Steve Bierfeldt, the director of development for Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, had a particularly frustrating day of travel on March 29, 2009, after attending his organization’s regional conference in St. Louis. There, he sold Campaign for Liberty items, such as conference tickets, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and books. Transporting more than $4,700 in cash and checks from merchandise sales, Bierfeldt traveled from downtown St. Louis to Lambert–St. Louis International Airport with the intention of returning to Washington, D.C. The government, however, had another idea.
Transportation Security Administration officials detained Bierfeldt for further screening when they discovered a metal box in his luggage containing a large amount of cash and checks. The TSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and it, according to its website, “protects the Nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.” Bierfeldt might not agree with that last part. TSA agents interrogated Bierfeldt for over a half hour and would not allow him to continue to his gate until he answered some very directed questions: “Where do you work?” “What are you planning to do with the money?” “Where did you acquire the money?” Although having nothing to hide, Bierfeldt, in an effort to maintain his privacy, refused to answer the questions. The officers retaliated by further detaining him and asking viciously demeaning questions. As far as they were concerned, Bierfeldt could be prevented from moving freely so long as he refused to answer every prying inquiry they might conjure up. To them, if he wished to keep his privacy, then he should have wallowed in the safety of his own home. Bierfeldt never answered their questions, and they eventually let him go in time to catch his flight.
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As terrifying as it is to envision a world where authority figures could detain and question us for nearly any reason they chose, consider the further effects of this policy. Bierfeldt, if he valued his privacy above all else and, therefore, stayed huddled in his home, would no longer be in a position to pursue his lawful employment as a director of development for Dr. Paul. Furthermore, he would also no longer be free to express his political views by participating in and advocating for the Campaign for Liberty’s values. Still further, if individuals such as Steve Bierfeldt were forced to stay at home in order to keep their privacy and dignity, then the public would lose all access to these political ideas. Stated simply, the government could eviscerate constitutional rights simply by burdening the ability to travel of those whose ideas it hated or feared.
A companion phenomenon now becoming apparent is the resort by the president to ruling by decree — and the people’s general acceptance of it. I speak of the decision by the Obama administration to purchase from former members of the Bush administration so-called back-scanner X-ray machines for use at airports. These devices, which cannot detect small amounts of plastic explosive on the skin or anything, plastic or metal, hidden in a body cavity, nevertheless give the false impression of enhancing the safety of the flying public because of the lurid, graphic, even pornographic nature of the digital images they produce.
The government, in order to induce the public into a sheep-like, dazed-infused, knee-jerk acceptance of the porn scanners, offered an alternative even more invasive, unconstitutional, and odious: a public zipper-opening, blouse-removing, groping-your-private-parts alternative.
Steve Bierfeldt has sufficient money that he can afford the risk of challenging the TSA. I don't. Look at what happens to parents who defend their children from these abusive practices.
The government has made the cost of challenging them prohibitive and I would have very little recourse should I challenge them and fail. That means the ballot box is my only alternative.
Sadly, the alternatives there are largely compliant, too.
As Mark Steyn points out, the process is the punishment.
I've been in business for myself my whole life. This arrogance is nothing new, just now, it applies to everyone.
Welcome to my nightmare.
This is why I plan to drive all the way to south Florida from Houston this year (for the NRO cruise), instead of flying. One should refuse to submit to such un-American procedures. When I drive, I am still a free American.
If everyone would refuse to fly, except when absolutely crucial, these stupid, demeaning, ineffective policies would quickly change.
It is sad how many people are so compliant with the Backscanner devices. People are willing to sacrifice their second amendment rights for illusion of security.
Your flight will not be 0.0001% safer because a grandma from Nebraska went through the Backscanner scanner and got an enhanced patdown.
Despite the inital uproar, the government insisted on the new security theater until enough people stopped complaining.
I have no expectation that a TSA drone can find their behind in the dark much less a terrorist. However, I would much rather do the machine than the grope which is highly offensive.
My husband, a 62 year old Vietnam Vet, in country not era, who supposedly went to fight to defend the rights the TSA is trampling, had the grope thing at Orlando. He didn't even have the option. One would think that an airport the size of Orlando would have machines. Maybe they do but apparently the pervert drone wanted to cop a feel.
This whole TSA security is nothing but a joke, an opiate of the masses if you will. If the gov was truly concerned about security, they wouldn't have special lines for premium passengers. Everyone would face the same indignities.
Of course, if Americans were such @!!%% sheep, we would rise up against this travesty. Perhaps we need an occupy TSA. I'd join.
"I speak of the decision by the Obama administration to purchase from former members of the Bush administration so-called back-scanner X-ray machines for use at airports" - I am not sure how this comment fits in with the Judge's comments? Is this a typo?
He's referring to the fact that Michael Chertoff, DHS Sec under Bush, was pushing the backscatter x-ray machines anywhere he could (op-eds, cable news, etc.) all while his consulting company The Chertoff Group had Rapiscan - the maker of the one type of the machines - as a client. He did not disclose this information, though Campbell Brown did get it out of him during an interview one time. Google "Chertoff scanners".
This de Tocqueville quote has been posted several times, but it's amazingly prescient for something written nearly 200 years ago:
'After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.'
That's from 'Democracy in America', of course, but just as chilling as that quote is the title of the chapter from which it is excerpted: "What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear."
So what are we going to do about it? Answer: Nothing.
All the good little worker drones will just comply with whatever body-cavity searches big daddy government says are necessary to keep us "safe". Just like cattle getting inspected for worms.
Far too many Americans, even freedom loving political junkies like us, have become too submissive. We've been lulled into complacency and fear by the chronic effects of the left on our culture.
Also, we do nothing because, as others have said, one person cannot stand against this tyrannical government and survive unless you have very powerful friends in said government. However, I think it is becoming increasingly unavoidable that soon we will have to choose whether we're going to literally fight and die for our freedom, or prostrate ourselves in total submission.
I refuse to fly specifically for this reason. It's really inconvenient since I have to drive with children from the midwest to the east coast each year. It's a lot cheaper, but really inconvenient. But what am I supposed to do given that I'm trying to teach my child that his body is his personal space and not to be touched by strangers? The government is even violating the right to not be groped now.
And what are we going to do? Nothing.
The only thing that may work is if Americans stop flying. The airlines will have to choose between going out of business or getting the government out of the business of groping and taking naked pictures of us.
Some of us have to fly for business, Nate. I fly overseas all the time. Yeah, I'd love to tell the TSA to stick it but that wouldn't pay the bill would it? I share your frustration, and probably fly more than most people here, but I will not stop flying just because I have to go into a little picture booth. As a side note, I've flown about 200,000 miles this year and have not been groped once.
It's not ok to drive either! Today I was returning from some sight seeing on the east coast. In Ohio I was pulled over by a state trooper, despite the fact that I drive safely and below the speed limit. The excuse they used was that I was following a truck too close - not true. It's not safe to do so, so I don't. While checking my papers, another car arrives with a dog. They take it around my vehicle several times until it magically indicates contraband in the vehicle. I am frisked and placed in the back seat of the patrol car while they tear all my belongings apart. After an hour, they come over and open the door to read me my rights!
They then tell me they can't find anything, but they are towing my vehicle to their garage to tear it apart further. Another hour goes by in the back seat of their car, before they come out and give me directions on how to get back on the interstate. I'm 55 years old. Clean cut. Never been arrested. No tickets in 20 years, and I am always polite and courteous. It was a shake down, clear and simple. I had California plates, so they targeted me.
Three hours later, I am shaken and half the panels in my vehicle interior are hanging loose.
First, the Judge isn't a real Judge. He got elected once on local level then somehow got a TV show.
Second, given who this happened to its reasonable to question the account from a Lew Rockwell inspired "Judge" and political campaign for concluding this could be political propaganda.
third, the Government doesn't force people to Fly for starters. We enter into TSA by choice, not coercion, so Constitutionally there isn't much of a case to be made.
" the Government doesn't force people to Fly for starters. We enter into TSA by choice, not coercion, so Constitutionally there isn't much of a case to be made."
What rubbish. Where is the logical end of your position? the govt doesn't "force people to leave their homes", either, but would it be your position that anyone who steps onto their neighborhood sidewalk is rightfully subject to search and seizure by Federal bureaucrats?
The TSA and our Imperial Federal Government are out of control. The TSA should be shut down and disbanded immediately to be replaced by some other form of private security. How many laws will we allow our rulers to violate before We the People stand up and demand they cease and desist.
Good King Brak and his minions, along with the RINO's that infest the swamp we call Washington, D.C. must be sent packing at We the People's earliest convienence.
Its time We the People return sanity to our insane and out of control government.
