This is the kind of stuff that drives me absolutely bonkers: A passenger departing St. Louis was detained and harassed by the TSA because he was carrying $4700 in cash. When questioned, the gentleman opted to secretly tape the conversation using his phone, and whattayaknow, it’s on the internet.
It’s not a crime to carry cash. (Though it’s not the way I like to travel, frankly.) What I simply don’t understand is why the TSA would care about this man’s means of transporting money in the first place. The DEA? I might expect them to wonder about large sums of cash, but $4700 is small enough to not even raise an eyebrow for them, either.
The TSA is supposed to be about travel safety and security. Why would they care about cash? Think about it: A guy carrying $4700 is not going to blow up a plane — if he’s got that much money with him, he wants to make it safely!
The tape of Steve Bierfeldt’s interrogation at the hands of the TSA is part of a longer discussion, but the video below is bookmarked to the start of the raw tape. Listen for yourself.
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April 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
They should all be fired.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:06 am
Twitter Comment
You KNEW it..TSA lives to stop you..[link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
Give somebody a little bit of power…
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Am I missing something? In this day and age, who thinks that $4700 is a lot of money? Maybe he doesn’t believe in Traveler’s Checks. Maybe the guy hit the trifecta at the track. Maybe he’s flying out to purchase a car he got a smokin’ deal on through Craig’s List.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Much as I’m not a Ron Paulite, I was cheering the guy on listening to the recording. Yeesh! But I shuddered, later on, hearing the commentators say “is this the face of terorrism, c’mon!?!?” thinking imagine if the guy HAD looked more “suspicious”. What if he hadn’t been a young well-spoken white male? Imagine the hell the cops and TSA probably would’ve put him through THEN!
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:07 pm
The FULL Audio is here & worth listening to
http://www.dailynewscaster.com/2009/04/02/audio-full-version-steve-bierfeldt-detained-and-questioned-by-st-louis-tsa/comment-page-1/#comment-10181
TSA has a blog, Evolution of Security, so be sure to let “Bob” know your thoughts on this incident: http://www.tsa.gov/blog/
TSA has a whole office & Special Counsel to deal with incidents like this, and you can also find out how to file a complaint here:
http://www.tsa.gov/research/civilrights/civilrights_travelers.shtm
From http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/crcl_third_quarter_report_to_congress_FY_2008.pdf
The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110-53, requires the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) to report quarterly regarding: (1) the number and types of review of Department actions undertaken; (2) the type of advice provided and the response given to such advice; (3) the number and nature of complaints received by DHS for alleged violations; and (4) a summary of the disposition of such complaints, the reviews and inquiries conducted, and the impact of these activities.1 In accordance with this requirement, this report serves as CRCL’s third quarter report, covering the period from April 1, 2008, to June 30, 2008.
From http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0338.shtm
About the Privacy Office: The Department of Homeland Security Privacy Office is the first statutorily required Privacy Office at any federal agency whose mission is to minimize the impact on the individual’s privacy, particularly the individual’s personal information and dignity, while achieving the mission of the Department of Homeland Security.
April 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Like many of these, this sounds like a fraud. For example there is no way this was recorded on a ’super-duper new phone’ in a pocket. Its all a bit too staged and it;s perhaps no great surprise that it only appeared on ‘FREEEDOOOM Watch’ on Fox
April 7th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Not staged: TSA itself accepts it at http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2009/04/incident-at-st-louis-international.html and even promises investigation
The tone and language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate.
They still claim they had the right to ask those questions…
April 10th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Welcome to the way things will be under the Obama administration.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
[...] The Washington Times is apparently having more problems than Hot Air today, so here’s a link to another source for the story, along with a YouTube video that plays a segment of the tape of the [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
@ Frank Davis,
What an ignorant thing to say. TSA was founded under the Bush administration, and has consistently tried to expand its power. These guys didn’t just turn on the “government overreach” switch with the inauguration. I hope you were equally concerned, if not more so, during the Bush years, when the government wiretapped Americans, illegally held citizens offshore as enemy combatants, and expanded the ability of the federal government to impose itself onto your personal life. If you weren’t raising red flags then, you should crawl back into your partisan hole and stay there.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
[...] Holding TSA accountable Remember the traveler who was harassed by the TSA for carrying $4700 in cash? He refused to answer questions until the TSA agents explicitly told him [...]
November 16th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
[...] But what is?Posted by: Mark Ashley You may recall the incident a few months ago when the TSA harassed a man for carrying $4700 in cash. When questioned, the passenger, Steve Bierfeldt, refused to acknowledge the TSA’s authority [...]