Security theater: C’ville native nets airport disorderly charge
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Some passengers believe new airport scanners that display their naked bodies are an invasion of privacy.PHOTO BY JOHN WILD
When Aaron B. Tobey decided to exercise his First Amendment rights by displaying the Fourth Amendment on his chest while going through security at the Richmond International Airport, he expected that he might be detained for further questioning.
“He was astounded he was arrested for disorderly conduct,” says his father, Charlottesville accountant Robert Tobey.
At the airport conveyor belt, Aaron, 21, removed everything but his shorts to reveal what he’d scrawled on his torso: “Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.”
“He thinks like I do,” says Robert Tobey, explaining that his son, a graduate of Western Albemarle High School and now an architecture student at the University of Cinncinnati, finds that new airport security procedures that force passengers to choose between a full body scanner that produces what some consider a virtual strip search or an invasive body pat down are “security theater,” says Tobey père.
The account of the incident, first reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, said Aaron stripped down to his underwear, but his father says it was just a pair of running shorts. And the elder Tobey, who took part in protests during his own youth, contends that his son acted respectfully and complied with the security procedures. But apparently the Transportation Security Administration was not amused with Tobey’s corporal use of the Fourth Amendment.
“They accused me of being a terrorist,” Aaron told his father of his interview with the FBI and a federal marshal. And they arrested him for disorderly conduct, a class 1 misdemeanor that can carry up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
According to Richmond International Airport spokesman Troy Bell, it is not illegal to write the Bill of Rights on one’s body when going through airport security. “He can write whatever he wants under his clothes,” says Bell. “This was clearly a protest.”
Is it illegal to protest airport security measures? “If it’s disruptive, you can be charged with disorderly conduct,” says Bell.
During the Thanksgiving holidays, when outraged air passengers organized an opt-out day to protest the full body image scanners, Richmond had a handful of people opt out, says Bell. No one was arrested.
John Whitehead, who has filed two lawsuits about the scanners and pat downs from his perch at the head of civil rights organization Rutherford Institute, applauds Tobey’s protest and calls the decision to arrest him “stupid.”
“They’re going to see his penis anyway,” says Whitehead, who has signed on to the Tobey defense team. “It’s become absurd. The fact [Tobey wrote] the Fourth Amendment is very patriotic.”
After his arrest, Tobey was released in time to catch his flight. “When I went through security, they just waved me through,” he told his father.
State Senator Creigh Deeds, Tobey’s attorney, declined to comment on the arrest, but Robert Tobey has no such qualms.
“I believe it’s an overreaction when someone is complying with the search,” he says. “I’m very proud of him.”
Updated 3:20pm with the addition that John Whitehead will be representing Tobey.
Well lets hope he gets arrested for a very long time and also charged with indecent exposure. There are kids in the airport!!
I agree with Sam! Taking it one step further, anybody who jogs in the summer shirtless and in running shorts should be arrested as well. After all, there might be kids in cars passing by!
Hope people can see the sarcasm, I am laying it on pretty heavy!
Anyhow, welcome to America 2010 version. It will get even better in 2011. Obama Bin Laden accomplished his mission quite well.
Be interesting to see how this case develops. Would not be surprised to see it dismissed in court.
There is a very effective way for people to protest invasive airport security procedures: Boycott Flying.
Hit the airlines in the pocketbook and it just might get their attention, when the revenue from ticket sales plummets.
Thats what Mahatma Gandhi would have done.
Nothing the government can do either. They can’t make people travel.
I’ve already been nailed a few times for this, going out Richmond, and coming back in. They saw my face and tried to claim ” it’s radio waves now, not like an Xray.” I let it happen once, but then it seemed that somehow I was getting flagged at the different airports. I even went through the scanner and was still tagged as a random search for the complete shake down. You stand inside of a giant plexiglass cage while they have their radio, waiting to take you out and then do more. My electronics ere wiped down, and then I was sent on my merry way.
I would like to boycott flying, but I really can’t. It just seems like they are adding something that has little impact on trying to keep things safer. How about pulling out of places like Iraq and using that money for something else?
The government doesn’t like the Constitution. He’s lucky he wasn’t beaten and tased and charged with felony assault on an Officer. That’s their usual response to someone trying to assert their rights or calling attention to the Constitution. The Police and TSA are goons who are the equivalent of the German Gestapo. The Police are without thought or reason. The police are the army of International Bankers who have seized control of our nation’s monetary system.
Breast cancer patients who have prostheses are also
often examined, patted down, or otherwise detained
(and coincidentally humiliated) which is actually against TSA regulations or was.
If this sort of thing prevented 9/11 would it have been worth it?
Got as far as the realization that this is about the son of Robert Tobey, ie, Bob Tobey, and that’s about as far as I went.
That aside, I think the TSA “pat down” issue is very important because it is getting absolutely out of control. See this article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/29/air-transport-terrorism?x=1 where several women describe TSA gropes that invaded their genitalia. Basically they’ve expanded to now feel around in your vag.
“Nothing the government can do either. They can’t make people travel.”
The government can bail out the airlines :-)
Excuse me Mr. Gasbag, we are at war. please don’t make treasonous remarks about our President.
Did the people who charged him, or the airport spokesman, even read the law he is charged with breaking? It prohibits “conduct having a direct tendency to cause acts of violence by the person or persons at whom, individually, such conduct is directed.” Is airport security that prone to violence? The rest of the law has to do with disrupting schools, public meetings, etc.
It also states “…, the conduct prohibited under subdivision A, B or C of this section shall not be deemed to include the utterance or display of any words or to include conduct otherwise made punishable under this title.”
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-415
He is lucky that he didn’t pull this stunt while wearing his old man’s red plaid vest. That alone is a felony offense.
If he was in his jogging shorts, then what is the disruption? Too much or too little hair on his chest?
Had RIC posted “Shoes and Shirts Required” at the door perhaps they had something if he refused to leave or put on his shirt, well they did ask him to take off his shoes.
The treatment here is an illustration of Government vs. the private sector. The government arrests when up-set. If Tobey went to McDonalds dressed as he did at RIC they would just refuse him service and ask him to leave.
Why on earth does anyone think our government can do things such as health care better than the insurance companies? We need to LIMIT the powers of government.
TSA worker: If you are a prevert and want to view my junque, you are guilty and hereby sentenced to: Having to operate a full body scanner at a major airport in the US. For life.
Case will not develop. TSA does need any more lousy press. The question is not about our rights, it is about “what the heck are they looking for, and have they found anything”.
Profile, profile, profile……………
Dear Mr Smiff,
What is this “war” about anyway? enlighten me.
Hoover, we are at war with the TSA, just ask them….
Back when I was in school 40 years ago and learning history and the Constitution, I would have called the teachers insane if they had told me that someday in our near future a total stranger could reach in a girls pants or skirt and feel around.
Doug invoked Godwin in only the fifth reply. Nice job Doug, That doesn’t usually happen until after ten replies.. Very brave of you Aaron for invoking the Constitution. Very nice job!
A former WAHS student? I applaud his high school government teachers for helping to instill–along with his parents, a very Madisonian sense of the US Constitution. Old Danny Patterson would be proud. Illegitimi non carborundum