The Abuses of TSA and Local Police
I want to congratulate Mr. Steve Bierfeldt for dealing wonderfully with the harassment he sustained from the Transportation Security Administration and the local Police which you can read about here and here. He was on his way home from the Campaign for Liberty Midwest Regional Conference in St. Louis Missouri and was going through the security in the airport when the harassment commenced. He works for the Campaign for Liberty and had a bunch of Campaign for Liberty bumper stickers and a box of about $4,700 in cash and checks from sales of merchandise and tickets. As you know from this post, the state of Missouri thinks that Campaign for Liberty members are a bunch of terrorists.
If you have gone through airport recently, you may know that every once in awhile the TSA decides they need to physically rifle through your bags in order to see if you have any bombs or other weapons. I’m sure they never find any bombs, but they did find this guys box of money. When he refused to metaphorically bend over and take, a TSA agent took him into a windowless room and demanded to know who he worked for and what the money was from. Keeping in mind the Missouri report, he kept asking whether he was required to tell them this information and refusing to tell them information unless they told him that he was required by law to tell them where the money came from.
Of course, he was not required by law to tell the TSA where it came from since cash is not an item that eliminates you from getting on the plane. Whether the agent knew it or he was ignorant of the law (he is TSA after all) the TSA agent brought in police who threatened to take him to a police station and involve the FBI and DEA if he didn’t metaphorically bend over and take it.
Apparently as they were taking him out of the room to bring them to the police station an apparent FBI agent walked up and half asked if the money was campaign contributions and he answered that all the checks say C4L (Campaign for Liberty) and then told Steve he was free to go, which apparently pissed of the TSA officer. He even made his flight.
Have you ever met a nice TSA agent? I have not. They treat you like shit and act like you should know all of the million procedures for going through the line even though there are few if any signs and no people explaining it. God help you if this is your first time. Plus, don’t put anything valuable in your checked baggage because the TSA has the privilege of being able to open any bags they want and things tend to “go missing.”
If I was the military type of person I would salute Mr. Bierfeldt for standing up to these thugs. I can’t honestly say I would have done the same, although after finding out about this incident I hope I would.
Edit. I’m going to include the Fox News video that discuses this event.
