Via Boing Boing
Dec. 10th, 2004 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumIt is said the only thing Evil needs to triumph is that good men do nothing.
That said, few of us want to be in the position of being able to do serious good (having been arrested, on a false charge, it isn't something I commend, much less the thought of making oneself a Scopes, out to test bad law).
Which leads us to this example of heroism.
Fighting the TSA on an unlawful search
I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to relate this event. Embarrassment certainly played no part. Generally, I like to be fully disclosed, no matter how far I may wander beyond the normative fringe. I suppose that, for legal reasons, I wanted to avoid any apparent admission of guilt, and only now do I realize that it's possible to tell this tale without making one. This is because, in most cases - and this is almost certainly one of them - contraband that is illegally discovered does not legally exist. If that seems a technicality to you, you may want to re-read the 4th Amendment, as well as the subsequent case law (notably Mapp v. Ohio) which sets forth the "exclusionary rule." However shredded by the War on Some Drugs, the 4th Amendment remains part of the Constitution. In order to see that it goes on meaning something, I decided to fight this charge and have spent the last 14 months doing so.
Now I will tell you my story.
At about 7:00 am on September 15, 2003, I boarded Delta Flight 310, scheduled to depart San Francisco International Airport for JFK at 7:20 that morning. I was still feeling slightly singed from Burning Man and the hour was one I prefer to see from the other side. I was almost back to sleep when, roughly two minutes before pull-back, I was approached by a Delta employee who informed me that there was "a problem" of some sort and that it would be necessary to get off the aircraft and bring my carry-on belongings with me. I didn't like the sound of this, but I complied, once more vividly awake.
He led me to an office in the baggage claim area that was thicker with cops than some banana republics. They greeted me with same distaste they'd likely have shown an actual terrorist and treated me accordingly for the remainder of that very long day. On the counter lay small quantities of marijuana (for which I have a physician's recommendation), mushrooms, and ketamine that had allegedly been encountered in my suitcase. That the total volume of this prize was significantly more compact than the amount of high explosive necessary to endanger an aircraft, and indeed, insufficient to merit a felony charge on any count, didn't matter to them. They clearly regarded me as a threat to public safety. When I pointed out to the officials that they only had authority to search for threats to the aircraft, one of them, a bug-eyed, crew-cutted troglodyte, declared that, if I had taken any of these substances, then I would have endangered Flight 310. That such an obviously ungifted person was capable of so imaginative a conceptual leap remains a marvel to me.
Right now he is fighting this, and only because, by the Grace of God, which passeth all understanding, he happens to know a cantankerous lawyer, willing to post $25,000 for his bail (who can you reach out and touch, for a couple of grand, much less more than a year's salary at the poverty line?) and then make him fight the case.
We then set about to mount what appears to be the first serious contest of TSA's routinely over-broad searches of checked bags. Apparently, everyone else who has been arrested as a consequences of these inspections, and there have been many, has pled guilty rather than face the cost and trouble of mounting a constitutional defense.
I might have done so myself had it not been for Gilmore's willingness to support the handsome cost of my defense. That, and the recognition that unconstitutional behavior by the authorities is constrained only by the peoples' willingness to contest them. Liberty is preserved not only on the battlefield. More often, it is preserved on the streets, by people who know their rights and refuse to forfeit them at the time of arrest. Failing that, as I did, it is preserved in court.
Go, read it. I have to pack for a train trip to Seattle, where I shall spend time with friendslibertango and akirlu, near and dear, who happen to live not so close.
I'll be back.
That said, few of us want to be in the position of being able to do serious good (having been arrested, on a false charge, it isn't something I commend, much less the thought of making oneself a Scopes, out to test bad law).
Which leads us to this example of heroism.
Fighting the TSA on an unlawful search
I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to relate this event. Embarrassment certainly played no part. Generally, I like to be fully disclosed, no matter how far I may wander beyond the normative fringe. I suppose that, for legal reasons, I wanted to avoid any apparent admission of guilt, and only now do I realize that it's possible to tell this tale without making one. This is because, in most cases - and this is almost certainly one of them - contraband that is illegally discovered does not legally exist. If that seems a technicality to you, you may want to re-read the 4th Amendment, as well as the subsequent case law (notably Mapp v. Ohio) which sets forth the "exclusionary rule." However shredded by the War on Some Drugs, the 4th Amendment remains part of the Constitution. In order to see that it goes on meaning something, I decided to fight this charge and have spent the last 14 months doing so.
Now I will tell you my story.
At about 7:00 am on September 15, 2003, I boarded Delta Flight 310, scheduled to depart San Francisco International Airport for JFK at 7:20 that morning. I was still feeling slightly singed from Burning Man and the hour was one I prefer to see from the other side. I was almost back to sleep when, roughly two minutes before pull-back, I was approached by a Delta employee who informed me that there was "a problem" of some sort and that it would be necessary to get off the aircraft and bring my carry-on belongings with me. I didn't like the sound of this, but I complied, once more vividly awake.
He led me to an office in the baggage claim area that was thicker with cops than some banana republics. They greeted me with same distaste they'd likely have shown an actual terrorist and treated me accordingly for the remainder of that very long day. On the counter lay small quantities of marijuana (for which I have a physician's recommendation), mushrooms, and ketamine that had allegedly been encountered in my suitcase. That the total volume of this prize was significantly more compact than the amount of high explosive necessary to endanger an aircraft, and indeed, insufficient to merit a felony charge on any count, didn't matter to them. They clearly regarded me as a threat to public safety. When I pointed out to the officials that they only had authority to search for threats to the aircraft, one of them, a bug-eyed, crew-cutted troglodyte, declared that, if I had taken any of these substances, then I would have endangered Flight 310. That such an obviously ungifted person was capable of so imaginative a conceptual leap remains a marvel to me.
Right now he is fighting this, and only because, by the Grace of God, which passeth all understanding, he happens to know a cantankerous lawyer, willing to post $25,000 for his bail (who can you reach out and touch, for a couple of grand, much less more than a year's salary at the poverty line?) and then make him fight the case.
We then set about to mount what appears to be the first serious contest of TSA's routinely over-broad searches of checked bags. Apparently, everyone else who has been arrested as a consequences of these inspections, and there have been many, has pled guilty rather than face the cost and trouble of mounting a constitutional defense.
I might have done so myself had it not been for Gilmore's willingness to support the handsome cost of my defense. That, and the recognition that unconstitutional behavior by the authorities is constrained only by the peoples' willingness to contest them. Liberty is preserved not only on the battlefield. More often, it is preserved on the streets, by people who know their rights and refuse to forfeit them at the time of arrest. Failing that, as I did, it is preserved in court.
Go, read it. I have to pack for a train trip to Seattle, where I shall spend time with friends
libertango and akirlu, near and dear, who happen to live not so close. I'll be back.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-10 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-10 08:45 pm (UTC)B
no subject
Date: 2004-12-10 08:45 pm (UTC)Too frelling ironic
Date: 2004-12-10 08:49 pm (UTC)Covenant Security further objects to this request on the ground that it constitutes an unreasonable and impermissible invasion into the constitutional rights of privacy [boldface original] guaranteed to its screener employees.
http://www.barlowfriendz.net/busted/documents/2004.03.23.CovenantresponsesObjectionstoSDT.pdf
no subject
Date: 2004-12-10 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-10 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-09 11:46 pm (UTC)Either way, probable cause was not had, and he was probably less likely to be a threat than anyone else on that plane, all things considered...