Originally Posted by copwriter
All that said, I think eastwest could have handled this a little better by going along with the program for his own sake, even if he was to complain later (which I encourage him to do). Standing up for one's rights is appropriate, but doing it in the wrong forum only brings trouble. At the side of the road, or, in this instance, at the security checkpoint, Mr. Officer Is Always Right. Arguing or insisting that he can't do something that he says he can is going to turn into a p***ing contest that the citizen will not win. Go with the flow, be polite, ask for names and ID numbers (most law enforcement agencies require their employees to give this information when asked - if they refuse, note physical descriptions and nametags/badge numbers), and make your case when you're not on their turf.
Thanks for the informative post (most of which I cut to only quote the part I'm responding to).
As for the bit above, I didn't see anywhere the OP did anything that he could have done differently to have made the system go differently. He offered to give up the rubber band ball entirely, but at that point the LEO seemed ready to make the "big catch" via a drug charge. I honestly don't see how he could have handled the encounter with the LEO or the TSA differently and have gotten a different result.
I mean, even if he hadn't told the LEO he needed to inform him when he was searching the bag and hadn't made the request for the search to be done in private (both of which are quite reasonable requests and well-within the rules), the ball would presumably have still looked to have a metal object in it and/or set off the ETD machine, which would have still led to the cop thinking he was a smuggler or on drugs.