It?s been at least five years since I?ve flown commercial, and for good reason: I don?t wish to be arrested for questioning actions by often arrogant, rude Transportation Security Administration workers. Two years ago, my decision was reinforced by my daughter?s experience when going through airport security with her two lovebirds. Having shown her ticket and ID to security personnel, and walking toward the metal detector, they started shouting to her, “Miss, you?re going to have to take them birds out of the cage.” I watched with incredulity as she approached the metal detectors. Fortunately, a TSA worker took the cages and my daughter followed without further incident. Had it been I traveling with the birds, I might have told the TSA workers something that would have gotten me arrested.
James Bovard has an article titled “Federal Attitude Policy” that appears in Freedom Daily (June 2008), a publication of the Fairfax, Va.-based Future of Freedom Foundation. According to the February 2002 Federal Register, people can be arrested if they act in a way that “might distract or inhibit a screener from effectively performing his or her duties. A screener encountering such a situation must turn away from his or her normal duties to deal with the disruptive individual, which may affect the screening of other individuals.” That means it is a federal offense, and a fine of up to $1,500, for any alleged “nonphysical interference” that makes a TSA screener “turn away” from whatever he was doing.
