Fondle of Fine: TSA says submit to search or face $11,000 fine

Well here is a pleasant choice for the holiday season

Sun Sentinel: If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

"Once a person submits to the screening process, they can not just decide to leave that process," says Sari Koshetz, regional TSA spokesperson, based in Miami.

Koshetz said such passengers would be questioned "until it is determined that they don't pose a threat" to the public.

Palm Beach Sheriff's Office spokesperson Teri Barbera said PBSO deputies stationed at the airport would become involved when requested by the TSA.

"We will handle each incident on a case-by-case basis," she said.

No one will be forcibly searched or arrested "just because they refuse to go through the security procedures," Barbera said. "That may rise to the level of suspicious behavior for the TSA, but it wouldn't rise to the level of suspicious behavior for a deputy," she said.

But Barbera said that if a person is judged to be a possible threat, deputies are legally permitted to detain and search that individual. "The deputies will do it at the airport just as they would do it anywhere else," she said.

Once cleared by the TSA and deputies, the people will be allowed to leave, she said. [MORE]

While this may sound like you are powerless to resist the gropefest, you are not.  For me, I will not fly unless it is absolutely necessary.  I will take the train, a boat or drive to any destination I can. A drop in airline travel will bring the airline on our sides.  Nothing speaks louder in American than the power of the pocketbook, even in the age of Obama.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Sun Sentinel 

From groping to probing, TSA to investigate John Tyner (The Don’t Touch My Junk dude)

This sounds an awful lot like payback for posting that viral video.

Sign On San Diego: The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan.

Tyner recorded the half-hour long encounter on his cell phone and later posted it to his personal blog, along with an extensive account of the incident. The blog went viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers and thousands of comments.

Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000. […]

In the end, security escorted Tyner out of the airport, after American Airlines refunded his ticket.

According to Aguilar, Tyner is under investigation for leaving the security area without permission. That’s prohibited, among other reasons, to prevent potential terrorists from entering security, gaining information, and leaving.[MORE]

Tyner was given a choice, submit to a search he found offensive or not fly.  He chose the latter and now they are going to investigate him for making that choice?  I don’t understand how he could have left without permission when he was escorted out by security.  I think TSA is looking to make an example out of Tyner so that no one else thinks to stand up for themselves. The whole thing reeks of Big Brother throwing its weight around.

I must say, the left was correct on this issue.  You will recall back in the days shortly after 9/11 many on the left squawked about trading rights for higher security.  Meanwhile many of us on the right were willing to make the trade.  Ten years later as TSA starts to push its weight around, we are starting to see the light.  Perhaps now that the left and right are on the same page, we can come together to demand the effective security we all deserve.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Sign On San Diego

Man ejected from airport for refusing to let TSA “touch his junk”

SignOn San Diego: SAN DIEGO — John Tyner won't be pheasant hunting in South Dakota with his father-in-law any time soon.

Tyner was simultaneously thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Saturday morning for refusing to submit to a security check and threatened with a civil suit and $10,000 fine if he left.

And he got the whole thing on his cell phone. Well, the audio at least.

The 31-year-old Oceanside software programmer was supposed to leave from Lindbergh Field on Saturday morning and until a TSA agent directed him toward one of the recently installed full-body scanners, Tyner seemed to be on his way.

Tyner balked.

He’d been reading about the scanners and didn’t like them for a number of reasons, ranging from health concerns to “a huge invasion of privacy.” He’d even checked the TSA website which indicated that San Diego did not have the machines, he said in a phone interview Saturday night.

“I was surprised to see them,” said Tyner.

He also did something that may seem odd to some, manipulative to others but fortuitous to plenty of others for whom Tyner is becoming something of a folk hero: Tyner turned on his cell phone’s video camera and placed it atop the luggage he sent through the x-ray machine.

He may not be the first traveler tossed from an airport for security reasons but he could well be the first to have the whole experience captured on his cell phone.

During the next half-hour, his cell phone recorded Tyner refusing to submit to a full body scan, opting for the traditional metal scanner and a basic “pat down” — and then refusing to submit to a “groin check” by a TSA security guard.

He even told the guard, “You touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.”

I have to applaud this guy.  The whole airport security thing has gotten completely out of control.  Two months ago I was hired to do a three day photo shoot at La Guardia Airport.  I had to submit identification 48 hours in advance (for each of the three days too).  Despite that, I had still had to stand in line, remove my shoes, go through regular x-ray machines and hand scanners.  Over the course of the three days I submitted to the security check five times! Just imagine how much fun that was with three crates of photo equipment! On the final check, I slipped in my socked feet and pulled a muscle in my lower back.  It was only through the Grace of God, I did not let out the string of curse words that was on the tip of my tongue.  

To me the whole screening process seems to be on automatic pilot.  The TSA workers did not seem to be actively screening people but rather just processing them by rote. There simply has to be a more efficient and effective way to do this.

It seems like people are starting to revolt to the whole process.  TSA Opt-Out day is set for November 24^th!

More reading at American Power, Red State, Left Coast Rebel and Protein Wisdom.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Sign On San Diego

Via: The Atlantic