Robert J. Hawkins
SignOnSanDiego.com
11/14/2010
via HotAir.com
…He also did something that may seem odd to some, manipulative to others but fortuitous to plenty of others for whom Tyner is becoming something of a folk hero: Tyner turned on his cell phone’s video camera and placed it atop the luggage he sent through the x-ray machine.
He may not be the first traveler tossed from an airport for security reasons but he could well be the first to have the whole experience captured on his cell phone.
During the next half-hour, his cell phone recorded Tyner refusing to submit to a full body scan, opting for the traditional metal scanner and a basic “pat down” — and then refusing to submit to a “groin check” by a TSA security guard.
He even told the guard, “You touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.”
That threat triggered a code red of sorts as TSA agents, supervisors and eventually the local police gravitated to the spot where the reluctant traveler stood in his stocking feet, his cell phone sitting in the nearby bin (which he wasn’t allowed to touch) picking up the audio.
According to TSA at the time the controversial body scanners were installed, travelers would have the option to request walking through the traditional metal detector but that option would be accompanied by a “pat down.”
Why Tyner was targeted for a secondary pat down is unknown.
Asked if he thought he looked like a terrorist, Tyner said no. “I’m 6-foot-1, white with short brown hair,” he said Saturday night.
Was he singled out for “punishment”?
Before Tyner was told he was getting a “groin check,” a TSA agent is heard on the recording telling another agent “I had a problem with the passenger I was patting down. So I backed down. He was obnoxious.”
Tyner is sure he was talking about someone else. On the whole, with a single final exception, he found the agents “professional if standoffish.”
He did marvel that while his own situation was being deliberated, many passengers passed through the metal detector and on to their flights with no pat-down. “One guy even set off the alarm and they sent him through again without a pat-down,” he said.
Once he threatened to have the TSA agent arrested though, events turned surreal.
A supervisor is heard re-explaining the groin check process to Tyner then adding “If you’re not comfortable with that, we can escort you back out and you don’t have to fly today.”
Tyner responded “OK, I don’t understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.”
“This is not considered a sexual assault,” replied the supervisor, calmly.
“It would be if you were not the government,” said Tyner.
“By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights,” countered the TSA supervisor.
“I think the government took them away after 9/11,” said Tyner.
“OK,” came the reply.
More senior TSA administrators showed up, and one San Diego police officer. Tyner’s personal information was taken down and then he was escorted out of the security area. After he put his shoes back.
His father-in-law, a 40-year retired deputy sheriff, can be heard pleading in the back ground for some common sense…
Read the entire article at SignOnSanDiego.com
Also at HotAir: 3 year old girl gets the TSA’s full body massage. “Does this make us more secure?”
Update: American Power has links to Mr. Tyner’s airport video
Common American Journal welcomes readers from The Huffington Post.
Update 2: At HillBuzz Kevin has some unique ideas for dealing with this government-sanctioned groping.
