Ron Paul Responds to TSA: Introduces 'American Traveler Dignity Act'

[across110thstreet]

I remember in post 9/11 NYC, it was the NYPD conducting searches at subway entrances. you had the right to decline being randomly searched. they had to let you walk.

with the new Houston rule, do you have the right to decline a search before getting on the bus?

[adeelsiddiqui]

Originally Posted by across110thstreet with the new Houston rule, do you have the right to decline a search before getting on the bus?

lol... the response.

"being on a bus is a privilege, if you want to decline the search, you cant ride"

[rhadamanthus]

Originally Posted by adeelsiddiqui lol... the response. "being on a bus is a privilege, if you want to decline the search, you cant ride"

If that's true, I'll drive. It's hard to avoid the airport stupidity, but I can avoid this easily enough.

[Classic]

Originally Posted by adeelsiddiqui lol... the response. "being on a bus is a privilege, if you want to decline the search, you cant ride"

Damn. What's next?

"Walking in a mall is a privilege"?
"Going to a baseball game is a privilege"?
"Sitting at a park is a privilege"?
"breathing air is a privilege"?

Of course, these career politicians will just keep getting voted in over and over.

[rocketsjudoka]

Originally Posted by rhadamanthus If that's true, I'll drive. It's hard to avoid the airport stupidity, but I can avoid this easily enough.

Just to be nitpicky but driving is a privilege also and the USSC has already backed random stops of drivers.

Anyway this seems like a stupid policy and one that is likely to cause way more problems than it might solve. Then again so have TSA searches.

[rhadamanthus]

Originally Posted by rocketsjudoka Just to be nitpicky but driving is a privilege also and the USSC has already backed random stops of drivers.

We've already had this discussion earlier in this thread. Long story made short - it's not comparable. However, your nitpickiness is duly noted.

[Baqui99]

Papers, please.

[across110thstreet]

Originally Posted by rhadamanthus If that's true, I'll drive. It's hard to avoid the airport stupidity, but I can avoid this easily enough.

this. that's why I was asking. can anyone clarify?

[Rumblemintz]

Metro is publicly funded, as are the airports and most roadways. It's an easy angle for TSA to claim they can do WTF they want.

I'm not lawyer but it seems it should be illegal without probable cause. A cop, who's trained and sworn in, cannot randomly pull you over on a public road and search you or your car. At least not legally.

Will it get to a point that if a person is in public he or she will be subject to random search or interrogation? This would mean my privacy ends once I reach about 1/3rd down my driveway.

[rhadamanthus]

More lunacy from the department of molestation.

TSA defends pat-down of 4-year-old at Kan. airport By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press – 12 hours ago WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect. The incident has been garnering increasing media and online attention since the child's mother, Michelle Brademeyer of Montana, detailed the ordeal in a public Facebook post last week. The Transportation Security Administration is defending its agents, despite new procedures aimed at reducing pat-downs of children. The child's grandmother, Lori Croft, told The Associated Press that Brademeyer and her daughter, Isabella, initially passed through security at the Wichita airport without incident. The girl then ran over to briefly hug Croft, who was awaiting a pat-down after tripping the alarm, and that's when TSA agents insisted the girl undergo a physical pat-down. Isabella had just learned about "stranger danger" at school, her grandmother said, adding that the girl was afraid and unsure about what was going on. "She started to cry, saying 'No I don't want to,' and when we tried talking to her she ran," Croft said. "They yelled, 'We are going to shut down the airport if you don't grab her.'" But she said the family's main concern was the lack of understanding from TSA agents that they were dealing with a 4-year-old child, not a terror suspect. "There was no common sense and there was no compassion," Croft said. "That was our biggest fault with the whole thing — not that they are following security procedures, because I understand that they have to do that." Brademeyer, of Missoula, Mont., wrote a public Facebook post last week about the April 15 incident, claiming TSA treated her daughter "no better than if she had been a terrorist." The posting was taken down Wednesday. Another post said the family had filed formal complaints with the TSA and the airport. The TSA released a statement Tuesday saying it explained to the family why additional security procedures were necessary and that agents didn't suspect or suggest the child was carrying a firearm. "TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child," the agency said. The statement noted that the agency recently implemented modified screening procedures for children age 12 and younger to further reduce the need for pat-downs of children, such as multiple passes through a metal detector and advanced imaging technology. "These changes in protocol will ultimately reduce — though not eliminate — pat-downs of children," the statement said. "In this case, however, the child had completed screening but had contact with another member of her family who had not completed the screening process." U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, pressed the TSA for more information Wednesday. Tester, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he was concerned the TSA went too far. "I am a staunch advocate for effective transportation security, but I'm also a strong advocate for common sense and the freedoms we enjoy as Americans," Tester wrote to TSA Administrator John Pistole. "Any report of abuse of the power entrusted to officers of the TSA is especially concerning — especially if it involves children." In a phone interview from her home in Fountain Valley, Calif., Croft said Brademeyer tried to no avail to get TSA agents to use a wand on the frightened girl or allow her to walk through the metal detector again. She also said TSA agents wanted to screen her granddaughter alone in a separate room. "She was kicking and screaming and fighting and in hysterics," Croft said. "At that point my daughter ran up to her against TSA's orders because she said, 'My daughter is terrified, I can't leave her.'" The incident went on for maybe 10 minutes, until a manager came in and allowed agents to pat the girl down while she was screaming but being held by her mother. The family was then allowed to go to their next gate with a TSA agent following them. Croft said that for the first few nights after coming home, Isabelle had nightmares and talked about kidnappers. She said TSA agents had shouted at the girl, telling her to calm down and saying the suspect wasn't cooperating. "To a 4-year-old's perspective that's what it was to her because they didn't explain anything and she did not know what was going on," Croft said. "She saw people grabbing at her and raising their voices. To her, someone was trying to kidnap her or harm her in some way."

This stuff just pisses me off to no ****ing end.

[MoonDogg]

[Hightop]

Houston Bus Riders Say No to TSA

[rhadamanthus]

TSA concedes body-scanner "vulnerabilities"

[MoonDogg]

[rhadamanthus]

^^^^MoonDogg seems to have nailed it...

link

SALT L AKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A Colorado teen is upset with screeners at Salt Lake City International Airport. The type one diabetic says TSA agents were abrupt, rude and were responsible for breaking her $10,000 insulin pump. A pump she has to have to survive. Savannah Barry is mad and on a mission. She wants travelers to be warned before they walk through TSA security. "They need to get with the program and have some education across the board for TSA." After participating in a DECA conference in Salt Lake City with several classmates last week, Savannah, who is a type one diabetic and wears an insulin pump 24 hours a day, says she ran into TSA agents who were not prepared to deal with her medical situation. "I went up to the lady and I said, I am a type one diabetic. I wear an insulin pump. I showed her the pump. I said, what do you want me to do? I usually do a pat down - what would you recommend?" Savannah then showed agents a doctor's note explaining that the sensitive insulin pump should not go through the body scanner. She says she was told to go through it anyway. "When someone in a position of authority tells you it is - you think that its right. So, I said, Are you sure I can go through with the pump? It's not going to hurt the pump? And she said no, no you're fine." The 16-year-old walked into the scanner with some serious reservations "My life is pretty much in their hands when I go through a body scan with my insulin pump on." She was right to be worried. She says the pump stopped working correctly. "Coming off an insulin pump is rough. You never know what is going to happen when you are not on the insulin pump." She says TSA agents then made the situation worse when they didn't know what to do about her juice and insulin. "She said, because we don't have the machines to scan the juice to make sure this is not an explosive we do have to do a full body pat down and search your through your bags." Of course, that's what she wanted in the first place, but it was too late. Savannah believes TSA screeners need more training. And she says, until that happens - people with medical conditions need to be warned. "It's unacceptable. And I don't want other people to feel the way I felt." We asked TSA about the incident. We received an email that says "TSA is reviewing the passenger's screening experience and will respond directly to the family. TSA works regularly with a broad coalition of disability and medical condition advocacy groups to help understand their needs and adapt screening procedures accordingly." TSA also has a tollfree hotline for passengers with medical conditions. They can call it before hand to find out about policies and procedures. 1-855-787-2227. Savannah (see picture) already has a new insulin pump. A company that heard her story quickly got it to her when she got back to Colorado.

Idiots. Complete and utter power-tripping idiots.

[rhadamanthus]

More hijinks.

18-month-old baby pulled from flight, parents interviewed by TSA

The parents of an 18-month-old girl say they were "humiliated" after being pulled off a plane and told their young child had been placed on a no-fly list. After boarding a JetBlue flight in Ft. Lauderdale, the parents of young Riyanna, who asked to remain anonymous over fears of repercussions, were told the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) wanted to interview their toddler. "And I said, 'For what?'" Riyanna's mother told ABC affiliate WPBF 25 News on Wednesday. "And he said, 'Well, it's not you or your husband. Your daughter was flagged as no fly.' I said, 'Excuse me?'" Whoever is to blame, the parents say they believe the incident began because they are both of Middle Eastern descent and because the wife wears a hijab, a traditional headscarf. A 2011 poll from the Pew Research Center found that Muslim Americans say they believe they are disproportionately singled out by airport security officers. Eventually, the couple were given their boarding passes back. Interesting, both JetBlue and the TSA tell WPBF they weren't responsible for the incident. The TSA says that because the couple and their child were eventually issued boarding passes, Riyanna could not have been on the no-fly list. "TSA did not flag this child as being on the No Fly list," the group said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "TSA was called to the gate by the airline and after talking to the parents and confirming through our vetting system, TSA determined the airline had mistakenly indicated the child was on a government watch list." JetBlue told WPBF that both the airline and the TSA are investigating the incident. "We were humiliated. We were embarrassed. We were picked on," Riyanna's father told the station. The family decided to leave the airport rather than return to the flight.

Pretty clear incident of profiling. What a surprise.

[Hightop]

hahahahahahahahaha

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...-works-at-phl/



PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The CBS 3 I-Team has learned that a Catholic priest who was removed from the ministry over sex abuse allegations now holds a sensitive security post at Philadelphia International Airport.

The security checkpoint between Terminals D and E is a busy place where thousands of people – including lots of kids – pass through every day. But you might not believe who the I-Team observed working as a TSA supervisor at that checkpoint this week: Thomas Harkins.

Until 2002, Harkins was a Catholic priest working at churches across South Jersey. But the Diocese of Camden removed him from ministry because it found he sexually abused two young girls. Now, in a new lawsuit, a third woman is claiming she also is one of Harkins’ victims.

The I-Team asked Harkins about the suit as he was leaving his shift at the airport.

“I have nothing to say,” was Harkins’ reply.

The new lawsuit, filed in federal court against the Camden Diocese says quite a bit. It accuses Harkins of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl 10 to 15 times in 1980 and 1981. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the alleged victim, claims the abuse occurred while Harkins was a priest at Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Hammonton, NJ, with one assault even occurring in Harkins’ bedroom at the rectory.

The I-Team asked Harkins if the traveling public should be worried.

“No, they shouldn’t be,” he said.

“The public should not be worried with you in a position like this despite your past?” reporter Ben Simmoneau asked.

“I have nothing to say,” Harkins repeated.

He then used his TSA badge to walk into a restricted area where our cameras could not follow.

“They should know who they’re hiring,” said Karen Polesir, a Philadelphia spokeswoman with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). She believes Harkins’ TSA job is inappropriate.

“As the public, we are screened to our underwear getting on a plane, and yet they hire a man like that.”

A TSA official tells the I-Team Harkins’ title is “Transportation Security Manager, Baggage,” meaning he deals mostly with luggage, not passengers.

“Sure, that’s his title,” Polesir said. “That doesn’t mean that’s where he stays, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t fill other roles when necessary.”

The TSA says all its employees go through a criminal background check before they’re hired, but because these cases are so old, criminal charges were not filed. A spokesman says the Camden Diocese settled the first two lawsuits with Harkins’ accusers–it has not seen this suit just yet.

[rhadamanthus]

Originally Posted by rhadamanthus I really, really cannot stand everything about the TSA and DHS. How to get anything past a TSA scanner with nothing but some sewing skills

An update:

Guy now has checkpoint security video showing him wandering past a nude body scanner with undetected objects.

System is an absolute joke.

[Classic]

Originally Posted by rhadamanthus An update: Guy now has checkpoint security video showing him wandering past a nude body scanner with undetected objects. System is an absolute joke.

Thanks for keeping up with this mockery.

[Refman]

Originally Posted by CrazyDave The systematic removal of our rights all in the name of making us safer, which we aren't.

You do not have to go through any of the security measures. Just do not fly. You do not have a right to get on an airplane...when you choose to do so, you consent to security.