Not good enough. When the ex-cop is helplessly watching from his jail cell while his wife and kids live in a refrigerator box eating out of garbage cans because even the homeless shelter won't take them in, I'll consider that enough punishment has occurred. And not just for bad cops, but for anyone who abuses their authority. ($300/yr to have a blog in Philadelphia? O RLY?)

There are times when a particularly egregious event hits the news that I believe physical castration and tubal ligation of the offending "public servant"'s offspring sound just about right and the 8th Amendment be damned. Nits make lice, after all, and abusers tend to run in families.

All of the sudden, studentff seems a lot more reasonable . . .

Your statements make many assumptions and "what it's". All we can do right now is speculate, until and if a police report is obtained, and possible other info obtained as well.

But as all here are only going on what the OP said, then let's do that: the BDOs did nothing illegal accoring to what was post.

Now you are changing what you wrote before to "social shame". What you wrote before was much more sever than any type of "shame" - unless you really try to spin what you said. What you were talking about before was to visits the crimes of the fathers onto the children and make them into utter social outcast (shame by itself does not do this). Your earlier statement was to utterly destroy their families.


Do you now disagree with what you first post?

And i would argue what you suggest is the greater of two evils.

Again, you wrote: "they and their families socially branded and ostracized so badly that decent people refuse to interact with them."

Where is their chance for redress of their punishment (the immediate family)? Do you really, honestly support this type of despotic type of justic? If you do, you seem to be much worse than those you are critical of. And let's hope you never achieve any amount of authority, because the abuse you would rain down upon people would be terrible.

Is it just me, or do these sorts of incidents seem more common in hard-core, right-wing type areas, sometimes colliquially referred to as "red states", where individual freedom and restrictions on the activities of governments are supposedly more entrenched?

I don't know -- think about all the atrocities committed against citizens in BOS -- air as well as surface transportation -- in a state often referred to as the "People's Republic of Massachusetts."

Don't forget all the stuff that happens at BWI. Maryland is a blue state too.

Or LAX being proud of wanting to have the most Nude-O-Scopes in this problem. California isn't a bastion of redness either.

This isn't a red or blue problem. It's a freedom problem and a government out of control problem.

(I know you're not saying it's a red or blue thing Flies).

I tend to agree with SATTSO that some of the proposals here sound a little harsh.

I'd like to try another tack if SATTSO is willing.

Assuming that the OP gave an accurate account of the events we have the following:

1. TSA screeners approach person on the non-sterile part of the airport while said person is engaged in perfectly legal activity. The screener questions the person about his activity and requests him to present identification.

2. Upon being rebuffed, screeners call LEOs. We don't know exactly what they report but it is sufficient to make the LEOs decide a response is necessary.

3. LEOs detain, question and search the person, seizing his property, despite his having broken no law and in the absence of any reasonable, articulable suspicion that he had or was about to commit a crime.

4. TSA screeners remain in the area and coordinate with the LEOs during the detention, search, questioning and seizure.

SATTSO has argued, quite persuasively, that much of the proposed punishments for this behavior is extreme and disproportional. I would appreciate hearing from SATTSO as to what punishment would be appropriate for both the TSA screeners and the LEOs.

Good post. I agree and would appreciate hearing what SATTSO thinks of what happened.

^ So true, and unfortunately not well understood by many people on both sides of the political aisle.

Good point. ^ I would add to that hearing about what steps should be taken by TSA and LE-departments to deter/prevent such incidents from happening in the future.

IMO it's actually quite sad that our country as degraded so badly that these abuses happen and are perceived unstoppable (my perception) without extreme/disproportional measures.

What you wrote attempted to shift the blame for the event to the OP.

It was TSA employees that instigated the problems.

Let me see if I understand this... OP walked around a major airport in Texas for an hour photographing security checkpoints and TSA employees, and he is surprised that he is followed, interrogated, harassed, etc...?

No, unless you consider PHL to be in a red state.

What the OP did was completely legal. Why should he/she be "followed, interrogated, or harassed?

Doing nothing other than wanting to travel by airplane seems to be the illegal act. Otherwise why would we be subject to strip searches, invasive pat downs including the genitals, having our personal papers read by government employees and having to show proof of who we are just to get accepted to the screening process.

Something is bad wrong and DHS/TSA is dead center of the problem.

I can no longer forgive those people who work for TSA.

If TSA employees had any bit of patriotism left in them they would walk away from this institutionalize abuse of the public.

Are you kidding? I haven't even addressed anyone's blame in this situation. I only pointed out that the BDOs did nothing illegal, as far as we can discern from what the OP wrote. And I comment that another posters desire to punish the family members of the LEOs goes too far. And that's all I post about.

Interesting that you read I was tryingto shift the blame from what I wrote...

xxxxx