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Do not try to talk your way out of anything. And you do NOT have to and should not answer any questions from law enforcement or the TSA. Ask repeatedly: Am I be
by rsingel 13y ago
Do not try to talk your way out of anything. And you do NOT have to and should not answer any questions from law enforcement or the TSA. Ask repeatedly: Am I being detained? Am I free to go?
Cops can ask for ID (which you do have to provide, sadly) and can briefly frisk you to look for weapons -- if they have reasonable suspicion to believe a crime has or is about to happen.
One other thing of note and what makes this situation a bit odd is that once you get into a TSA line (basically past the first TSA person), you legally have to complete it. But the TSA is not law enforcement and they cannot detain you.
This is different for foreign nationals trying to enter the country (you can be turned away), but U.S. citizens have a right of return (though you can get held for a long time if they make up some reason to suspect you for simply refusing to answer questions.)
And the OP ought to file a complaint with TSA and FOIA the incident report. He should also talk to CCR about a possible lawsuit. Being detained for 18 hours without food or water is dangerous and illegal.
Also fuck JetBlue. Remember they voluntarily turned over their entire customer database to the feds in 2002 to help with datamining. Sounds to me like JetBlue also violated common carriage rules. A captain can refuse to transport a passenger for any reason, but an airline cannot.
- driverdan 13y agoJust a correction, OP wasn't detained for 18 hours. He hadn't eaten anything in 18 hours.
- JeffL 13y agoBut if you don't answer their questions, what's the chance that you end up on the no fly list?
- aneth5 13y agoYou do have to cooperate with the TSA if you want to get on a plane. If you intened not to cooperate, you might as well not plan any plane travel.
- baddox 13y ago> Do not try to talk your way out of anything. And you do NOT have to and should not answer any questions from law enforcement or the TSA. Ask repeatedly: Am I being detained? Am I free to go? Unfortunately, this is a pipe dream. At that point, they can do whatever they want to you. Legally? Probably not. But they can still do it, because there is simply nothing you can do except try to fight or escape physically (which won't work). There's no cops to call, no lawyers to call, absolutely nothing you can do. Unless you value your principles more than your time, or even your safety/life, you will compromise those principles to placate your captors.
- Cryode 13y agoAnd when do we finally decide that those principles are worth fighting for? When do we decide that "absolutely nothing you can do" is unacceptable?
- kylebrown 13y agoOf course you should fight for your principles, but don't do it in a situation where you're guaranteed to lose. To pick a losing fight when there's no attention, no context, and no message, is not martyrdom. Its just dumb. To create a Rosa Parks moment, it takes a lot of strategy, planning, and cooperation. Not spur-of-the-moment frustration.