleased that others respect.
In fact, one of them asked me to speak on my position on the TSA, so I hope to contribute to raising awareness of the TSA’s violations of our rights, including the right to freedom of assembly and movement that, yes, does incorporate a right to fly.
Lynne Kiesling | Feb 17, 2011 | Reply
That said ... I’d be very interested in hearing suggestions among those of us who are frustrated with how we can bring about change. I’ve written my Congressional representatives, airline presidents, etc., to little effect. Other than that and refusing to fly, what *can* we do to bring change about?
Lynne Kiesling | Feb 17, 2011 | Reply
Well, does this mean you flunked the TSA Obedience Training 101! That’s what the TSA is all about obedience training,of especially white adults. Minorities and those in poor neighborhoods have been subject to the humiliation of obedience training by the police for decades. The purpose is to strip you and us of dignity. That the 1st assault by the government on its citizenry, public humiliation to prove that you can’t protect yourself and/or your family from government thugs. I suppose you may get your TSA obedience training report card in the mail,unless it is hand delivered by TSA Marshall’s.
bogi666 | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Having traveled to the USSR the KGB had nothing on the TSA except good manners.
bogi666 | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Dexter, what are those countries that treat it air traveling passengers worse than the TSA?oR, ARE YOU JUST A TROLL?
bogi666 | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Scott Haley, this country is not longer a Republic it is an Empire, although failed, and the designation USA no longer applies, USE, United States Empire applies now. The USE/MIC,Mafia Industrial Complex, and the Pentagon protection racket scheme of; fund US, the Pentagon,for protection or else.....! The TSA is for obedience training of white Empire adults.
bogi666 | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
My wife and I recently dropped my daughter off at Metro Airport near Detroit to fly to Florida. I refuse to fly, and I warned her on the way what she had to expect before boardig the plane. She wasn’t even aware of what the TSA were doing. We went in and stood with her in line until she arrived at the first checkpoint. As I hugged her goodbye a wild thought occurred to me. What would happen if I began pointing at the x-ray machine people were walking through and started singing “My Country Tis of Thee” really loud as I looked at the individual faces of the people in line waiting to go through next? I really felt the urge to DO IT! But I did not. I felt like crap on the ride home, and I still do, because I knew that if it was the sixties again and I was 20 years old again I wouldn’t have hesitated for a minute. What’s happened to my/our commitment to a new America? What has happened to us?
Jerry | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
You should find out if there really is an “arrest” on your record. I bet they didn’t read you your rights.
kev | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Wonderfully written article. Those wondering what to do, well, first, turn off the propaganda set commonly known as the TV, and spend that time getting informed about the criminal treasonous Private Federal Reserve Bank that has hijacked the government and is being steered by foreign interests who’s only interest is in the de-industrialization of America, and the destruction of the middle class....etc... Look at some alternative (not globalist controlled) media sites. That’s the first step is getting informed about what’s really going on, the second step is to get angry, really angry, the third step is to take action...contact your representative in congress, inform others, start a website or a blog, burn the films to DVD and hand them out (The Obama Deception, Engame Blueprint for Global Enslavement, The Invisible Empire, etc...) ... It’s what I do and it works, people are really getting educated on how this takeover is being orchestrated.....
Mike | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
The same Tea Party members that voted to extend unconstitutional PATRIOT Act provisions?
Yeah, let’s put our trust in them.
grassassin | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
These Nazis need to be sued...INDIVIDUALLY, and not in their TSA groper agent capacity. Get the names of those morons and SUE THEM...as, [ahem], “men”. This keeps the TSA officials out of the mix.
Let’s roll!
BigGuy | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
The reason the TSA acts this way is because we let them. Why do we let them?
We let them because: We paid a lot of Money to a travel agent for the tickets and hotel accommodations, cruise ship, etc. They know this! That is why they act the way they do.
If stunts like this were pulled on the street by traffic cops, with the same frequency, 0.1% of the stunts would result in a possible public disturbance or riot. Why? eg. I would have nothing to lose by getting Lippy and creating a situation that would escalate. But wait a minute! The Cop knows this, therefore I don’t get pulled over in the first place. Am I clear?
jackpontiac | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
This is about “conditioning”, and it works. Mary, how many of the people in the airport or on the plane said anything?.... How many of them stood up and said STOP!
Uh huh, that’s what I thought.
Listen people, until everyone stands up, regardless of whether it’s you being harassed or not, but until everyone in the airport stands up and stands against YOU being abused, they will never stop.
Johnny | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
OH You were in CaliNaziFORNIA...yeah they are so POWERFUL those TSIDIOTS...Let’s DEFUND PATRIOT ACT!!
Lisa IN Cal | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Dexter said: “There are many countries that do far worse than giving you a pat down.”
Are there? Don’t think so.
jaycee | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
“Integrity, Team Spirit, Innovation” is sewn around the border of the newest T&A patch. Have you EVER seen an organization that had to SEW A REMINDER not to STEAL, LIE, and CHEAT on their own shoulders!!!! They STEAL from the “confiscated” items, BACK-STAB the PASSENGERS (and their CO-Workers) and “INNOVATIVELY” CHEAT on their own tests.
Supervisors calling each other with test ALERTS.
Supervisors PADDING their hours to make house payments.
Supervisors staggering in drunk.
Supervisors exclaiming all NON-Christians should leave the country
Supervisors expressing their desire to see U.S. Senators DEAD
The TSA is specificaly designed to lull the American Public into passively accepting random, pointless, searches at the whim of the government. Look at them. TSA screeners are being trained to be smiling and polite. WHY? To appear benign and nonthreatening as they strip you of your Freedom. The reason they came up with an underwear bomber is the same reason they came up with a shoe bomber. First they wanted to get into your shoes and then they wanted to get into your underwear. After that they want to get into your body. But job one, day one, they want to get into your head. These are stages of humiliation designed to strip you of your dignity. Look at their faces, if YOU seriously believed the next passenger (PAX) might be an armed and murderously suicidal killer, would you be all relaxed and cheery? If you seriously believed that the next suitcase you open may blow you to Kingdom Come, would you be a Perky Pixie? If you do NOT believe that ......... WHY ARE YOU HERE!?
Vincent | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
I worked for T&A for 5 miserable years. You have never seen a greater collection of scum in your life. Starting with management that had no desire to find any misconduct, down to totally unscrupulous Check Point people who were more worried about calculating a penny raise into their heads then security. T&A is far more danger to AMERICA than any terrorists, because T&A is “cloaked” as protecting America, when in fact T&A is bringing Fascism to the Land of the FREE.
Albert | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
I was talking to a female Mormon missionary the other day. She said that when she arrived at the airport she was terrified in anticipation of the TSA practices and surrounded herself with some departing male LDS missionaries for comfort. Is this the way America should be? Should young women have to be subjected to the possibility of having their modesty violated by federal goons?
Mike | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
The govt. is deliberately attempting to provoke an incident, but they want it on their terms and not ours. Things have gotten way, way, past the tyranny of King George. Those of us around today would have regarded the tyranny of those days as total freedom. Folks back then would have broken out the tar, feathers, and hemp rope for far less than what we tolerate these days.
Hitting back on terms favorable to the people and not the govt. would be massive refusal to use socialist slave-state numbers (which the govt. says is voluntary anyways) and therefore not pay dime one into the tax system.
Pete Sagi | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
I’m actually not sorry for you. Or Americans for that matter. You all deserve to go through this for not standing up for your rights, while most blindly give it up for security. Government does not exist as a defender of rights but as a defender of unjust policy.
Just like the founding fathers you need to see what it’s like to be oppressed by unjust policy. Only then you can appreciate rights. However your generations are indoctrinated, spoiled, content, and submissive so it will never happen. Only the generations that do not exist yet will have their blood spilled for your mistakes. In the distant future your names will be scorned.
MIEW | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS??!! The TSA provides you with your reintroduction into Pretorian law. Where the emperor can do anything to anybody. This never bothered you before.Taxpayer funded murder was O.K. with you. Resistors will find it easier to adapt next time while enthusiastic protest will give the ‘traveller’ a great opportunity to get to know TSA handler-specialists and their cultivated talents of sensual molestation. Soon everyone will learn to anxiously await the soft, creepy touch of a molester on the prowl, and then you’ll see what this is all about.
Your TSA molester-handler specialist does not know who killed the Kennedys, does not care who did 9-11-2001, and does not care Congress found the DH well in the Gulf of Mexico was done on purpose by this same group. Neither do you. You been slackin’ citizen! You voted for them! Now they are going to liven you up. You can even hear their breath get deeper and see their eyelashes flutter. I’ll take another road. I earned it. I voted McKinney!
Howard T. Lewis III | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Dexter, really, you believe that traveling is a privilege? Is the Constitution and Bill of Rights a privilege? Does the Declaration of Independence assert a privilege?
Come on Dexter stop drinking the fluoride water and get with the program. Since the first Americans opposed the “Stamp Act” we (the American people)have been actively working at throwing the yoke government control to the ground and all the while hampered by the Dexters who can’t leave their house unless they recognize that event as a privilege granted by their non-human government.
Of course this is just an opinion and it could be wrong!
Zimbabalouie | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
“thuggery not resisted grows ever more bold”
Couldn’t agree more! Now, one question. How exactly did you resist?
HistoricalSociety | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
I don’t disagree in any way that the TSA is an insanely complicated and unnecessarily indulgent authority.
But I just can’t let a criticism of this article slip by. Comparing the TSA to the poverty and oppression faced in Egypt and Tunisia is absolutely disgusting to me. It really offends me as a fellow American that you could display so much contempt for such a free government.
I agree that the American government could use reform, but equating this small inconvenience with the human rights violations faced by ordinary citizens in North Africa shows either a lack of understanding of the crises those people face or a lack of empathy toward their suffering. Please don’t make such comparisons again.
LittleNiece | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
SUE THEM SUE THEM SUE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
harry fishman | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Mary. The image used in your blog post trivializes the evil that the swastika represents.
Richard W | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Every airport in England has the Naked Body Scanners and everyone (unless you are a football player or royalty) must go through them if they are unlucky enough to be picked. There is no opt-out option. If you refuse you will not be able to fly. No refunds if you change your mind and don’t want to fly. The press has not mentioned this to the public so they are not aware they are now on PRISON ISLAND?
marie whitman | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Jerry, don’t be so hard on yourself. I burnt my bra in the 60′s for women’s lib? Would I do it now? I doubt it.
You WILL do something when the time is right. Why get arrested for one incident-when the right time comes, you will do something and it will be effective?
David Icke says ”We are many, they are few.” More and more people are waking up.
marie whitman | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
This is yet another example of outrageous behavior on the part of T.S.A. and “Homeland Insecurity,” and there needs to be continued and constant protest about the hazardous-to-public-health backscatter machines, not to mention genetically modified food and plants.
commons_party | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Checkout how far the Dems have brought this country:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/18/ex_cia_analyst_ray_mcgovern_beaten
Citizen | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Each and every time some person stands up for themselves and resists like this, that person stands up and resists for all Americans. To the author of the article, “I appreciate your service.”
Garrick S | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
@Mary,
I think, while being on the plane, you have already reached the higher ground; you said you were arrested—no, you were not; TSA has no authority to arrest or even touch anyone (as you know, even when groping, they announce their every contact with your body, exactly for that reason), only LEO can. The only thing they could do was asking you to follow them, and you were in full rights to refuse, same as refusing police’s request to search your car, enter your the home without a warrant, etc.—everything that is indeed in the videos at flexyourrights.com. Forcing you to follow them would be indeed an arrest, for which they had to summon a LEO and provide a probable cause, which was obviously absent. So, most likely, if you refused, TSA would pull back.
I hope you will agree that their backing up before the whole plane would be a terrific victory; but it would also have very practical meaning for you. Most likely, the reason why plainclothes officer needed your name, was because he wanted to submit it to the no-fly list, because he decided that your behavior in the airport met the threshold for such submission, plus perhaps he was a little late on his rent, and the $ bonus for reporting you to the list was just in time. If you insisted on your rights, it was a good opportunity to avoid that—but you willingly submitted.
vad | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Lynne Kiesling said, “Other than that and refusing to fly, what *can* we do to bring change about?”
I suspect there’s nothing “we” can do. For one thing, too many People are willfully clueless and intend to stay that way.
I suspect the only thing “we” can do is to not be in the path of the big giant fat vampire-pig Oligarchy as it staggers and sways before it collapses from it’s own lopsided over-weighted over-indebted over-extended tentacles.
Being prepared and becoming as self-sufficient as you can might be beneficial.
It may be possible to speed up the collapse if you were to:
Protest
Agitate
Litigate
Educate
Network
Pray
Resist
Or even, do nothing at all?
IDK, up is down and that could all be a waste of time?
A true story:
A hawk lands on a birdbath next to a smaller bird, a finch.
The finch instinctively freezes.
You might think the finch would fly away from the hawk, but it does not.
The hawk slowly reaches out and grabs the finch.
The hawk flies away with lunch.
Example of finch behavior in People:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/78832.html
Jerry asked, “What has happened to us?”
I suspect there’s been an increase in the hawk population and an increase in well funded and successful finch conditioning programs.
How *Does* a smaller bird deal with hawks?
Certainly not by direct confrontation, then again, ever see a flock of blackbirds chase away a hawk or an owl? It’s an amazing sight. The blackbirds are relentless and determined, the fight can go on for hundreds of yards, in mid-flight or through the thickest tree branches.
Pardon the rant.
clark | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Why should she have her rights violated and miss her flight that she paid for? And you say that there are countries that are far worse, well we are on our way. It is not an exaggeration to compare to Nazi Germany or old communist Russia. This is how it all begins. You seem to be more angry at the poor woman than the bastards at TSA. REALLY!
pony | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Oh, Dexter, PLEASE! Stop misleading and misinforming people; and, even more, stop believing that crap about “privileges”! I’ll bet you’re one of those far too many people—the majority of “Americans” in particular, unfortunately—who are brainwashed to falsely believe that driving is supposedly a “privilege”! If all of us are truly free like we’re supposed to be, then we have the right(s) to go anywhere we darn well please, as long as it is not to seek to physically harm other people, without government(s) monitoring our moves. Therefore, it is our RIGHT to drive, and fly, take trains or buses, etc.! AND GOVERNMENT CANNOT LEGALLY OR CONSTITUTIONALLY MAKE SUCH RIGHTS “PRIVILEGES” AND/OR TAKE THEM AWAY, unless of course we TRULY use them to intentionally seek to harm other people! So, please, stop being a brainwashed “sheople” and accepting your RIGHTS being turned into “privileges”! This has been going on for decades, little by little, acclimating us to accept more and more of our natural human rights and civil liberties being whittled away! NEVER ACCEPT IT!
S. Wolf Britain | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
Mary, thanks for your story. I suspect what got them to react was your telling the rank-and-file screeners that the radiation machines could pose a threat to their own health. As I understand it, the only studies on the safety of these X-Ray machines have been done by the manufacturer—hardly an unbiased source. Napolitano and the machine manufacturers must be dreading the day when the first worker’s compensation claim gets filed by a TSA employee with a cancer that looks like radiation exposure. That’s got to be the Achilles heel of the whole operation.
Paul | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
As the world begins to melt down into the financial abyss, because of ever-increasing prices for common goods. We here in America continue to believe the reports of the Lame stream media, that terrorist are around every corner, and they want to kill us because of our freedoms. All the while our military has been bombing people in the Middle East into the stone age. Creating the kind of people they say were there in the first place..We have bought into their lies and have allowed politicians to create the police state here in the (homeland). If that does not send shivers down your spine... with continued the destruction of our great Republic. We have allowed this TSA thuggery to continue, We are as spoiled as a child and the pervasive attitude of the masses is, as long as it does not effect ME, why should I care. Well you should care because the hammer is coming down and the NWO is here and it is going to effect everyone very soon!
Fuzzy | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
Th United States of America ceased to exist on 12-12-2000.
Sitar20 | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
>I felt like crap on the ride home, and I still do, because I knew that if it was the sixties again and I was 20 years old again I wouldn’t have hesitated for a minute. What’s happened to my/our commitment to a new America? What has happened to us?
In the sixties, social disobedience was about cultural Marxism—assisting the state in destroying the institutions and prejudices that composed the fabric of private society. Of course, you had little to fear, because the state claims a monopoly on violence.
Now, those elements of private society have been washed away, and the “tyranny” of holding politically incorrect private values has been replaced by literal state tyranny, and that is fearful. Who has your back now?
You were wise to hesitate. You’d probably have been placed on a list.
Anon | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
And yet.. how many of you so vocal here, are among those ” most of whom looked uncomfortably away. “??
Rasputin | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
Oh, I did leave out:
ostracize and shun
All I can say is,
Mary is one of the coolest chicks I’ve never met, S. Wolf Britain seems pretty cool too, and the few others like him.
As if it matters, too many People are brown-nosing suckups who love the State more than their own children/families/selves/liberty/freedom.
Like Becky Ackers said, something like, wonder why the the German people let the Nazi’s rise to power... now you know.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers-arch.html
clark | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
Brilliant observation TSA Transportation Sturmabteilung. Can I use that one?
Ben Uppinja | Feb 19, 2011 | Reply
These kind of things have always existed in our society and probably in every society. It’s only the methods that differ. Here in the U.S., our political class has to use a bit more finesse than they do in places like North Korea, China, or Myanmar for instance. Government institutes these policies; they SOUND reasonable to many of us, (besides, how much can the average person actually DO about them)? After all, for the majority of us most of our time is taken up with our families and making a living. Then gradually things like this happen. It’s abuse of power, pure and simple, which once again, stresses the fact that governments tend to use power in the wrong way. Then, someone who has some clout (or who KNOWS someone who has some clout) gets the mainstream media’s attention, and as long as said issue does not interfere with the interests of the mainstream media, and captures our over saturated attention spans for more than 5 minutes thereby boosting ratings, the media then rubs our noses in it enough times to get the greater public upset and yelling loudly for change. Then, (if we’re lucky), changes happen, either for real or merely cosmetically, more often the latter. Meanwhile, government has accrued more power at our expense.
Steve Hill | Feb 20, 2011 | Reply
The airlines must be made accountable.
When an airline ticket is purchased, you have paid for passage on a common carrier. The airline has the responsibility to provide safe passage from the ticket counter to the destination.
It is required for the airline to HONOR THE CONTRACT. If there is interference [TSA gropepoints], then the contract is not honored, especially if the TSA a******* prevent the passengers from completing passage.
Why I have done, and suggest more to do, call the airline and set up a reservation. Just before you give the payment info, ask the agent if the airline can guarantee there will be no interference from the aforementioned thugs. If the answer is “no,” just cancel.
Another fun trick to is reserve a ticket that has full refund. [first class is best] About three or four days before the scheduled flight...CANCEL!!! Tell the airline your reason [TSA a******* probers].
A few thousand nearly-empty airplanes and the airlines will be screaming.
BigGuy | Feb 20, 2011 | Reply
You’re all pathetic, what are you willing to do about it besides run to the phone to call your CONgress parasite or the ACLU. What are you going to do about it? For starters, why not have a National Strike Day this April 15th. Don’t pay your taxes. Things will progress from there. Problem is you all think you have too much still to lose. Still holding out hope you can raise the FICO.
david | Mar 6, 2011 | Reply
Hey “Dexter;”
you say “flying is a privilege, not a right”?
I love these armchair-attorneys who try to lecture us on what rights we DON’T have; Stalin referred to your type as “useful idiots.”
Apparently you get a little orgasm of power out of it.
If you cared to attend law school, you’d realize that travel IS a right; and the fact is that not many people have their own private JET that they can fly around the US or the world.
And even where alternative means of transportation exists, they are MUCH slower, equating to an infringement of basic liberty by requiring such searches as a condition of getting on a plane.
Airlines also do not have the right to require passengers to submit to such invasive searches, since that’s a “contrace of adhesion” when it restricts a basic necessity, and no reasonable alternatives are available.
Therefore, these searches are NOT voluntary or consensual, and are therefore a violation of basic constitutional protections.
The problem is that none of these people are have the knowledge to file a federal lawsuit, or that most attorneys are too wimpy to take on the federal government.
That’s why I urge everyone to go to my website, and participate in the lawsuit to STOP THE in-TSA-nity!
Brad Anderson | Apr 16, 2011 | Reply
Take the Greyhound then.
Mike | May 25, 2011 | Reply
The right to travel is fundamental. It is not a priviledge. Further, “public” air travel is mostly not public. The airlines are private, and most airports are owned by municipalities, counties, states, or are their own jurisdiction. Air travel is not a service provided by the federal government.
The TSA is not acting as agents of these organizations, but is instead imposed. It’s no different than if the TSA set up a checkpoint on the sidewalk you own in front of your house under the pretense that it’s a public sidewalk.
There was a time when the only alternative to tyranny was revolution. Fortunately for us, that’s no longer true, as we are not married to the land the way our anscestors were. The simpler solution when voting doesn’t work, is to vote with your feet by expatriating.
Steve E | Jun 8, 2011 | Reply
“The simpler solution when voting doesn’t work, is to vote with your feet by expatriating.”
Run away? Just let them have America? Really? And where to go? How many countries are friendly to Americans (and not just their money)? And how many will be left if this continues. There would be no safe place on the planet for liberty-loving individuals if we abdicate our nation just because you don’t think “revolution” is either effective or desired in the 21st Century. And you’re wrong about Americans not being “married to the land” – we are Americans, we are proud of our heritage, and WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK!
Not leaving.
Falcon | Jul 3, 2011 | Reply
According to Tourism companies, the TSA is responsible for the loss of as much as 60% of tourist arrivals since their inception.
This is no longer a matter of simply civil liberties, now they are bankrupting the tourist economy of the US, just as the Gestapo did in the USSR.
Over-Regulation of INDIVIDUALS (NOT Corporations) is bankrupting this country and the TSA is one more example of that.
RR | Mar 9, 2012 | Reply