Why Hindus Shouldn't Fly During Ramadan

Slashdot points toward a harrowing story of TSA and FBI hijinks involving Aditya Mukerjee. Though not Muslim, Mukerjee had trouble flying JetBlue during Ramadan. The whole thing is straight outta Kafka. 

"You can't leave here."

"Are you detaining me, then?" I've been through enough "know your rights" training to know how to handle police searches; however, TSA agents are not law enforcement officials. Technically, they don't even have the right to detain you against your will.

"We're not detaining you. You just can't leave." My jaw dropped.

"Either you're detaining me, or I'm free to go. Which one is it?" I asked.

He glanced for a moment at my backpack, then snatched it out of the conveyor belt. "Okay," he said. "You can leave, but I'm keeping your bag."

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[some guy]

"We're not detaining you. You just can't leave."

So this is some combination of a lie and an illegal order under color of authority. Either way, the guy was punished right? Right?

[Loki]

Either way, the guy was punished right? Right?

Punished with a free ice cream cone.

"Earned my treat!" - TSA goon Wiggum

[Art Vandelay]

"Bring out....THE COMFY CHAIR!"

[Paul.]

"Either you're detaining me, or I'm free to go. Which one is it?" I asked.

He glanced for a moment at my backpack, then snatched it out of the conveyor belt. "Okay," he said. "You can leave, but I'm keeping your bag."

And people say TSA agents are the retarded stepchildren of law enforcement. I say this agent was pretty smart.

[Loki]

Yeah, he figured out a way to get away with brazenly stealing someone's shit.

[Paul.]

Followed, procedures they were.

[kwais]

Tech geek should have had a password on his computer.
At this time, I would just leave, and ask where I can pick my bag up later with my lawyer.

[Omni]

Some of this might be BS...I know when I read it the first thing I thought was if this was really true...I found this article too.

http://boardingarea.com/flying.....adan-nope/

Not to say that's the whole truth either, but I am always skeptical of people who write these things with them calmly giving the best answers, knowledge of everything, and everyone else being a loose cannon saying and doing idiotic things.

I'm guessing the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

[Calidissident]

Well the TSA says the did nothing wrong. That settles it I guess.

[Omni]

It's not just the TSA in this story. The whole part with the FBI saying they had absolutely no one there and the multiple witnesses saying the guy was aggressive from the very start seems to cast doubt on his well written story of incompetence and prejudice from absolutely everyone (and probably in ways he's always imagined it would happen to him one day). Complete with the chilling "The photo was missing..." ending to really build to something sinister.

I think there's probably more truth in the other side of the story, but it's not hard to figure out the jist of what happened here. Maybe he was or wasn't acting strange in the security line, but he DID test positive for explosive residue and in multiple tests too...a detail that appears in each version of the story. If that's not reason to screen someone further, than I don't know what the hell is. He says he tried to take his bag and leave...they see from their perspective someone trying to grab their bag and get away after testing positive for explosives. More tests makes it less likely that it's a false positive, and with attitude no doubt coming from both sides, each side tells it like they saw it from that point on.

[prolefeed]

I have had experiences with the TSA, and with Border guards while coming back into the USA, to believe that this story could be completely accurate.

These guys can be scary fucking assholes -- and I don't look the least bit Muslim.

[NL_]

I totally fell for the libertarian-outrage-porn. The fed admitted (by this account) that they were all being racist and prejudiced. And it seems clear (if the account is true) that JetBlue assumed he was Muslim, that he would want to pray and would look down on women. Seems like a corporate apology is in order.

Stuff like this happens because millions of frightened and xenophobic people use hindsight to blame anybody tangentially related to a disaster for not stopping it. They blame friends, employers, parents, co-congregants, police officers, psychologists, and basically anybody who encountered a mass murderer or would-be mass murderer in the months or years before an event. The result is that everybody who detects a nonzero risk of catastrophe acts like they've just caught a master criminal.

So you get brown-skinned passengers detained. And black pedestrians stoppped and frisked. Or that white grandfather in Texas detained for playing in the park with his non-white granddaughter. And all the other examples of libertarian-outrage-porn. Because there's a 0.00143% chance that they just encountered a barely-hidden supercriminal, cops get a heightened sense of importance and decide to shine their investigative talents on the situation.

[Mr. Weebles]

Did any planes blow up that day? No?

THEN THE SYSTEM WORKED!!!

Herp derp derp ....