Rand Paul Detained by TSA in Nashville
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16676)
Boston, Massachusetts
January 23, 2012 11:22am CST
Senator Rand Paul has been detained by TSA agents in Nashville for refusing a pat-down. According to the TSA, Paul went through the backscatter machine but something caused an alarm to go off. Paul offered to go through the screening a second time but the TSA insists he must submit to a pat-down.
Now, the Consitution states that all members shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses and in going to and returning from the same."
Can the TSA legally detain a US Senator where no crime is being committed? Paul has been an outspoken opponent of the TSA and invasive searches? Is this detention payback or a show of power?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71818.html
1 person likes this
5 responses
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
25 Jan 12
I'm trying to figure out where the Paul spokesperson got that he was being detained "indefinitely". I could be wrong, but t appears to me that he was treated the same way anyone else would be treated in the same situation. He refused the pat-down so he was refused access to the secure area. I'm NOT saying I agree with the TSA policies, just that Senator Paul may be trying to make much more of this than necessary.
I'm going to pretend I'm a conservative and that Paul is a Democratic Senator instead of a Republican and that the Democrats were the ones complaining the most about the TSA. Are you following me so far...lol?
Gee, this looks fishy to me; could it be that Paul planted something on himself to cause the alarm to go off so he could make a big fuss over being pulled out of line for a pat-down? Hmmm...looks like a left-wing konspiracy to me...lol!
Just sayin'...
Annie
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
25 Jan 12
Taskr, I was just trying to add to the discussion, I know it's not really a right/left issue but some people seem to want to make it one. That's terrible what your friend went through and I think I can probably imagine how she felt although I've never experienced it myself.
Rollo, didn't Paul say the alarm went off and if it did are you saying the TSA agents are able to control when an alarm goes off? In my experience the agents don't seem to have time to really look to see who they're dealing with so I'm not sure how they could have had father and son mixed up, if they even knew who either one is. Whatever the case, my main question was about the use of the phrase" indefinitely detained" since it doesn't appear he was detained at all let alone "indefinitely".
Annie
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
25 Jan 12
Annie, you should know that this is NOT a right/left issue. Dennis Kucinich has been just as vocal about how disgusting the TSA is while some people like Darrell Issa are just fine with the abuses. I remember very specifically an incident several years ago where Issa was forced to go through the patdown. Congressman Wexler was with him and went off on the TSA for it, but Issa said it was just fine. There are people for and against this crap on both sides.
I, for one, am against this TSA molestation regardless of whether it's a republican, democrat, elderly grandmother, or 6 year old child. A good friend of mine got molested by the TSA last year and she felt like she'd been raped afterwards. They took her into a private room, touched her from top to bottom, spread parts of her that nobody but her fiance should be touching and this was just a supposed "random" search because a 26 year old 110 lb. college student is a clear threat to national security.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
25 Jan 12
The interesting thing is that Ron Paul has been stopped by the scanners twice, due to anomalies in his knees - BECAUSE HE HAD SURGERY ON THEM. However, there is nothing in Rand Paul's knees - well, nothing but some cartilage, some tendons and the patella and as far as I know, flesh and bone don't set off alarms in the scanners. It's kind of pathetic, if you ask me. I think they just mistook which Paul they had... but then, TSA agents aren't known for their scintillating intellects.
He may well have been treated the same as anyone else would have, any other innocent US citizen who has their Constitutional rights trampled by a government agency salivating over its own power.
@EvanHunter (4026)
• United States
24 Jan 12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu5l7a7dgP4
People need to watch the interview with Kurt Haskell. The whole underwear bomber thing would of never happened if they would of done their job to begin with. The guy was let on a plane when he had no passport and was on a watch list. The whole story reeks. Not to mention the scanners were already ordered before it ever happened.
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
24 Jan 12
My problem with this whole TSA is you have given them total discretion with no means to challenge them. If an airline employee is caught by a passenger tossing a piece of luggage they are fired but if a TSA agent is searching a bag they can confiscate anything they want and you have no way to prove it because the Union Contract will not allow them to be video taped handling your luggage. It got so bad that troops returning from Iraq were told to ship by mail valuable items. Such dangerous things as CD, Expensive Sunglasses and laptops were being taken form the luggage and the only time the luggage was out of sight was when the TSA was handling it. I have had bags filled with clothes gone through and messed up because they do random checks. I have had my carry on luggage searched at security and again at the gate and could not repack the bag until I got it on the plane. The TSA agent ordered me not to touch anything until he had everything back in the bag and I was on the plane. I had to repack my bag in front of the other passengers on the plane.
If our police suspected a woman of having a weapon on her and searched her chest area even though the bulge was in her back they would be hauled before a hearing and disciplined.
@EvanHunter (4026)
• United States
24 Jan 12
From what I hear some states have already invited the TSA to do stops on the streets. What's next people being searched because they go to the mall or grocery store? It seems like our whole country has gone insane. I mean isn't this what we fought against in Korea, Vietnam and the whole iron curtain thing???
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
23 Jan 12
Well according to Obama pulling a guy aside and forcing him to stay in a cubicle, even yelling at him as he attempts to walk out, is not a detention. They detain people without cause all the time so I wondered why they were suddenly so sensitive about the term. Your post explains that.
I truly hope he presses charges, but I doubt anything will happen. If he had been an ordinary Joe he would have lost his money, not been able to fly, and fined $50,000 for not allowing them to molest him.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
25 Jan 12
If they can detain a member of Congress for no reason - without probable cause - there is nothing to stop them. I think it was a show of power. Plus, they played their hand for finding an "anomaly" on his knee. It is Ron Paul who has had knee surgery and would show something on a scanner. They had the wrong Paul and were too stupid to know it.
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
23 Jan 12
Lawsuit in the works. Plus, the TSA is going to take a huge amount of heat.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
23 Jan 12
The searches of six-year-olds nor the theft by TSA agents nor even the arrests of TSA agents for child molesting have managed to halt their growing power. Perhaps this will serve as a test case if Paul is able to pursue it in court at any level?
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
23 Jan 12
Perhaps. Of course, that is pure speculation at this point. But let's say I wouldn't be surprised if this does proceed past the "settlement" phase.
