I think yyzvoyageur summed up the answer you are looking for pmocek. I gave answers, you either just blatantly missed them or did not connect the dots that they were directed at your questions. I'm pretty sure I said I want to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures just as much as the next person. In fact, I'm positive I said it, so I'm not sure how you imply I'm ignoring your questions. I also stated that you believe checkpoint searches are "unreasonable" and violating 4th Amendment rights of those who are arrested with illegal items aside from weapons. I disagreed and stated why. I don't know what else you are looking for. As far as your other questions regarding copyright infringement or unvaccinated animals, I pretty sure I gave my opinion about reporting illegal items where criminal are using air travel to transport or facilitate their activity (drug money being one of them).
Of course there is. I'm not comparing them. Consider, though, that TSA doesn't know it has found cocaine in the course of a bag check unless it stops searching for dangerous items and tests whatever substance is suspected of being cocaine. The alternative is to give the subject of search the benefit of the doubt when something is found that is clearly not a weapon, explosive, or incendiary.
I have recently suggested that they give such benefit of the doubt:
Here is the main difference between you and I that we will never see eye to eye on. First, TSA doesn't test drugs. Their policy would simply be to call law enforcement to the checkpoint. I would pull the individual away and test the substance, not TSA. The bags of the passenger would be thoroughly searched and then the TSA goes on to the next passenger while we deal with the one with the possible cocaine. See, you want to give the passenger "the benefit of the doubt" and believe it is not an illegal drug. You give them the green light to take their drugs onto the plane and encourage and/or facilitate their drug-use and/or drug sales. You don't have a problem with druggies taking their drugs on commercial aircraft. I do, and I'm glad the higher courts agree with me.
Not really. Setting aside the fact that TSA doesn't know they have found cocaine until they have stopped searching to test whatever they found:
In the case of a car that is exceeding the legal speed limit, a police officer -- someone trained to enforce the law for us in a constitutional manner -- stops someone because he has observed wrongdoing, and we have granted no special exemption to the normal protections against abuse of power that exist. In the case of TSA searching people at airports, the search is not performed by a law enforcement officer and those performing the search have no reason to believe the subject of the search has done anything wrong. Under other circumstances it would be illegal for TSA to conduct such a search, but we have granted a special exemption because we are so concerned about the possibility of dangerous items being carried onto airplanes.
Whether it is a police officer or TSA, it is a search none the less. Just because the original idea behind security checkpoints at airports was to specifically look for items that are dangerous to the planes and passengers, I would like to think that those who wrote the original laws/mandates had in mind that they would not turn a blind eye to contraband found during said screening/searches.
To be short and sweet, you are simply ok with anything illegal coming through the checkpoint as long as it is not an immediate threat to the passengers and aircraft. It doesn't matter to you of the repercussions of those items getting where they are going. It doesn't matter to you that you want to help facilitate criminal activity. You believe that the rights of the American public are being stripped away and the security checkpoints are the front door to start such activity. I disagree. While some policies the TSA have implemented since their inception have been lacking common-sense, nothing at the checkpoints or ticket counters have changed when it comes to the searches themselves. There has always been random screening, there has always been secondary screens when people set off the WTMD, and there have always been secondary screens when items could not be resolved on xrays. For some reason you and others think TSA has extended their powers and now looking for anyone they believe is a criminal in any aspect. Screeners have always reported possible drugs that were discovered during checkpoint searches and private screeners also reported large sums of cash. Maybe this is new to you and other FTers, but it has been going on long before TSA was created.
Sure. A dragnet would be the police officer stopping everyone who passes and searching them without reason to suspect wrongdoing. An underhanded dragnet like the TSA conducts would happen if we allowed the police to stop everyone to prevent dangerous items from being carried onto our highways, then they began to use the search to look for anything they want. See the difference?
So rather than blame the morons who pack their drugs into the bag where there is a likelihood they would be discovered, we should blame the ones finding it because they are violating the drug dealers rights by finding the drugs instead of the weapons during a search for weapons.
I do not want to create checkpoints on our sidewalks and roadways because I know the good majority of the citizens living in our country are law abiding and I believe they should not have to suffer the inconveniences of our checkpoints on their streets to look for a few scumbags. Before you get too excited from that statement, I have a different view about airport security checkpoints. For the greater good and safety of commercial aviation, security checkpoints will always be a part of flying. For the greater good and safety of commercial aviation, drugs and other illegal items
that benefit from going from point A to point B (quickly) should not go unreported because it gives the green light to all the turds to use air travel to help spread and/or facilitate the illegal activity.
In this thread, we are heading into the direction of what should or should not be reported. Many here forget to realize that in reality, when coming through security, if TSA observes something that they believe is illegal, they notify LE (by their policy), who is either immediately on-site or minutes away (as with some airports). The disposition is immediate of whether the item is illegal and/or if prosecution is even going to be pursued. A lot of the times it is not.
I feel we are starting to go in circles here. 99% of the items I am called to the same items LEOs were called to 10 years ago: illegal and/or artfully concealed drugs, large sums of cash, and prohibited weapons. The reporting has not spread out to other items up to and including digital media and animals.
On a side-note about the powdered filled condoms, I can't believe that they had a drug-test kit test positive for cocaine on flour. There are definitely times people should win lawsuits and this was one of them. Even after we field test, we sent our results to the crime lab and I'm sure many other agencies do. You have to admit though how many people fill condoms with flour? Normally they are filled and inserted into not-so-fun places to get past such areas as checkpoints and/or searches.