Man records TSA harassment with iPhone

The Lizardman

#1 – 5:36 PM June 20, 2009

I often end up carrying sums this large or larger as do many people I know (merch staff for bands, tour managers, other performers, etc) and we generally avoid them ever knowing about the cash by carrying it on our persons rather than in carry-on where it gets spotted on x-rays. To find my cash requires a physical search (and actually, physical searches have missed a larger sum than this on one occassion for me) which ostensibly requires more justification. Glad to see this nonsense being fought.

Metostopholes

#2 – 5:49 PM June 20, 2009

#1 (and actually, physical searches have missed a larger sum than this on one occassion for me)

Ass pennies?

Anonymous Anonymous

#3 – 7:36 PM June 20, 2009

hmm...

anyone else get deja vu?

http://boingboing.net/2009/04/05/man-detained-threate.html

this seems to happen a whole lot.. I think boing boing staff should be forced to actually read their own blog.

(It's an update that includes an exciting new development, which would be obvious if you had bothered to read it -- Rob)

The Lizardman

#4 – 8:07 PM June 20, 2009

@2 cash belt - like an under clothes fanny pack of sorts

Anonymous Anonymous

#5 – 10:25 PM June 20, 2009

@ The Lizardman: They're no longer called cash belts. They're terror packs now.

Anonymous Anonymous

#6 – 2:08 AM June 21, 2009

@Lizardman:

I'd tend to think a person with your, err, appearance, might be searched more or less than the average person... You're not exactly an indistinct person.

No offense, but I don't really think you represent the average of any population... Don't your modifications set off metal detectors anyways?

Marcel

#7 – 3:58 AM June 21, 2009

This unfortunate mishap may be prevented in the future by making it illegal for civilians to tape the conversations of any government official.

There. Problem solved.

Scared

#8 – 7:08 AM June 21, 2009

Just imagine how these guys will do when we give them control of our healthcare! "I'm not going to play your f*cking game!"

strider_mt2k

#9 – 8:50 AM June 21, 2009

Good thing it was recorded with an iPhone, or else it wouldn't have warranted a post on tech blogs...again.

Dillenger69

#10 – 9:02 AM June 21, 2009

Wish garbage like this going on they wonder why airlines are going bankrupt. Airport security is pretty much THE reason I refuse to fly. Someone in the airline industry needs to realize ho much the TSA is hurting their business and work to get a customer friendly alternative in place.

stumo

#11 – 10:36 AM June 21, 2009

#3 (deja-vu) - it's worse than that, Rob made the first comment on the original BB post!

Rob Beschizza

#12 – 11:07 AM June 21, 2009

He's suing them now, and there's a lot more information besides. You are permitted to read the linked articles, you know.

The Lizardman

#13 – 11:24 AM June 21, 2009

@6

I take only pride, no offense, at not representing the average populace.

None of my modifications set off the detectors - my horn ridge implants are teflon and I wear plastic plugs in my piercings when I fly.

However, my appearance often identifies me as a non-threat to security personnel who will pull me aside for 'special screening' that tends to amount to a photo or autograph and then I am through all the faster having jumped the line. My point(s) were mainly that if you carry the cash on your person it often goes undetected and that even when being patted down the screeners will miss cash belts. A perfectly normal looking acquaintance of mine brought back over 40k under his clothes in the 80's to avoid taxes and fees after a good european tour.

flatfive

#14 – 12:01 PM June 21, 2009

CNN says Lambert-St. Louis is in Illinois. Did we finally secede from Missouri and nobody told me about it?

stumo

#15 – 12:46 PM June 21, 2009

Rob - fair enough, but something in the post to indicate that there was something new would have been helpful.

madsci

#16 – 8:52 PM June 21, 2009

Ditto #1. I do one convention a year where I actually have significant cash sales, and I've gone through airport security a few times with $3k-$5k in cash, much of it in fifties and hundreds.

It always makes me nervous, but they've never even noticed it. Usually the roll of cash is tucked away in a pocket of my carry on backpack. One year they pulled me aside for extra screening (thanks to a huge ticketing snafu that resulted in an hour-long cab ride to another airport and a transfer) and swabbed down the pack for explosives, but never noticed the pocket.

In theory, I'd love to stick it to the TSA goons like this guy, but I know that's not likely to happen. If they question me, I'm telling the truth - here's my business card, here's my exhibitor's badge, etc. I've got a family and a business to get home to, and I'm grateful when NORMAL air travel crap doesn't mean getting home a day or more late.

And I'm sure this is why they get away with this sort of harassment and mission creep. Most people might disagree with it, but not enough to risk a major incident. I feel bad for being one of those people, but I'm glad there are guys like this out there who ARE willing to stand up and say something.

Black Jack

#17 – 9:52 PM June 21, 2009

I love that Lizardman is a commenter here. I, however, cringe at the fact that he represents the consensus view of BoingBoing commenters. "Happy Mutants" indeed.

It's also great that the original BoingBoing post embedded a FOX News clip.

It's great to be shocked!

Left-Libertarianism is a weird mix. It at once shocks, horrifies, pleases, and angers me. And it plays much better on BoingBoing Gadgets than it ever did on the main site.

There's not one hint of leftist ideology in this post.

dculberson

#18 – 7:55 AM June 22, 2009

"I, however, cringe at the fact that he represents the consensus view of BoingBoing commenters."

Why is that, specifically?

dculberson

#19 – 7:56 AM June 22, 2009

Oh, and I forgot to add: in what way does he represent anything beyond his own views? Has anyone taken a consensus poll and posted the agreed upon consensus?

Anonymous Anonymous

#20 – 8:05 AM June 22, 2009

Leftist schmeftist. If those categories didn't die when Reagan was elected, then they did when Clinton took office and neo-liberalism got renamed neo-conservatism.

BoingBoing

#21 – 10:05 AM June 22, 2009

As a reader of BoingBoing for several years, I can tell you with confidence that Lizardman does represent the consensus of BoingBoing commenters. I don't see how or why this statement would be controversial.

The controversy lies in this: "In what way does he represent anything beyond his own views?"

BoingBoing commenters LOVE to say that they are a collective of individuals who just happen to share identical opinions. They deeply resent and HATE opinions that they are somehow group-thinkers or collectivist hive-minders.

BoingBoing commenters deny the fact that common interests draw them to the site and common interests lead them to disregard the errors of like-minded people while simultaneously compelling them to harp on the perceived errors of non-like-minded people, as happens on every forum that has ever existed. BoingBoing commenters are incapable of noting similarities between their behavior and that of Little Green Footballs members. (Little Green Footballs members are also incapable of recognizing the reverse, so don't think I'm being biased.)

The only reason my comments are allowed to appear now is that the BoingBoing Gadgets moderator is far less biased than the BoingBoing moderator. The BoingBoing moderator would have either blocked my comments or disemvoweled them.

The reason I like BoingBoing Gadgets is that I share a common interest with the posters. I like gadgets. I trust their judgment, because their blog is about gadgets. Whereas the main site is just a forum for "wonderful things" that may or may not involve my interests. Sometimes, the "wonderful things" oppose my interests and anger me.

This is an off-topic discussion, and I don't blame moderators for disallowing those; but I think it's important for forums to be self-conscious. I think we should all try to be honest about how and why our forums behave or misbehave, and I see the BoingBoing main site as a nine-year old girl who claps her hands over her ears and screams nursery rhyme songs in the face of outside opinion.

But I'm straying. I don't mean to imply anything negative about Lizardman. I simply think that he is an individual who represents the "mainstream" as BoingBoing commenters perceive it.

The Lizardman

#22 – 10:20 AM June 22, 2009

@Black Jack

If you have some sort of insight into my positions then please enlighten me, as I am most often confused as to my position since I can rarely come to one for more than moment due to self applied skepticism. The closest I have come to a position here is "Glad to see this nonsense being fought" and it is true that I find harrassing people over carrying money to be nonsense but everything else I have posted is simply anectdote and observation.

Black Jack

#23 – 3:48 PM June 22, 2009

An individual is a wonderful thing. That you happen to like this site, and that people here happen to agree with you, isn't your fault. I would feel terrible if I were to ruin that.

The Lizardman

#24 – 8:11 PM June 22, 2009

It seems you think I have some sort of fragile identity that is tied to disagreement with others - nothing could be further from the truth (AFAIK). I am in agreement with a great many people and I would be even happier if we were not, on the whole, minorities (eg anti-breeders & atheists). The only thing worse than doing something because everyone is doing it is not doing something because everyone is doing it. Agreement and/or disagreement with others should be treated as mostly coincidence at best.

Individuality is not all that wonderful, it is simply natural - you cannot escape it. Everyone, technically, is an individual. Sure, you can embrace or attempt to suppress your individuality but it remains either way.

dculberson

#25 – 7:07 AM June 24, 2009

I think it's hilarious that anyone thinks the commenters here are some homogeneous group. Lizardman and I probably have more differences than similarities - except it appears we both believe in respect for individuals and freedom.

editjunk

#26 – 9:23 PM July 2, 2009

@ Black Jack, re: "There's not one hint of leftist ideology in this post."

How's this one?:

Property Is Theft.