exerda

That is probably true, and only further highlights the despicable nature of the actions of the TSA officials involved: they felt so threatened by words on a bag that they had to lie to a LEO to try to "punish" the OP.

PTravel

I don't see any constitutional violation there.

All that we know is what the OP reported here (and what was partially confirmed by the sheriff, i.e. he was not disruptive). Based on what is reported here, the OP's First Amendment rights were violated. See Cohen v. Superior Court.

Which officer? The police? I agree. The violation was committed by the TSO and his supervisor.

As I said, I don't see a violation by the police.

And that's the whole point. What the MKE supervisor was clueless about was the First Amendment. He violated the OP's First Amendment rights by causing him to be detained, calling the LEO, etc.

cme2c

No question? Sounds pretty narrow-minded to me, seeing how you have only heard one side of the story. Hopefully you don't make judge someday.

exerda

I don't see how you'd need to hear "both sides" of the story to make the evaluation that the OP's rights were infringed, given that neither the TSA nor the police involved have denied in their public statements that the TSA caused an incident by reacting to the OP's message--they have merely quibbled whether he was "detained" or not.

GUWonder

There's a growing number of knee-jerk responses by the DHS/TSA, flight crews and even fellow passengers that, by imagining threats where there are none (all while ignoring other ones), are wasting resources. The NCIC check in MKE is just another example of that waste. That the NCIC check was prompted by TSA finger-pointing for reasons related to a constitutionally-protected political opinion on a plastic bag does not speak well of the judgment of the TSA nor of LEOs. This is certainly a pre-cursor of the impact of DHS/TSA's S.P.O.T. program, which will be little more than an excuse to run more NCIC checks on the American public.

Unless this is stopped, here's the future state:

Don't like what I write? Don't like what I say? Don't like the way I look? SPOT's your cover to harass me.

Canarsie

I have added a simple poll to this thread.

Please vote.

GeorgiaRebel

You are correct, but I could not think of the name "Chavez" in my "senior moment" I was having

Cornroaster

I happened to have dinner tonight with a friend who is a "highly placed but anonymous" security employee at MKE. He was talking about MKEbound's "incident" and he had two comments.
#1 - "MKEbound was within his constitutional rights to have the comment written on his baggie."
#2 - "Kip Hawley IS an idiot."

GUWonder

Nice feature. Thank you. I have voted.

xxxxxxxx

The TSA has gone too far, way too far.

MovieMan

Good idea. I have voted. ^

Canarsie

Thank you.

It is only my pleasure to be helpful.

I have observed this thread from the very beginning, as well as assisted in the moderation of it, but purposely declined to comment at this time. The moderators of the Travel Safety/Security forum have been working very hard lately, and they deserve any assistance I can offer.

Each FlyerTalk member can only vote once in the poll, and every vote is anonymous.

WARNING: For those of you who think that you can register multiple FlyerTalk “handles” and vote more than once in the poll as to attempt to skew the results: WE WILL KNOW WHO YOU ARE, YOUR VOTE WILL BE REMOVED, AND YOUR FLYERTALK POSTING PRIVILEGES WILL BE INSTANTLY AND PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED!

This is your only warning.

Also, as a reminder, anyone who attempts to use this thread as well as FlyerTalk in general for commercial purposes will also be penalized.

To everyone else, please continue to vote and contribute in a civil discourse pertaining to this topic.

Thank you.

Regards,

Canarsie
Senior Moderator

ND Sol

Today I took my quart-size bag through IAH-B and DFW-E. On it I have written, "Kip Hawley should be fired. Contents may contain SSI ." At IAH there was no loader, nor anyone at the end of the x-ray, so no one except the x-ray operator saw the bag and that, of course, was while it was in the tunnel, so she couldn't have read it. At DFW, there was a loader and he first commented about how I properly prepared the bag. At first (like a previous poster mentioned), I was proud, but then I thought that why should I be proud of following idiotic rules. Then, looking further at the bag resting on the belt, he chuckled. I assume that it was in relation to my comments. So my First Amendment rights are still safe today in Texas.

BTW, once again, neither x-ray operator found my Swiss Army "pocketknife".

Yes, and it would have saved me hours of reading this thread

dontspamdan

Y'all are idiots. Millions of people go through the airports every day, and right now the TSA is trying to figure out how to keep them safe, and you're pulling stunts just for kicks. What's the point? Do you think they enjoy being anal? Do you want to take more time, have it cost more, and take more attention away from the guys we're trying to keep out.

I remember joking under my breath about bombs at an airport when I was little and having my dad rip me a new one. Since then I've kind of figured it out.

Here's a funny one. Next time you're passing a policeman going the other way, pretend you're going to swerve into him. See if he flinches. Hey, free country, right?

Cholula

This is one post containing the word idiot that I'm letting stand.

For one, he called all of us idiots so none of us can take exception.

Plus it is well-written and perhaps deserving of a comment IMO.