Originally Posted by
jkhuggins
Except that, in our particular brand of jurisprudence, we place a higher value on making sure that the rights of individuals are preserved. Hence, the fact that we (as a society) are willing to let guilty people go free if those involved in their arrest were not scrupulous in preserving the rights of the accused --- because it's the preservation of those rights that helps ensure that the innocent aren't falsely convicted.
Sure, we can play a relative numbers game if you want. But then, let's play fair. TSA publishes on its home page, every week, the raw number of passengers who were arrested, tried to bring a firearm through, artfully concealed a prohibited item, or caused a checkpoint breach. But it doesn't publish the raw number of passengers who did none of those things, so there's no way to evaluate what those numbers mean. Right?
Yeah, I think TSAs "count" is fairly useless myself, bu I do understand what they are trying to do, just as I understand why this thread was started. I just dot agree with either
I believe before the econom went to crap it average out to about 2 million pax a day. So a very very small percentage were arrested daily. Almost enough to make such a percentage miniscule. But I believe, personally, the same is true of illegal searches that end in the arrest of a pax. I can only respond to what I see with my own eyes. I have seen dozens and dozens o people arrested ove the years, and knowing the reasons behind how the searches happen, in my opinion they were legal (one example, a pax alarms the WTMD and claims they have no more metal to remove. They are screened with a HHMD, which I will assume
you agree with. During the screening the TSO notices their hand is closed, the pax refuses to open it. The TSO calls a STSO, the pax still will not open his hand. His bare skinned hand alarms the HHMD. The LEOS are called, force him to open his hand. He has some illegal drugs wrapped in foil in his hand. Was that an illegal search? I do not believe so.)