Contempt of TSA
I have written frequently of the non-crime called "contempt of cop" which seems to be at the heart of so many bad arrests and harassment incidents. Well, you will be happy to know that the helpful folks at the TSA want the same power, to be able to arrest anyone who does not show them proper respect and deference.
Postscript: Thinking about this more, I have to add a personal angle. As my company privately operates public parks, our employees are often taking over from state park rangers who have law enforcement credentials. When we propose our services, we often get pushback on this issue -- how are we going to live without all these law enforcement officers with arrest powers and guns and badges in the parks?
The answer I give is: Things will be better. It is an enormous mistake to handle customer service problems with a badge and gun and hard-ass attitude, but that is often what happens in parks. You don't see McDonald's issuing citations to their customers, but state parks organizations do it all the time.
It turns out that the reason there are so many law enforcement officers in parks has nothing to do with demand -- with very few exceptions, the parks we operate all require fractions of an FTE of law enforcement. Maybe 20 hours a year per park. But there are huge incentives for state workers to get a law enforcement license. Beyond the psychic advantages of having a gun and badge, they typically qualify for a much richer law enforcement pension plan. Park supervisors don't care -- the extra benefits don't come out of their budgets.
Slocum:
Great point about the financial and status incentives behind the seemingly inexorable trend toward 'militarization' of government agencies. This is seemingly the same set of incentives that lead to the Department of Education having its very own SWAT team:
http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/08/dept-of-education-swat-team-up
January 4, 2012, 6:24 ammarco73:
The TSA continues its empire building.
January 4, 2012, 7:02 amThey've been able to put up such road blocks to private airport security, that Houston threw up their hands and laid off their private security.
They put in all sorts of devices without testing, based more on political concerns.
So of course, the next step will be guns and arrest authority.
They already have their own jails in each airport; won't be too long and they'll have their own courtrooms.
More people + bigger budget + expanded mission = more power.
Who couldn't have predicted this?
commieBob:
There is some push-back. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/strip-act-targets-tsa.html Some congress critters have noticed the TSA's abuse of American citizens. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and 29 others deserve our support and votes for sponsoring a bill that would "... Stop TSA's Reach In Policy and would prevent Transportation Security Administration officers from wearing law enforcement uniforms and police-like badges and calling themselves officers ...". Bravo!
January 4, 2012, 9:59 amI Got Bupkis, Fomenter of "small-l" libertarianism:
>>> the extra benefits don’t come out of their budgets.
Type 4 spending, whoodathunkit?
January 4, 2012, 10:09 amI Got Bupkis, Fomenter of "small-l" libertarianism:
>>> Who couldn’t have predicted this?
Every ephing libtard on the planet?
January 4, 2012, 10:10 amjdh:
My son in law is a seasonal back country ranger at the Grand Canyon (family has a fairly distinguished Grand Canyon resume). He apparently can't advance or get a full-time gig, because he doesn't want to be a LEO.
Daughter - who has also worked in the Canyon for years - changed from a recreation management degree, because all of the Park/Forest/whatever service careers that she aspired to, also would have required her to carry a gun.
So now she is going to be a teacher, where her career advancement will require her to get excess and mostly worthless advanced degrees - but she won't have to be a cop.
January 4, 2012, 10:57 amBenjamin Cole:
BTW, nice slug of posts lately.
The City of Los Angeles is going to go broke paying fire and police pensions, and civilian pensions also.
Guys can get disability from the LAPD if they say their trigger finger can't fire the gun. Stress disability was a running gag for a while, but an end was put to that. Most cops/fire retire after just 25 years of service---and collect pensions for many decades after that.
On the federal level, uniformed employees of the defense department can retire after just 20 years of service, with full pensions (worth in excess of $1 million) and lifetime medical. It is Fat City at taxpayer expense.
Somewhere along the line, city, state and federal bureaucrats found it lucrative to crete a "perma-war" society, with a militarized federal government, and domestic SWAT teams, larger police departments etc etc etc. The TSA. With every perceived or exaggerated threat, the level of spending for "security" goes up and never goes down. TSA is layer onto a huge black budget in the CIA etc, on top of an expanded military, which is Cold War coprolite.
It turns out that longer prison sentences will make our nation safer, and I support that. As for foreign enemies, I know of no military power that could invade the USA.
We are wasting our tax dollars.
January 4, 2012, 12:52 pmJohn David Galt:
Let's look for some police officers willing to arrest TSA agents for contempt of Constitution.
January 4, 2012, 4:13 pmNot Sure:
"Let’s look for some police officers willing to arrest TSA agents for contempt of Constitution."
Good luck finding one. They're all busy tazing elderly deaf people or beating the retarded to death.
January 4, 2012, 7:06 pmMesa Econoguy:
Not to front-run or threadjack, but how about contempt of Constitution?
Obamalini just usurped Senate confirmation power, and granted it to himself, in his non-recess recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Fraud Perpetration Bureau.
It is becoming very clear to everyone except the ignorant left (redundant) that Obamalini is an imperial president hellbent on dictatorial fascist/neosocialist rule (including ever expanding state power like the TSA).
Time for Barry to go bye bye.
January 4, 2012, 8:02 pmel coronado:
...and shooting dogs. A LOT of dogs: pit bulls, pit bull puppies, wagging-tailed collies, cocker spaniels, chained and/or penned dogs - that was the first thing our brave ATF warriors did at Waco: kill a penned mama dog and her pups - and who knows, maybe they're up to chihuahuas by now. Google "puppycide".
But then, when you're by definition more valuable a person than mere 'civilians', ANY perceived threat can and should be met with gunfire. Unless it'd be more fun to taze 'em. Lotsa stories & vids about mouthy grannies and pregnant women getting tazed on the web. Officers? Care to comment?
January 5, 2012, 1:35 am