WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Rand Paul (R—Kentucky) issued a press release this week vowing to lead a movement to “end the TSA,” to stop the unnecessary and humiliating groping of toddlers and grandmothers.
Paul made news earlier in the year when he was detained by the TSA. Earlier this year, Senator Paul was detained at an airport in Nashville, Tennessee while attempting to board a flight to the US capital. After passing through a full body scanner, an “anomaly” in the lawmaker’s knee raised a red flag and TSA agents asked him to submit to a hands-on search.
Paul, a long-time opponent of the practice, refused and missed his engagement in DC. Hours later, his father offered up an earful to the TSA “It’s time to END the TSA and get the government’s hands back to only stealing our wallets instead of groping toddlers and grandmothers,” said Ron Paul in a statement.
The younger Paul added, “The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe.”
An article accompanying the press conference was sent out to Campaign for Liberty members that encourages recipients to sign a petition in support of Rand Paul’s “End the TSA” bill.
The proposed legislation would force the TSA to be privatized, removing the government from airport security completely. A recently passed bill allows airports to replace TSA screeners with private security but still requires a complex TSA permission process to do so. As a result, only a few small airports have applied.
During the press conference, Ryan also said: “Sometimes our liberty slips away silently, and it is almost hard to notice what went wrong and where. The one fortunate thing about the TSA is that they certainly don’t fit that definition.” Senator Paul explains.
“The American people shouldn’t be subjected to harassment, groping, and other public humiliation simply to board an airplane. As you may have heard, I have some personal experience with this, and I’ve vowed to lead the charge to fight back.”
Financial contributions are being sought to launch a “full, targeted media campaign to convince representatives and senators to either get on board or be held responsible for this continuing outrage.” A previous campaign started by Congressman Ron Paul following his son’s treatment at the hands of the federal agency has already raised over $1.6 million dollars.
The email points out that the TSA’s invasive and dangerous body scanners have been proven to be completely useless, most recently by engineer Jon Corbett who was able to fool the device by simply sewing an object into a side pocket.
The email lists a handful of recent TSA outrages amidst the deluge that occur on a weekly basis.
– A TSA agent patting down a young girl at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport in 2011. The video shows a cooperative family, and when the girl’s mother asks, “Can’t you just re-scan her?” the agent replies, “No” and proceeds to grope the poor child;
– A cancer survivor in Charlotte was forced to remove a prosthetic breast;
– A young mother of a two-week-old infant in Florida was harassed to open the bottles of baby formula she was traveling with on her flight, which would have spoiled the only food available to the infant;
– Detroit TSA officers ignored a man’s warning about a colostomy bag, breaking it and forcing him to board a plane covered in urine.
Excerpt from Senator Paul’s press conference:
Sometimes our liberty slips away silently, and it is almost hard to notice what went wrong and where. The one fortunate thing about the TSA is that they certainly don’t fit that definition.
The American people shouldn’t be subjected to harassment, groping, and other public humiliation simply to board an airplane. As you may have heard, I have some personal experience with this, and I’ve vowed to lead the charge to fight back.
Please read the email below from my friend Matt Hawes at Campaign for Liberty. Campaign for Liberty is leading the fight to pressure Congress to act now and restore our liberty. It’s time to END the TSA and get the government’s hands back to only stealing our wallets instead of groping toddlers and grandmothers.
I hope you will join Campaign for Liberty in this fight.
In Liberty,
Senator Rand Paul