A hunting trip to South Dakota hit a awkward turn when a California man got thrown out of San Diego’s airport when he chose to make a scene by refusing the new full-body scans and then an alternative pat-down, telling a Transportation Security Agent, “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.”
John Tyner, 31, said he was told he could face a civil lawsuit and a $10,000 fine for leaving the screening area before the security check was complete. Tyner then recorded the altercation with TSA officials on his phone then posting it online where it is now viral, and heating up the debate on the new screening technology in airports.
Tyner, a software engineer from Oceanside, Calif., said “I think people are tired of having their rights stripped away, especially in the face of not very improved security.”
So with in his rights he opted for the metal detector and basic pat-down, but refused the latter after learning it involved a “groin check.”
“I looked him straight in the eye and said, “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested,” he wrote on his blog.
His video from his phone only captured the audio, but received more 179,000 YouTube hits early today.
TSA Administrator John Pistole responded by saying that, “all passengers want to know that their fellow fliers have been properly screened for weapons like box cutters, liquid explosives or a shoe or underwear bomb.”
“Everybody wants the best possible security,” Pistole said on NBC’s “Today” show. “The question is, What’s that blend or balance, if you will, between security, safety and privacy? While we remain sensitive to people with those concerns, the system we have set up addresses those concerns and provides the best possible security.”
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