New Hampshire Free Stater chooses arrest over TSA complianace

www.NHfree.com ^

[Dada Orwell]

"Unidentified Flying Objector" charged, jailed over I.D./patdown refusal

From NHfree.com Manchester, N.H. 6/11/05

Right on schedule and true to his word, 35-year-old Russell Kanning of Keene, New Hampshire attempted to board his flight at Manchester Airport Saturday...without showing I.D. or submitting to a pat-down.

The "Unidentified Flying Objector" and 15 of his supporters found themselves slightly outnumbered by police, TSA "suits" and FBI agents, at least two of whom surveyed Kanning's home all morning and politely followed his car to the airport.

Entering the security checkpoint clutching a Bible and a copy of the Declaration of Independence, Kanning spent four minutes conversing with security and state troopers. A TSA employee stood in the metal detector to block his way. Kanning showed his boarding pass and requested passage to his flight but refused to show I.D., remove clothing or submit to a patdown.

"That's the way it used to be done; we fought 40 years of Cold War without needing those things," said his wife Kat Dillon, who watched with mixed feelings from twenty feet away. "But now we have all these alphabet agencies that take more of our money; they still stop our pilots from arming themselves and still don't protect us very well."

Six media representatives including a Manchester TV crew documented Kanning's progress - or lack thereof - as state troopers flanked him, held him loosely by the arms and escorted him away from the checkpoint. After Kanning promised them he would continue peacefully trying to board his flight until arrested or allowed to do so "the pre-911 way", officials placed him under arrest and took him to a small "law enforcement center" near the airport entrance.

Mike Fisher, a friend of Kanning's who witnessed the arrest, says the bearded NHfree.com activist was charged with criminal trespass, a Class B misdemeanor. Then they transported him to Rockingham County Jail, where he will remain for at least two days...until arraigned at Derry District Court Monday morning. Fisher says his understanding is that the Class B charge means no there will be no additional jail time for Kanning. Fisher himself is no stranger to civil disobedience. He earned statewide chuckles last month for performing a manicure without a license - in front of the licensing board. His penalty - a Class A misdemeanor charge and a 30 day suspended sentence - was harsher than Kanning's.

Harsh or not, Kanning's sacrifice is meant to draw attention to what he calls an out of control "papers please" approach forced on travelers by government. He's urging Washington to end its involvement in airline security, pointing out that D.C. commandeers billions for it while forcing pilots to go unarmed and using bailouts to prevent airlines from being held accountable.

"In a free country," he adds, "you do not need government permission to travel."

Liberty-related activity has been on the rise in New Hampshire since the state was targeted for migration by a libertarian group, the Free State Project, in 2003. So far at least 107 activists have moved here. Kanning is a member of NHfree.com, a loose-knit network set up by local Free Staters and conservative/libertarian New Hampshire natives. It works to reduce government and currently runs the state's most active political forum, where the next arrest is already being planned.

Other media coverage:

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=88968 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NH_LIBERTARIANS_PROTEST_NHOL-?SITE=NHMAL&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Adder]

Well, good for him! If more people activly oject to the more egregious silliness, maybe some of it will change.
I doubt it but maybe it will...

[WhiteGuy]

"In a free country," he adds, "you do not need government permission to travel."


Well said. Excellent point.

[cardinal4]

"But now we have all these alphabet agencies that take more of our money; they still stop our pilots from arming themselves and still don't protect us very well."

This is a little outdated, but Kudos to the guy for standing up to the moronic TSA..

[SouthernFreebird]

I think he's an idiot fighting a stupid battle. While you don't need permission to fly you do need ID and a search.

How long before some stinking arab tries this bull.

[verity]

What a fool.

[snarks_when_bored]

"In a free country," he adds, "you do not need government permission to travel."

No one denied Kanning permission to travel—he was denied permission to board an aircraft without being identified and then searched for weapons which, were he to employ them, might allow him to kill every other person flying on the same aircraft with him and perhaps many others on the ground as well. We don't live in a society in which anybody is allowed to do anything they wish to do even if what they wish to do might hurt or kill others. His right to unrestricted behavior is always circumscribed by the rights of others to try to be protected from his wayward intentions (should he harbor any).

Identity checks and weapons searches at airports are just some of the myriad ways that the well-intentioned many try to protect themselves from the predations of the ill-intentioned few.

[Dada Orwell]

snarks wrote:

"Identity checks and weapons searches at airports are just some of the myriad ways that the well-intentioned many try to protect themselves..."

Would you agree that guns in the cockpit and an elimination of airline bailouts might be a more effective way to accomplish this goal while simultaneously saving taxpayers several billion a year?

Last year's TSA budget was a little under 5 billion according to

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031001-7.html

While there is a small group of pilots now allowed to carry firearms (four years after 911!) it's no where near where it would be if the feds had mostly gotten out of it.

[Dada Orwell]

Sent this as an LTE to the Portsmouth Herald

-----

Dear folks at the Herald:

With regard to the "Unidentified Flying Objector" Russell Kanning and his arrest at the Manchester Airport for refusing to comply with TSA regulations:

There are some interesting highlights about his case which haven't come up much in the press yet.

1) Whether you approve or don't approve of Kanning's precise approach, he has helped the public become aware of something hardly anyone knew before: It is possible to fly without I.D. if you are willing to submit to a secondary search. Kanning wasn't, but if you are then you can fly I.D.-free! If Russell had done his protest last year it would have saved me countless hours trying to procure a new I.D. for my grandmother who had lost hers but needed to travel. Hopefully his sacrifice will save many others this hassle in the future.

2) Kanning and his wife Kat had company during their drive to the airport...at least three FBI agents. I more or less confirmed this with one of the other FBI guys. Kat reports that she and Russell led the tailing agents on a couple quick detours just to mess with them...earning a grin from one of the drivers. It's an amusing anecdote, and the agents have remained friendly, but this doesn't seem to be a very efficient use of tax dollars. The Kanning home in Keene has also been under open surveillance off and on since Kanning announced his protest.

History doesn't look kindly on Hoover's waste of resources investigating peaceful activists in the 60s; it may frown a bit on this allocation as well.

3) There had been some concern among Kanning's supporters about making sure no travelers were delayed by his protest. I timed it out...Kanning was in his line for a little under 5 minutes before being hauled off; the other line (which remained open) reached a length of five persons but never more than that. As Kanning put it...Manchester airport is one of the best in the country but would be better without TSA!

4) Kanning didn't just have a complaint to make; he also has a couple of solutions in mind, solutions he believes in strongly enough to face arrest. These include allowing pilots to arm themselves and ending the practice of government bailouts for airlines who let terrorists seize their planes. Both of these goals would of course be realized by getting government *completely out* of aviation, and we'd all be safer for it. As one local pilot put it: "I am willing to bet my life on that proposition."

[snarks_when_bored]

I agree that if somebody breaks into the cockpit of a plane, the flight crew should have some effective means of protecting themselves (and so the passengers). Whether that effective means is a handgun or a Taser or some other sort of device is something that requires careful consideration. However, I don't think that permitting some form of cockpit defense ought to supplant identity checks and weapons searches of passengers; the more precautions the better, it seems to me. Flying is already dangerous enough without the threat of terrorist hijackers, so we should try to do everything we can to prevent such evildoers from ever again succeeding in taking over a plane.

As for airline bailouts, I'm against them in general, but willing to concede that there might be occasions when, for the good of the air-traveling public (which is quite a large number of people), some government assistance might be in order. Those who argue that, on principle, no government assistance should ever be given to private companies are trying to live in a world in which the theory of laissez faire capitalism is realized in practice—that world doesn't exist now nor has it ever existed. We work with what we've got and try to make it better if we can. That's my pragmatic take.

[Dashing Dasher]

Do you think he did his cause any good?

If you don't like the laws, work to change them - don't just disobey them.

While I agree the incessant patdowns of grannies, etc. is absurd - that's Norm Mineta and his "no profiling" BS.

We need rational people working towards rationally changing the process. We don't need renegades who yell, "FREEDOM" and get themselves put in jail.

/my opinion

[Dada Orwell]

"Do you think he did his cause any good?"

Yes; but he has a couple of causes that are not directly related to travel. He's also probably trying to get New Hampshire in the news as a place where this kind of thing happens, draw recruits to the Free State Project and NHfree.com, spark a debate on this issue, get publicity, inspire additional freedom lovers to break other nanny laws, etc.

He already seems to be successful at some of these. Some Free Staters in Kentucky are going to do the next one, offering beer to an underage Iraq war vet and going to jail for it if need be.

[Dada Orwell]

TSA considering civil action against I.D. refusenik

New Hampshire's "Unidentified Flying Objector" Russell Kanning got a note from the TSA today (6/16) by certified mail. They're informing him that the TSA is considering civil action against him in retaliation for his civil disobedience at Manchester airport Saturday. He seemed amused by it but the note is fairly threatening in its implications.

Copy of the letter is at:

http://www.soulawakenings.com/TSAletter.jpg

Latest details and fallout from Russell's civil disobedience appear at:

http://www.soulawakenings.com/underground/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=National+ID

[Dada Orwell]

Looks like Russell's protest made USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2005-06-16-mht-libertarian_x.htm?csp=34

Bible-toting Libertarian pleads guilty to trespassing at airport
DERRY, N.H. (AP) — A Libertarian who tried to board a flight carrying nothing but a Bible and a copy of the Declaration of Independence pleaded guilty to criminal trespass.

Russell Kanning, 35, was fined $1,000, with $800 suspended following his plea in New Hampshire's Derry District Court on Monday. He paid $200.

Kanning went to Manchester (N.H.) Airport on Saturday, saying he was protesting mandatory identification checks and search methods that call for security personnel to pat down passengers.

He said the search methods are intrusive and harsh. "They used to not feel us up before 9/11. ... I just want to go back to that," Kanning said.

He was ordered several times to leave the screening area of the airport, but refused, court documents said.
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