I have previously written about the myth created by TSA that jokes at an airport security point about bombs constitute a crime. Now we have another case for this ignoble list involving Frank Hannibal, 50, who was arrested for making a simple joke to his wife and family about the ruckus caused by his jar of Crazy Richards peanut butter. He is now rightfully suing the TSA for $5 million and a verdict in his favor would do wonders to rein in this runaway agency.
The Arizona man brought the jar of extra crunchy peanut butter to his flight from LaGuardia Airport when TSA personnel seemed baffled by the separation of the oil from the natural peanut butter. They appear to be Jiffy eaters and not familiar with natural peanut butter. While they waited as the TSA personnel gathered around the peanut butter contemplating its meaning, Hannibal was asked by his family what was causing the delay and remarked to his wife and children “They’re looking to confiscate my explosives.”
TSA screener Edwin Sanchez overheard Hannibal’s remark and called the police. He was promptly arrested despite the fact that the simply made a quip, which is protected by the first amendment. He spent 24 hours in jail and was charged with “falsely reporting an incident”. The charge is clearly false and designed to harass a citizen. Yet, the police officer was not charged or his supervisors or the TSA agents who called the police.
Despite the lack of legal foundation and the violation of free speech protections, airport security continue to warn citizens that they can be arrested for jokes. Even absurd and abusive arrests like Hannibals do not result in discipline — a strong message to agents that the government wants to create this chilling affect by harassing and detaining citizens.
Source: Infowars
The new PB&J: peanut butter and joking
Here is how all of can maybe make a difference.
Every time you fly, demand a pat down. Do not go through the scanners, the health effects are not as they claim due to the energy being absorbed in the tip few millimeters of your skin.
Do the pat down in public. Do not let them take you to a back room. If more of us did this they just might eventually modify this ridicules procedure.
And I have always wondered. How does the Federal government have the right to interfere with your contract (your ticket) with a private company to fly on their airplane? Let the airline determine how best to do security. It’s their airplane. I’m sure they don’t want it blown up or flown into the ground.
Skip the scan, do the pat down in public.
since this thread is about government over-reach, this might be a good place to post this video from Paul Krugman who spoke at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9u2Lf0DdzA
“Eventually we do have a problem. That the population is getting older, health care costs are rising…there is this question of how we’re going to pay for the programs. The year 2025, the year 2030, something is going to have to give…. …. We’re going to need more revenue…Surely it will require some sort of middle class taxes as well.. We won’t be able to pay for the kind of government the society will want without some increase in taxes… on the middle class, maybe a value added tax…And we’re also going to have to make decisions about health care, doc pay for health care that has no demonstrated medical benefits . So the snarky version…which I shouldn’t even say because it will get me in trouble is death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.”
I suspect the TSA draws its employees from the same pool that supplies elementary school administrators. Has anyone tried showing a paper gun drawing to a TSA employee?
The TSA agents may not be idiots. They simply have no discretion. Zero. It’s in the job description. Applicants are literally advised that the position they are applying for has a ZERO tolerance ZERO discretion policy, and they have to agree to that in order to apply for the job.
That there was a confab was probably because they were looking for any way not arrest the guy for his peanut butter joke. The problem, of course, is much further up the Federal food chain than the TSA agents.
What Gene said earlier. The TSA is an agency gone wild and needs to be curtailed. Maybe a large settlement in the victim’s favor will help speed up the process to control the TSA.
That first word was “Quips”.
Qups in front of the TSA are like shouting Fire in a crowded theatre and are therefore an exception to the First Amendment. But you must consider the Ninth Amendment and the right of privacy argument, taken together with the Establishment Clause Prong of the First Amendment. The separation of the oil is like church and state and never the Twain shall meet and it was a matter of his personal privacy — like going into his underwear to see if he was kinky.
When the TSA hires, does it give preferential consideration to grade school administrators?
Theatre of the Absurd.
Absolutely! It’s incitement.
If the joke to the TSA is a crime, then suggesting to someone that they commit that crime is incitement – or possibler conspiracy? – even if this is intended as a joke.
The logic is inescapable.
Where, Do. They. Get. These, People? Is there a test that eliminates any candidates that have a scintilla of critical thinking? Only robots need apply? Put me in that corner with Gene H. and AY, Enough already.,Goombye TSA,. And the Patriot Act ,,, don’t even get me started.
Runaway agency or agency with knuckleheads they need to fire? I’m a doubter about most post-9/11 security measures, but pre-9/11, you had idiot screeners who worked for rent-a-cop organizations. I once carried a set of heirloom silver to my sister in California (I wasn’t going to ship it) and the cake spatula nearly made me miss my plane.
I guess the next step is having a psychic at the airport to determine our thoughts.
Wow…. I’m in the corner of dismantling the TSA…. This is absurd… Another Bush experience…. I guess it’s based on his leave no child behind…. A dismal failure….
Hope he wins.
That’s interesting. I was told by the FBI to do just that…a Supervisor John Dysart of the FBI in Ohio, told me to go to an airport and tell them I had a bomb.
Of course HE was just making a joke, when I was contacting him about a FOIA request, and he was trying to withhold information.
So does a joke about a joke to the TSA make you eligible for arrest??
Let’s hope the jury is not intimidated by the defendants’ counsel who will try to scare them.
Another example of why it is time repeal the Patriot Act and to dismantle the TSA and the Gestapo, er, DHS.