Bare-ly legal: charges against Tobey dropped
Aaron Tobey got something off his chest by writing on it. HENRICO COUNTY POLICE PHOTO
Henrico County's Commonwealth's Attorney elected not to press charges against Charlottesville resident Aaron Tobey, 21, who made national news by stripping down to his shorts in the Richmond International Airport on December 30, revealing the words of the Fourth Amendment written on his bare chest in protest against controversial new TSA strip search procedures, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The act did not constitute a violation of disorderly conduct law, the Commonweath's Attorney reportedly said January 10.
"It was ridiculous and ironic to arrest a man they wanted to strip [search] for removing his own clothes," said Tobey's lawyer, Steven D. Benjamin. "What he did he did not believe was a crime."
The newspaper reported that outside the courthouse, several Aaron Tobey supporters, who organized themselves on Facebook, held signs that said "Don't TSA me, Bro" and "Don't Tread on Me."
"We are not sheep. We are not subjects," added Benjamin. "We are citizens with every right to complain in a lawful manner."
22 comments
This looks like another case of a young man with turgid thought processes, maybe like the Arizona shooter of recent fame. He's about the right age for onset of late adolescence/early adulthood Schizophrenia with it's attendant thought disorders. This guy is another example of the sort of person of whom it might be said later on that there were many warning signs and it's such a shame that they were ignored and he wasn't stopped in time. We're likely to hear more from him in the future.
@BB
I think what you're not getting is that we shouldn't even have these TSA pat downs to begin with. It shouldn't be a case of, "Oh, either you accept the ever increasing Nazi Gestapo tactics being foisted upon our once free society, or, you don't fly." No. How about The Powers That Wannabe stop creating false flag terrorism scenarios for the purpose of "problem-reaction-solution" and then we wouldn't have to have these TSA pat down/genitalia fondling sessions in the first place.
You want to see a "nut case"? It's all the people who go along with what this country has become. THOSe are the nut cases.
It's amazing how it was cool and okay when the colonists revolted against the British and started the Revolutionary War, but 300 years later if anybody so much as protests anything that's gone on in this country post 9/11 then you are knee jerk branded as a "nut case," "whack job," "terrorist" "unpatriotic" etc. etc. etc.
He got away with what, BB? Entering an airport in running shorts and no shirt? Or contempt of TSA agents?
This is one time even the commonwealth attorney pretended to have some sense.
BB wrote: "Another nutcase showing off." You prefer the circumspect nutcases? I suppose that, by their very nature, nutcases tend toward the flamboyant, yes? Indeed, one wonders if a nutcase would have any fun at all if he or she did not show off.
It is a shame in a way that this did not go to a jury trial. I don't think any panel of his peers would do anything except promptly find him NOT GUILTY. I suspect that the TSA wanted this to go away and not incur any more bad publicity and focus any more attention upon their clearly uncalled for abuses of the traveling public. Sooner or later there must be court action to end the TSA's outrageous procedures!
Agreed, Tim. Nuttery is no excuse for poor penmanship.
Another nut case showing off. He got away with it so he will do it again. If he had spent say 6 months in jail we might never need to see him again since he might have learned a lesson. He knew what the procedure was and didn't have to fly if he objected.
BOooo You are 100% right, It's the Sheep that constantly give away the Freedoms they were born with and just like Nazi Germany, They will be the ones turning in their neighbors because they just act suspicious, In my 47 years on this planet, It has gone from a once Great nation to pretty much a police State and is literally less than 20 years away from being a Communist Country and fools like those that complain about this guy, will be the very same ones wondering what happened.
put him in jail for a long time. Never let him in an airport again.
I want to know where he wrote the commerce clause.
He should have been arrested for failing to write the number 4 correctly.
@AngelEyes
That is the dumbest line of reasoning I've ever heard, er, read.
TSA had no clue what to do. The same as they do when someone shows up in a burka. Except wearing a burka will get you rushed through the line.
J - where did you see a line of reasoning there? I'm still looking.
I think I would applaud the young man for the creative way he chose to protest and the fact that it did not include shooting someone.
Well, it seems people see fit to call me names. One thing about these public forums is we don't get to pick who we interact with.
It's pretty straight up easy to insult people here, so it's good I can tell who to take seriously and who not to.
TJB should be turned in to the authorities for his shameless use of hyperbolic overstatement and for his horrible punctuation.
Perhaps some government-sponsored re-education might teach him the difference between a comma and a period.
Did anyone notice that young Tobey wrote the number "4" backwards when he scrawled the 4th amendment on his chest?
If we have another Terrorist attack,( God forbid), it's a sure bet that the same ones on this post objecting to the search, will be the fist ones to critisize the authorities for NOT SEARCHING. At the same time, "My hat is off to you, "Ammendment Boy". Good protest.
Forgive me Ammendment Boy. Mr John Hancock is more appropriatly fit
Hey, Angel Eyes: May the same gracious folks who spawned TSA and all the other un-American statutes and alphabet agencies feed and clothe you adequately in the congregate care facilities they have planned for you; may your Freudian presuppositional thinking solace you in the safety of your state-provided cell; may you cry tears of repentance for being confused and unable to distinguish between testosterone and 'turgid' thought processes. May you rue the day you confounded liberty with security. And may you finally be able to decide upon your own gender, i.e., whether it be female or effeminate male. Ditto FRED, AFICIONADO and BB...
Wow getting searched is so terrible! BOO HOO