Tuesday, November 16, 2010

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.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the libertarians, as well as the left, were freaking out, and still freaking out, but the voices were ignored until much later years of the Bush's administration.

The republicans, however, didn't mind the invasion of privacy all that much right after 911. That and a bunch of things that Bush did really pissed off the freedom-minded folks, and that's where the Tea Party come in [ie/ real conservative value instead of Republican party's heavy handed big government "conservatism"].

Some of the safety precautions were necessary after 911, but the supporters of such measures forgot one thing: nameless bureaucrats is terrible at doing what they were hired to do, and eventually expand itself beyond believe.

Right now TSA becomes another alphabet organization, if we don't stop it, soon they'll have their own unit of men in black, and a swat team kicking down doors, much like DEA, BATF, etc.

2nd Anony

trinity said...

He opted not to get on the plane, so case closed. What he had to go through was bad enough, but because he asserted his rights, he will now have his life ripped to shreds. This is life in America governed by the Obama administration.

Fuzzy Slippers said...

The left is actually supporting the very things they condemned under Bush, and for much the same reason we were okay with them then. They feel secure knowing they are safe (or at least stupid enough to think they are), just as we once did when it was President Bush.

What we've learned is that any power you give one administration, you give to all subsequent administrations. We knew that, but it didn't really really register until we had an absolute lunatic in the WH who wants to destroy . . er, "fundamentally transform" America and who sees conservatives as "enemies." That kind of paranoia is alarming, to say the least. The man's seriously unstable, and knowing the power he wields scares the crap out of me.

It's a good lesson learned, that's for sure. And expect the left to get back on their "fascist Nazi Big Brother" soapbox the second that BO leaves office (well, if a republican takes it, anyway).

Janelle said...

Good grief........the TSA attacked Beaver Cleaver. How dopey and far left do they have to go before we all start raising hell? Start by making fun of the procedures.

Anonymous said...

@Fuzzy

Totally funny: when Bush was in power, TSA was way less powerful then now. But now under a new liberal president, we don't see the left remotely criticizes the TSA. I am sure if they do, they'll blame it on Bush, although TSA expanded beyond believe under Obama.

In the last 9 years, flying had really been a pain in every single bone of my body. I had to toss away perfectly good facial lotions and hot coffee that I was sipping on.

This is stupidity trumping basic damn common sense. Hell, if they want to install a police state [which they already do], at least do it like those movies do: bad ass polices in wicked armored uniform where they abuse people and everyone get scared and it's all epic and stuff.

This is more like minimal-training agents sharing naked photos of other peoples daughters. It's more Monty Python then Equilibrium. Urgh.

2nd Anony

Norma said...

The Left was only against this when it was Bush in charge. Seems to have gone much further with obama.

Fuzzy Slippers said...

@2nd Anonymous (how ya been?) That's a good point, ALL government agencies have way more power than they did when Bush was there, but that's typical of a tyrant who intends to gain totalitarian control of a country (yes, I believe that's BO's goal, or it was before he totally lost his mind).

Yes, we need to be smart about national security. You'd think that's a no-brainer, but instead, we have to inconvenience EVERYONE because a certain tiny segment is blowing up planes. Logic?

And heh, yeah, they may well be testing their muscles on the police state thing. He apparently does think some watery tart threw a sword at him and made him king. But, um, no.

Anonymous said...

"Old woman!" Shouted King Arthur.

"Man!" Answered the man.

2nd Anony

Fuzzy Slippers said...

lmao, 2nd Anon! Run away, run away!

(Sorry Clifton, I can't resist quoting Monty Python, it makes me happy)

Anonymous said...

Can we all admit that the Patriot Act must be repealed? You don't want to be groped at the airport. How about having your emails read, your phone calls listened in on? Does that also bother anyone?

Republicans were all for big government when they were in power. The Dems are for big government now that they are in power.

Some people blame Bush others blame Obama. I blame the American public for putting up with all this nonsense!

Gorges Smythe said...

This brave young man WILL need legal representation before it's over. May I suggest that you and some of the other blogers unite and form a way to collect funds for his defense. I'll contribute and forward the story to everyone on my email list if you can get the ball rolling.

Phelps said...

Point of order -- the TSA was a democrat idea. Republicans wanted to abridge the rights of our enemies overseas. Democrats wanted to abridge the rights of Americans here.

Hollings sponsored the bill, along with Boxer, Feinstein, and Reid. Rockefeller is the one who said, "you don't professionalize unless you Federalize." The TSA is 100% a Democrat golem.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SN01447:@@@P

Saying that the left somehow warned us about the TSA is flat out wrong.

Fuzzy Slippers said...

@Phelps, this is true, but what we are talking about is the leftie public who used this as a way to demonize President Bush and attach a "fascist, Nazi, Big Brother" label to him.

Sprogs always do this. They push for bigger and more tyrannical government, and then they pass the blame to conservatives. The media is complicit in (even thrilled about) this and push that narrative. The result being that most people in America simply don't know what President Bush did (much less why), so they slurp up the narrative provided by the sprog powers that be. Mission accomplished. Totalitarian framework firmly in place, conservatives are evil, sprogs just want what's best for the people. Recipe for disaster of historic proportions.

jhoff said...

Honest to fuckin god y'all. I came here accidentally lookin for info on this issue. I'm a raging left winger and i was totally against the Patriot Act, Bush and the Wars from the start. AND I'M GODDAMN AGAINST THEM UNDER OBAMA TOO. But none of that matters because its fucking irrelevant. This entity, the department of Homeland Security, has taken on it's own life and it's own agenda just like the DEA has. They are hardly answerable to any president any longer.

Why are there only TWO actual intelligent people on here. The rest of you are stroking each other over the fact that it's obama's or "the liberals'" fault that this man was treated this way. The issue is how do we deal with this, and that is a show of force that we won't tolerate it.

Every single one of us should say the same damn thing to these agents:
"I won't go through that device, and if you touch me inappropriately I'll have you arrested for sexual assualt."

Stop acting like fucking three year olds for five seconds and pay attention to the issue and how to fix it. For the record, the initial post was informative and insightful, and gave me some amount of hope for a minority of conservatives still being sane.

lordy

Fuzzy Slippers said...

@jhoff, we are talking about how to correct the problem--wouldn't you agree that knowing why there is a problem and how it came to be a problem is an important element in solving said problem?

I have to say, too, that I'm glad to see progressive sites like firedoglake are upset about this massive violation of our civil rights (and btw, they, too, are engaged in thoughtful analysis of how we got to this point--they're not coming to the same conclusions, of course, but they aren't pretending this is disconnected from anything else).

You are right that the agencies have taken on a life of their own, they have, but you are wrong to say that they are not answerable to the president. They are. But BO has delegated a lot of power and decision-making to his appointees (everything from HCR to Congress to where to try KSM to the DOJ), far more than is healthy for the government or for the public. He's not the final word on anything, and that is absolutely part of the problem here.

I am glad to hear you say that you want to move forward from here, we all do. But because this is all part of the same thing, it's not like we can just ignore how we got here or why that matters. How can we possibly fix the problem without understanding how it became a problem? Surface "band-aids" will not work here. Stopping the groping is fine, but it's not going to solve the root problem.

Unknown said...

Huh? Since he had not been passed through security (having not passed through the scanners and having not been passed through by the molesters) how could he have been in a secure area? That is supposedly the purpose of the strip search: to see if you will be allowed to enter a secure area.

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