Originally Posted by
TheGolfWidow
The airport is the way many people get to work. It's not in the same category as going out for a drink.
Can you turn around when you get to the airport screening? It's not entirely clear that you can do it with no consequences.
When you're on your way to work, can you turn around and go home? i suppose so, but as a practical matter....it's not so straight-forward.
We aren't slaves, and we aren't indentured servants, at least not legally. Financially, we might be, yet that's another thread. Legally, if my employer says "fly or quit", there's nothing legally forcing me to fly. I'm not legally forced to meet my employee obligations, I have a choice, no matter how unfavorable that choice might be.
That was the impression I got from the Pistole testimony to Congress, when the enhanced pat-down started. At any time, you can just stop the process, collect your belonging, and walk away. If it's the start of the process, just walk away. If it's the middle of the process, an LEO could be called to verify you are not a threat to yourself or others, and escorted out. You could be administrative fined, and the LEO could arrest you for disturbing the peace, yet the search can stop.
Civil rights, and practicality, are sometimes mutually exclusive?
Originally Posted by
DeafBlonde
We have been told that once we place our bags on the xray we must complete the screening process or we will be fined/arrested/placed on a watch list...how is the airport the same as a bar?
My impression is that if you stop mid-search, it turns from an administrative search to a law enforcement search (
which has a lot more controls wrapped around that). Yet the search is limited to the safety of yourself and others, then you are ejected.
The point of my example was... how would the officer or prosecutor treat the incident. It might not have been the best analogy, yet it was the best I could come up with, at that time.