Our government is a joke. Read the story below....
DENVER -- A California man who refused a body scan and pat-down search at a San Diego airport has become an Internet sensation in the debate weighing fliers' security versus their privacy.
John Tyner posted a cell phone audio recording of his half-hour encounter Saturday at Lindbergh Field.
The software engineer couldn't board a flight after he refused a full-body scan that reveals an image of what's under his clothes. He also wouldn't allow a Transportation Security Administration worker to conduct a groin check. Tyner tells the worker, "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested."
Tyner recorded audio of the whole 30-minute incident with the TSA on his cell phone's video camera.
According to the recording, a female supervisor explained the groin check and told Tyner, "If you're not comfortable with that, we can escort you back out and you don't have to fly today."
"OK, I don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying," said Tyner.
"This is not considered a sexual assault," replied the female supervisor.
"It would be if you were not the government," Tyner said. He then added, "I'd like only my wife and maybe my doctor to touch me there."
Tyner's blog says he left the airport -- but only after being threatened with a lawsuit and $10,000 fine for leaving the security area without finishing the screening process.
A man with no connection to Tyner, Brian Sodegren, started a website that suggests that the public purposely request pat-downs the day before Thanksgiving -- a move likely to clog security checkpoints on the busy travel day.
"It's the day ordinary citizens stand up for their rights, stand up for liberty, and protest the federal government's desire to virtually strip us naked or submit to an 'enhanced patdown' that touches people's breasts and genitals in an aggressive manner," his "Opt Out Day" website proclaims.
"We do not believe the government has a right to see you naked or aggressively touch you just because you bought an airline ticket," Sodegren said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole defended the new practices on Monday, saying such moves are necessary to protect the flying public.