TSA, Don't Strip Our Rights
I got in touch with Kelly Voluntaryist, who did the bra-and-panties protest of the TSA and she sent me this video they put together:
Interesting that the guy tells them they can't hand out pamphlets at the airport. Oh, that crazy little thing called the First Amendment.
And then there's the notion that they can't openly record a public official:
Another man was charged with wiretapping in New Hampshire for recording a traffic stop. As Mike Masnick posted on Techdirt:
Recording a police officer as he has stopped you is not and should never be considered a crime. The police in Weare New Hampshire should be ashamed of themselves for flagrantly abusing the law to intimidate people from exercising their own rights. All the more reason for laws like the one proposed in Connecticut that would punish police for preventing people from recording their interactions with the police in public.
Via Techdirt, as Radley Balko points out:
A right doesn't mean much if there are no consequences for government officials who ignore it. Witness this case in Florida, where an officer erroneously tries to say federal law prohibits citizen recordings of cops. Even in states where courts have thrown out criminal charges, a cop who doesn't want to be recorded can still harass, threaten, and even arrest you. You may not be charged. But he won't be punished, either.
The law? Gary Rayno writes in the Union Leader:
CONCORD -- Police in several communities in New Hampshire have arrested people videotaping police officers, but according to a ruling from the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, the arrests violate their First Amendment rights.The ruling in the case of Simon Glik, a Boston attorney arrested for filming Boston police officers arresting a man on Boston Common, states: "Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting 'the free discussion of governmental affairs.'"
And the court ruled "a citizen's right to film government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the discharge of their duties in a public place is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."
In New Hampshire, citizens have been arrested for recording police officers performing their duties -- including several publicized cases in Weare, Nashua, Manchester, Portsmouth and Keene.
For the past three legislative sessions, bills have been introduced to make it clear citizens have a right to record police officers performing their duties in public places, but to date none have become law.
Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, is the prime sponsor of House Bill 145, which is still in the Senate Judicial Committee after it passed the House this session. The Senate will act on the bill in January.
The Senate isn't acting well -- whomever is in this guy's district should see he isn't elected again. Again, from the Union Leader, from the editorial page on January 9, 2012:
In the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Sen. Fenton Groen, R-Rochester, introduced an amendment that mucks up this simple bill. It requires the recording to be in plain view and that the person doing the recording be on their own property, property they have permission to be on, or public property.Those requirements are entirely unnecessary. They also present problems. What if a person hears a commotion, runs to the scene, and witnesses an interaction between a citizen and a police officer? In the heat of the moment, that person would have to make sure he is on public property or his own property, or any recording would be illegal.
This amendment should go. The House version was simpler and better.
Post on Fenton Groen's Facebook page re-election page. I did. This comment:
How utterly scummy that you introduced an amendment to HB 145 (showing yourself to be ignorant of - and an enemy of -- The First Amendment). As the Union Leader editorial page noted, your amendment "mucks up" this bill, calling for a person videotaping the police to be on their own property, property they have permission to be on, or public property. The Union Leader link is here.I hope your constituents vote you out of office for being an enemy of the Constitution. -Amy Alkon
The day that they make it illegal for the cops to record their encounters with the public, I might consider it.
But letting them have the only evidence of how it occurred would be totally stupid on our part.
Jim P. at January 28, 2012 12:41 AM
you know, it is very hard for me to take this seriously now that this woman has identified herself with a group that has anarchy in their name.
ronc at January 28, 2012 9:42 AM
> I hope your constituents vote you out of office
I dunno... Maybe this man's service to our government, his leadership, is one of those things that shouldn't be left up to the voters, y'know?
Tough call.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at January 28, 2012 10:04 AM
"it is very hard for me to take this seriously"
Clutch the pearls, someone scared the white people. I'll be sure to tell the committee of their loss.
damaged justice at January 28, 2012 10:07 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/01/tsa-dont-strip.html#comment-2941128">comment from roncyou know, it is very hard for me to take this seriously now that this woman has identified herself with a group that has anarchy in their name.
Lisa Simeone, who sends me a good deal of the stuff I post on the TSA and who has been supported in my own travails disagrees with me on just about every other issue but the TSA. I'm not an anarchist, and I don't care if this woman disagrees with me on every single issue but this one -- it's right to call attention to the TSA's abuses, which is what she's doing.
Will I pander -- strip down -- and get a bunch of other women to join me in doing it in order to get attention for this issue? Absofuckinglutely.
You who have issues with anarchists and will sit this out because of it can sit idly by watching the Constitution get crumpled up at the airport door -- and thank the rest of us who are fighting to maintain your rights when you still have them. As long as you still have them. Because every time somebody finds a reason to avoid defending them, it becomes that much easier to yank them from all of us.
The way I see it: Those who benefit from the Constitution have an OBLIGATION to defend it.
Amy Alkon
at January 28, 2012 10:41 AM
Yes, Crid, per your link, gay parents should be allowed to marry each other same as straight ones.
And what's with the "white people" crack, damaged justice?
Amy Alkon at January 28, 2012 10:49 AM
Amy: I picked that up from Uncle.
http://www.saysuncle.com/index.php?s=scaring+white+people
damaged justice at January 28, 2012 11:16 AM
> gay parents should be allowed to marry
> each other
Well, that was the topic, the one for which you thought "we" should be able to overpower the voters. Whoever "we" is.
So maybe this is like that... Not something for citizens to worry their pretty little heads about.
It's real important, you knowutimean?
Crid at January 28, 2012 12:57 PM
Anarchy is a childish concept. I do not support the tsa or our current concept of government, where more than half the population has no vested. interest because they pay no taxes. What I do support is an orbs.used anti-government movement which is totally the antithesis of anarchy. You know, to arms and all of that. You wanna run naked thru an airport, good luck to you, ain't gonna change a damn thing. The.majority of the voting public are morons as witnessed by yhe fact they scream for change, yet vote in the same scumbags election after election. The game we know as the USA is over, done. Not sure what is next, but it will not be pretty.
ronc at January 28, 2012 1:22 PM
"Anarchy is a childish concept"
I recommend a remedial course in the English language.
damaged justice at January 28, 2012 1:26 PM
Please correct me Mr scholar. Anarchism has never, ever been a successful movement.
ronc at January 28, 2012 2:25 PM
As I said, I'll be sure to inform the committee. We'll be twirling our moustaches and constructing shoddy homemade incendiaries, right behind the Ebil Capitalists polishing their monocles and setting fifties on fire.
damaged justice at January 28, 2012 2:50 PM
Anyone else notice that the cop who hadn't read the flyer has what look like two tattoos on each arm?
Sio at January 28, 2012 3:35 PM
Running the risk of being unoriginal: who watches the watchmen?
Urban at January 28, 2012 6:24 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/01/tsa-dont-strip.html#comment-2942013">comment from UrbanUrban, this is a question that can't get asked often enough.
Amy Alkon
at January 28, 2012 7:15 PM
"'Anarchy is a childish concept'
I recommend a remedial course in the English language."
Well, it's a childish concept when the self-labeled anarchists are demanding more power for the state. There don't seem to be that many people around these days who are actually committed to the idea of smaller government.
Cousin Dave at January 29, 2012 10:05 AM
"actually committed to the idea of smaller government"
I am. I say elect no politician taller than 4 ft. 2 in.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 29, 2012 4:49 PM
While I complain about the TSA -- I will at least grant they generally do let you fly.
These people can't fly out of Egypt.
Jim P. at January 29, 2012 7:03 PM
Anarchy = Peace :)
Kelly Voluntaryist at January 31, 2012 3:23 PM
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