Petty Power Trips at Dulles Airport

By consumerist.com June 15, 2006

With wild googly eyes and a crazy unkempt orange beard, Edward Hasbrouck looks a bit crazy. But not terrorist crazy. Geeky crazy. Actually, he’s a very proud American: proud enough to assert his rights in the fear that if he doesn’t, he’ll lose them. He isn’t afraid to question authority. And most importantly, he isn’t afraid to question the murky and nebulous “authority” of TSA contractors demanding to see his identification.

Unfortunately for Ed, that’s exactly the sort of thing that the petty, power-tripping rent-a-cops employed by the TSA hate. So upon a recent flight from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, Edward found himself detained by the TSA and eventually being questioned by the police, merely for asking who precisely he had to show his identification to in order to clear customs.

Worse yet? Edward was told by the TSA that he did not have to show his passport to contractors because there was no law that required it… but if he didn’t, he couldn’t pass security.

Edward’s tone with the officers may be a bit obsequious: many of you may wonder why he even bothered questioning people presenting themselves as figures of authority. But we dig Edward, because he’s asserting the legal rights we all have been too eager to give up in the paranoia that followed September 11th, at the price of his own personal inconvenience (and a whole lot of annoyance).

Unanswered Questions at Dulles Airport [Hasbrouck.org]

comment on this post

Tagged With: , , , ,
«
»

Comments

  1. Andrew W says:
    November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I suppose he was taking up John Gilmore’s challenge: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71115-0.html

  2. Papercutninja says:
    November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Yes. They are ABSOLUTELY petty, power-tripping rent-a-cops who were probably just fucking with him to be annoying.

    But the questions remain: why are all hippies so paranoid?

  3. ACurmudgeon says:
    November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Interesting reading. I hate flying, so I have only gotten on a plane a couple of times in the last 5 years. I also self-medicate myself with at least a bottle of wine before arriving at the airport. Because of this I am never critical of the security measures, lest I make a drunken fool of myself. But the story confirms my suspicions that we are moving closer and closer to a police state.

  4. bones says:
    November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Ya know, I’ve been through this at airports. Forgetting the obvious constitutional violations, let’s look at the consumer experience. You have to show ID and boarding pass at the airline check-in counter, and again to the TSA guy searching your checked in luggage, and again to the monkey in the long lines outside of the security checkpoint, and again at the security checkpoint. Tres inefficient and infuriating. How about show the ID and boarding passes once and have everything done. Everyone screams when you tell AOL CSRs “Cancel the account” over and over, how about the customer dissatisfaction with 3-4 seperate ID security checks.

  5. Aph says:
    November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Sympathedic up the ass. I just flew out of Ontario and got ALL my carryons fingered to the bone.

    Lets just say it included my “personal box”.
    The middle-end of the story involves some asshole with a TSA shirt looking at a pair of my fuzzy handcuffs in his hand… then looks at me… then continues to finger for more goodies.

    I should’ve stood up like this guy… but didnt have the time to put up with exactly what I knew would entail. AKA this guys story.