8 Things You Can Do to Protect Yourself Against TSA Tyranny!
Knowing your options and your rights can go a long way in helping you to avoid a tyrannical overstep by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Further, determining a wise and clear plan ahead of time in light of the new TSA policies will better prepare you to protect the sanctity of you and your family as you travel. Finally, avoiding a conflict, whenever you can do so without conceding your constitutional right to privacy or violating your conscience, is usually the most prudent course to pursue, though you must determine what your plan will be should you reach an impasse with the TSA.
Here are 8 practical considerations to help you accomplish these goals:
1. If it is not essential for you to travel by commercial airplane, choosing another means of transportation to get to your destination may be your best option in light of the TSA’s new intrusive policies. Carefully consider creative travel solutions that don’t involve commercial air travel.
2. If you choose to travel by commercial flight, research which airports currently use Advanced Imaging technology. We have compiled a list from the TSA website here. Avoiding these airports should eliminate the possibility of inappropriate images of your naked body being viewed by TSA agents and may also help you avoid being pressed to experience an invasive full body handling.
3. If you choose to travel by commercial flight and you choose to use an airport or terminal with enhanced imaging technology, you may not necessarily be selected for enhanced imaging or enhanced pat downs. Current reports indicate that 20-25% of travelers are selected for this invasive treatment.
4. Be aware of Prohibited Items. Setting off an alarm or metal detector will increase the probability of you being selected for an enhanced scan or pat down. Be aware of what Prohibited Items are, and be sure to eliminate these items from being in your travel bags, carry-on luggage, or on your person.
5. Be prepared to record your experience if TSA agents seek to force you to submit to procedures that you are not comfortable complying with. The TSA Blog states:
We don’t prohibit public, passengers or press from photographing, videotaping, or filming at screening locations. You can take pictures at our checkpoints as long as you’re not interfering with the screening process or slowing things down. We also ask that you do not film or take pictures of our monitors.
Having a record of your experience may go a long way in helping you defend yourself in the future.
6. Be prepared to defend your right to audio and video record your experience with the TSA agents at the airport. The agents on hand may ask you to turn off your recording device. They are in the wrong to do so. Provided that you are not “interfering with the screening process or slowing things down” in the process, you have the right to record your experience with the TSA, and you can defend that right. You can refer to the quote above from the official TSA Blog as proof of this fact, or you may also urge the TSA agent or police officer to contact the TSA Department of Strategic Communications. This department “oversees all external and various internal communications initiatives. [They] work directly with high-level officials within TSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop strategic communications efforts that are carried out nationwide.” They can be reached at the following number: TSA Public Affairs, (571) 227-2829.
7. If you are selected to go through an advanced imaging process, we recommend that you “opt out” and avoid the demeaning and immoral process of someone looking at your nude body. This means that you will be requested to go through an enhanced pat down inspection. This is what the TSA says about the Pat-Down Inspection:
A pat-down inspection complements the hand-wand inspection. In order to ensure security, this inspection may include sensitive areas of the body. Security Officers are rigorously trained to maintain the highest levels of professionalism. You may request that your pat-down inspection be conducted in private.
If you do not want the TSA agent to touch you or your child’s “sensitive areas” — including the groin, chest, buttocks and genitals—speak clearly to the agent and indicate that he or she may not touch you or your child in this way. Be specific and explicit regarding these thresholds. The TSA agent may be reasonable and understanding when you explain your position. But be prepared to be emphatic. Clearly state: You may not touch me/him/her in the groin. You may not touch my/his/her buttocks. You may not touch my/his/her breasts. Clearly delineate what you are willing and unwilling for them to touch. Assert your rights to personal privacy and propriety.
8. If the agent is unwilling to honor your request or indicates that he or she must call a supervisor, then seek to reason with the supervisor. Indicate that you are willing to go through the metal detector just like 75-80% of other travelers do. If the TSA representatives are unwilling at this point to afford you the decency of a non-invasive pat-down, you must then make a choice: Will you acquiesce to the unconstitutional demands of a tyrannical agency seeking to fondle you or your child, or will you refuse and forfeit your commercial flying plans? We recommend that you forfeit your travel plans and continue to refuse the invasive treatment. Press your 4th Amendment right guaranteed by the Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Under Civil Enforcement Policies, the TSA website states the following:
Fines also may be imposed when passengers attempt to artfully conceal prohibited items or behave in a manner that is so uncooperative and disruptive that it physically interferes with the screening process
This means that the TSA could threaten you with a fine and seek to impose fines on you if they deem you to be uncooperative.
This policy directive provides sanction guidance for imposing civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation for aircraft operators and up to $10,000 per violation for all other persons, including individuals, when a determination is made that civil penalty enforcement action should be taken. This sanction guidance is being issued to assist TSA personnel on the appropriate application of penalties under TSA’s present civil penalty authority.
The following link provides you with a complete Transportation and Security Administration ENFORCEMENT SANCTION GUIDANCE POLICY.
3 Responses to "8 Things You Can Do to Protect Yourself Against TSA Tyranny!"
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Hello: Great article. We appreciate your leading out on this crucial issue of tyranny rising, in our day.
I thought you might appreciate hearing about another experience by blogger Matt Kernan, where he successfully pressed his constitutional rights and was simply waved thru the TSA checkpoint.
He basically did what you advise, so the TSA response illustrates what I think our experience might entail for those God honoring souls who dare to press their God given, blood bought rights….
The story was in the DailyMail site, linked off of Lewrockwell.com.
Here’s the key text of the piece:
BEATING THE TSA: How a determined passenger spent hours arguing his rights before being waved through the checks
By James White
Last updated at 3:32 PM on 23rd November 2010
* Traveller misses all checks after 2.5-hour discussion
* TSA staff scared by public backlash as fliers angry
It’s the solution that millions of American airline passengers have been searching for – how to avoid bodyscanners and intrusive pat-downs when they fly.
Now one patient traveller has proved it is possible to bypass the high-level security measures in place at all airports, but only if you have time on your hands.
Blogger Matt Kernan recorded his epic experience as he returned to North Kentucky International Airport in Cincinnati from Paris on Sunday.
Exasperated at being told to prepare for a body scan and with time on his hands, the determined businessman decided to make a stand – with remarkable results.
Writing on his website noblasters.com, he said: ‘I certainly don’t enjoy being treated like a terrorist in my own country, but I’m also not a die-hard constitutional rights advocate.
‘However, for some reason, I was irked.’
‘Maybe it was the video of the three-year old getting molested, maybe it was the sexual assault victim having to cry her way through getting groped, maybe it was the father watching TSA officers joke about his attractive daughter.
‘Whatever it was, this issue didn’t sit right with me. We shouldn’t be required to do this simply to get into our own country.’
As a result, Mr Kernan informed staff he did not want to go through the infamous Backscatter imaging machine.
He was told he would have to undergo an invasive pat-down search, but again politely told staff that he would consider any contact with his genital areas as assault.
After being told that the two options were TSA policy, he replied: ‘ I disagree with the policy, and I think that it is unconstitutional.
‘As a US citizen, I have the right to move freely within my country as long as I can demonstrate proof of citizenship and have demonstrated no reasonable cause to be detained.’
As the situation escalated further airport police were called and more senior TSA officials but Mr Kernan refused to back down, remaining calm throughout.
Eventually causing a stand-off between police and TSA officers over who should resolve the situation, Mr Kernan was told by a superviser: ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to escort you out of the terminal to the public area.
‘You are to stay with me at all times. Do you understand?’
He was then escorted by the police and no less than 13 TSA officer through security without a hand laid on him.
He said: ‘And then came the most ridiculous scene of which I’ve ever been a part.
‘I gather my things – jacket, scarf, hat, briefcase, chocolates.
‘We walk over to the staff entrance and he scans his badge to let me through. We walk down the long hallway that led back to the baggage claim area. We skip the escalators and moving walkways.’
He was then waved away by annoyed officers and said: ‘In order to enter the US, I was never touched, I was never “Backscatted,” and I was never metal detected.
‘In the end, it took 2.5 hours, but I proved that it is possible. I’m looking forward to my next flight on Wednesday.’
The passenger’s success shows that even senior TSA staff are unsure to handle awkward passengers who question the legality of the checks.
The revelation comes as TSA workers admitted they have been left terrified by a public backlash over the checks.
I served in the U.S. Navy for 8 years and 11 months with the oath “to defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.” Upon release from active duty I served in the Wyoming National Guard 133rd Combat engineers for another 2 years with the same oath. Upon separation from both of my services I was never told my duty had ended, only that I was separated from active duty in the military. I did not do this to see ANY government official make light of, or violate, the constitution in ANY manner. TSA and Homeland security are now thinking they are above the Constitution and the law and may do as they please. IF I have not been released from my oath to defend the constitution they are now an enemy of our constitution and trying to create a police state. We need to convince our legislators to stop this abuse, as they took the same oath that I did.
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