My friend, Steve Bierfeldt, who works for Campaign for Liberty, was recently the victim of TSA harassment when he was detained for having a large amount of money and a stack of Ron Paul bumper stickers. This all took place in St. Louis, as he was en route back to DC after the first Campaign for Liberty Regional Summit. The ironic thing is that he was detained after the MIAC Report was reversed, and there is no way he could be considered a terrorist, rather he is a strong advocate on behalf of liberty. It is just appalling that he had to be subject to this treatment.
Here is the video.
Hey I know that guy.
You ought to know that guy…
I see Steve is moving up in the world. Well done, man.
This is indeed deeply troubling. I’ve included a link to this post on my blog. Events like this should not happen.
What kind of phone did he have? I’d like to be able to prepare myself for a situation like this, should it ever come up.
Mr. Foobar, I have an iphone. Conveniently, I had just downloaded the application to record sound the day before.
The application is free and is called “italk”
Chilling,…but excellent conduct on Steve’s part. In particular:
(1) asking about his rights,…
(2) asking if he is being compelled to answer the questions regarding the cash
(3) asking if he is being detained or if he is free to go
As far as the excerpt goes, Steve was not Mirandized but seemed to know that he was well in his rights not to say anything.
That guy WAS acting like a child. You ARE in your rights to not say anything, but it is their JOB to ensure that individuals who meet certain INDICATORS (look this up, this is what we use to locate individuals who may want to harm other individuals and is based on analysis and large sums of cash IS an INDICATOR of someone who is breaking the law) are questioned and vetted. There is a reason they were asking him and all he had to do was answer honestly. It was your right to not answer the question, but not your right to get on the plane if it seemed like you may be a danger to other individuals.
These TSA individuals were doing there job and I applaud then.
Justin,
So, you are advocating against civil liberties. Steve was not read his Miranda rights and the TSA was playing cowboy police work. Wow, way to go…he was not breaking the law and I believe Steve explained his case to the officers.
$4700 is not a lot of cash. It is even less than the size of transaction at a bank that triggers an IRS report.
TSA inspections are I suspect window dressing like the failed welfare programs that have left millions of people poor, illiterate and so cultually and intellectually degraded that they will never haves lives or careers. I am not sure the state is competent to provide defense; the oceans were doing it. If it was they would have at least had anti-aircraft guns on their own Pentagon.