Welcome To Albuquerque, USSR
TSA thugs don't know your rights, so you'd better. And thanks to all of those, like Phil Mocek, who have stood up to the TSA to their personal financial and other detriment:
A message under the YouTube video:
Video recording made by Phil Mocek at Albuquerque International Airport, just outside the TSA barricade, on November 15, 2009, from approximately 2:34 p.m. - 2:38 p.m. Mountain time. This video (without the subtitles) was presented by the prosecution in State of New Mexico v. Phillip Mocek in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court on January 20, 2011.More information about the case, including addresses for my legal defense fund (I'm paying for this out-of-pocket), can be found in an FAQ maintained by The Identity Project at http://papersplease.org/wp/mocek
Audio of most of the trial is available for download or streaming on the Internet Archive. There's an index at http://papersplease.org/wp/2011/01/24...
Visible and audible in the video are Mocek, Albuquerque Airport Police Department officers Robert F. "Bobby" Dilley (116), Landrow "Wiggy" Wiggins (137), and Julio A. De La Peña (135), and TSA staff LTSO Jonathon Breedon, TSM Gerald Romero, STSO Anthony M. Schreiner, Greg Martinez, and BDO Laura Moots.
More on what happened (winning verdict! Mr. Mocek was acquitted) and your rights here:
Uncontested TSA and police testimony at the trial established, among other things, three important points:Despite calling themselves "officers", TSA checkpoint staff are not law enforcement officers and have no police powers -- and both TSA and police are fully aware of this. When the TSA calls for the police, they are just like any other civilians who call the police, and the police have no obligation to do what they ask. Police should not act, and have no right to act, in such a case, unless the police have a reasonable basis for believing that a crime has actually been committed or is being committed.You have the right, recognized by the TSA, to fly without showing ID. "It happens all the time. We have a procedure for that," according to the lead TSA "Travel Document Checker" at the Albuquerque airport. Signs and announcements in airports saying that all passengers must present ID are false.
You have the right, recognized by the TSA, to photograph or film anywhere in publicly accessible areas of airports including TSA checkpoints, as long as you don't violate any local laws, photograph the images on the screening monitors, interfere with the screening process, or slow down the line. (Whether those limitations to your First Amendment rights claimed by the TSA are legal or Constitutional was not decided in this case, since Mr. Mocek wasn't filming the images on the screening monitors, interfering with the screening process, or slowing down the line.) Signs or statements that photography is prohibited at Federal checkpoints are, in general, false.
Annoying the TSA is not a crime. Photography is not a crime. You have the right to fly without ID, and to photograph, film, and record what happens. Your best defense is your own camera and microphone. Ordinary jurors know, and are prepared to recognize with their verdict, that the TSA and police lie about what they are doing and why.
We salute Phil Mocek for standing up for all of us and our rights, and encourage supporters to contribute to help pay off his legal bills.
Contributions are tax-deductible, too!
More on your rights here. Here's an important point:
You have the right to freedom of movement, guaranteed by the First Amendment ("the right of the people... peaceably to assemble") and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a human rights treaty to which the US is a party: "Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.... No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country." Federal law (49 USC § 40101, part of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978) requires the TSA to consider "the public right of freedom of transit" by air when it issues regulations.
Here's the TSA's spin.
Mr. Mocek had a boarding pass, but would not produce ID when asked. As I've said before here on the blog, if you don't have an ID, TSA will work with you to verify you are who you say you are. On the other hand, if you refuse to provide information, you will not be permitted to fly. This process had begun with Mr. Mocek, but was not completed. Without an ID that matches the individual holding the boarding pass, we can't be sure the passenger has cleared government watchlists.
Meanwhile, they keep 3-year-olds off the planes as dangerous suspected terrorists. I'm sure little Carbon is quite the troublemaker in nursery school, but the only thing explosive about him is likely to be found in his diaper.
More from the TSA:
As far as photography, as I stated in a previous post, TSA does not prohibit photography at checkpoints as long as there is no interference with the screening process. As TSOs were talking to Mr. Mocek to verify his identity, he was holding a camera up to film them and appeared to be trying to film sensitive security information related to TSA standard operating procedures on ID verification.
Oh, please. You saw the video above. That your opinion?
If you want to see how they verify ID, buy a $39 ticket from LA to Sacramento and throw it in the trash after you get through "security" at LAX.
The sad thing you'll find out: Anybody intelligent enough to play the nines in the comments here on this blog is smart enough to get whatever they want on an airplane.
TSA thugs don't know your rights, so you'd better. And thanks to all of those, like Phil Mocek, who have stood up to the TSA to their personal financial and other detriment:
Many, many moons ago I worked as a security guard at various sites. We were told to let the bad guys go. We had no right to touch them. It was all theater.
The sad thing you'll find out: Anybody intelligent enough to play the nines in the comments here on this blog is smart enough to get whatever they want on an airplane.
Thank you for the compliment.
Jim P. at January 30, 2011 6:51 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/01/30/welcome_to_albu.html#comment-1833116">comment from Jim P.Unfortunately, it's true...and it's kind of a compliment, and unfortunately, kind of not. Check out the guys they're dealing with there. Not exactly the screeners for El Al, huh?
Amy Alkon at January 30, 2011 7:02 AM
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test at January 30, 2011 7:47 AM
Firefox Test
Gregg at January 30, 2011 8:40 AM
Unfortunately, it's true...and it's kind of a compliment, and unfortunately, kind of not. Check out the guys they're dealing with there. Not exactly the screeners for El Al, huh?
The stupidity on the TSA screener's part was just so dumb. His filming them -- they rose to the bait. Once he had them hooked, the TSA agents couldn't back down without looking even more stupid.
And then nowhere in there did I ever actually hear them ask for his name.
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I've gamed how to circumvent TSA and screening procedures for both hijacking or just blowing the plane out of the sky. I have about 15 ways with less than ten people to try and repeat 9/11.
The thing is that there will never be another 9/11. From the Complete 911 Timeline:
Note the time difference between the North Tower being hit and Flight 93 going in. It was 80 minutes. The model changed that day -- and will never happen again.
Jim P. at January 30, 2011 9:22 AM
It's not like these people live in an impenetrable fortress with round the clock security. They're all vulnerable to retribution.
Do the right thing at January 30, 2011 11:56 AM
It's not like these people live in an impenetrable fortress with round the clock security. They're all vulnerable to retribution.
If you are doing your job in a calm, professional, courteous manner -- why would you have to worry about retribution?
For example Jane Doe hits the checkpoint and asks to have her expressed breast milk hand examined in a courteous manner. You, as a TSA agent, understand that and help her through the process. You would never keep her in a box for 45 minutes and make her miss her flight.
A 75+ year old man is carrying a something strange, but it isn't obviously harmful. Let's threaten to take his Medal of Honor. Why would anyone be upset with you?
You fly back into the U.S. from a foreign country. You made it through immigrations and customs. The next think you are going to do is walk to your car and drive home. But someone wants to put you through an X-Ray scanner to leave the airport. I know I wouldn't be upset. How about you?
The point behind all this is that many TSA agents don't think, are capricious, overbearing, vengeful, and egomaniacal. The thing I'm waiting for is for a TSA agent to actually push someone. The day that is caught on camera -- he has an assault case.
Jim P. at January 30, 2011 1:54 PM
The model changed that day -- and will never happen again.
Exactly, which is why this nonsense and inconvenience is totally unnecessary. Before the airlines started flying again after 9/11, they had already changed their internal procedures related to attempted hijackings. All of these so-called security measures are more about feel like something is being done. But they don't actually stop anyone. Security theater, playing everywhere now and forever. Everyone who acquiesces to the indignities of the TSA without protest is doing their part to support the terrorists and undermine our way of life.
Christopher at January 30, 2011 4:33 PM
"I knew I should have turned right at Albequoikie!"
Cousin Dave at January 30, 2011 4:43 PM
This guy was way more calm than I could possibly without something heavily-suppressing my adrenaline. I was getting pumped up just watching this video.
So, were the police ignorant of the law, or were they willfully ignoring it? I think there should be a lawsuit against the Police as well here.
WayneB at January 31, 2011 11:42 AM
Why is it that when you point out some minor anecdotal info (that has been caught on tape or corroborated) other posters never come back?
Jim P. at February 1, 2011 9:36 PM
I love this game, gonna hav 2 try this fer sure
Heidi Lierz at July 29, 2011 6:28 AM
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