Rick Bowmer / AP
John Brennan, the man who stripped at Portland International Airport to protest TSA screeners, celebrates by swinging on a light post outside the Multnomah County Courthouse following his trial Wednesday, July 18 in Portland, Ore.
Remember John Brennan? He's the frequent flyer from Oregon who stripped down to nothing at the Portland International Airport's security gate in April when faced with additional TSA screening measures.
Well, a judge has found Brennan not guilty of indecent exposure. Instead, Brennan's act was deemed one of protest and protected speech.
From the AP:
When he reached the gate, he declined to go through the airport's body scanners, instead choosing the alternative metal detector and body pat-down. After the pat-down, Transportation Security Administration officer Steven Van Gordon detected nitrates on the gloves he used to check Brennan.
"For me, time slowed down," Brennan said. "I thought about nitrates and I thought about the Oklahoma City bombing."
Brennan said before his trial that after months of angst every time he went through security, the nitrate detection was the final straw for him, a wordless accusation that he was a terrorist.
So he took off all his clothes.
A TSA agent stacked plastic crates high onto several carts and positioned them around Brennan. Port of Portland police arrested Brennan and took him to the Multnomah County Jail.
Brian Reilly/AP Photo
In this Tuesday, April 17, photo taken at Portland International Airport, John E. Brennan stands naked after he stripped down while going through a security screening area, as a protest against airport security procedures. The incident report said Brennan's actions Tuesday evening caused some passengers to cover their eyes and their children's eyes while others looked, laughed and took photos. He later told authorities he flies often and "disrobed as a form of protest against TSA screeners he felt were harassing him." He missed his flight to San Jose, Calif.
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The screeners are just doing their job. There's no reason to get mad about it. I would be much more mad if no one was ever screened at all. This is the way it's going to be from here on out. Get used to it.
I refuse the naked picture body scanners as well. I have a hip replacement and because of that I set off the alarm when I go through the metal detector. I am subjected to a pat down for which I request a private screening. I have tested "positive" for something or other at least twice when the TSA goons go to sniff their fingers after the pat down. They return to do a second pat down and another finger sniff afterward. They have copied my boarding pass as well as my driver's license on these occasions. I have asked TSA agents what would happen if, after the second pat down, their finger sniffing also tested "positive". I have never received a response. I am a 62 year old grandmother and native born Texan...I will never get used to this blatant violation of my fourth Amendment Constitutional rights.
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."—Benjamin Franklin
I understand his frustration. If things were consistent, it wouldn't be so bad. I know that they are tasked with an impossible job but the obvious discrepancies due to inconsistent inspection is maddening. I also travel a lot and am amazed how some days I can get through security with a big tube of toothpaste and shampoo in my carry on, and other days they treat me as if I am trying to blow up the airport because I have hair gel in my bag. My 13 year old forgot about a 4 inch hunting knife in his back pack and they let him on the plane. We figured it out when he was looking for his ipod AFTER we were already on the plane. I elected to just keep it quiet because I could only imagine the chaos that would have ensued if I would have divulged that information at that time. There was a really old woman in a wheel chair getting "thoroughly" inspected as we went through that time too. I remember because I was like, "what threat could this lady be?" Anyway, the system has a heck of a ways to go to be effective.
Devoted Dad,
You are wise to keep the hunting knife quiet. A box cutter salesman accidentally brought samples onto the plane, realized it, told the flight crew, and he was forced to miss his flight, was arrested, and now has a criminal record.
Unfortunately, TSA efforts to make the planes safer results in incidents like your son having to make the plane less safe by keeping his knife in his carry on to avoid being arrested (vs have a flight attendant check it safely into the hold).
Hee Haw
Good for him! I have no problem with security checks but I also think his response is entirely valid. Americans have to get over their embarrassment of being human (that is being made of flesh and blood with no reason to feel shame over being an almost hairless ape).
Besides *not* being hairless apes or apes in any sense of the word, his protest had nothing to do with "get[ting] over [the] embarrassment of being human". It was a protest against the obscene privacy violations by the TSA. The government has no right to perform the sort of intrusive pat downs and body scans that they do. That they abuse our freedoms like this is proof that we live in a police state.
Side note: Apes don't worry about such things as pat downs, full-body scans, and airport security. Neither does individual liberty cross their minds. The apparent similarities are barely more than skin deep.
Although we may be somewhat related to apes biologically, sociologically we're quite different. In a PTA mtg when someone disagrees w/what you're saying would it be OK for them to throw their poop at you or would you prefer they use their words?
If you really think it's OK for our gvt to treat us like animal handlers treat their charges then go live in a glass house w/no window coverings and lots of microphones and web coverage so the whole world can watch everything you do and hear every conversation you have.
And what has all this TSA BS bought us? Panty bomber, oops missed him. Sneaker bomber, well you can't expect us to catch all of them. Salesman telling flight crew he forgot to check his samples (box cutters) and accidentally carried them through TSA security and onto the plane; well we threw his butt in jail.
@!$%# Zack Baines.
NO don't get used to it.. Body scanners that strip you naked electronically are no different then the full monty for everyone. SCREW the airlines and the people that fly you that worried about die'n by terrorists take the bus hop a ship barricade yourself in your home and communicate via telepresence. EVERY American man woman and child is protected against search or seizure... Go build your bunkers in preparation for the falling sky. But leave the rest of us ALONE.. You SHOULD be allowed to fly unmolested at your own risk..
Ask any security expert and they'll tell you that Static checkpoints and screenings only catch the stupid. Any system's weakness, in in the system it's self, Someone wanting to do bad, finds new ways to do it.. Historical fact... look it up.. but don't waste my time with meaningless bureaucracy that exists only to give someones brother law a job.
I will not comment one side or the other, but will put out this thought for discussion...If the TSA stops the scanning, should passengers, surviving family members and people on the ground be prohibited from suing the airlines and government should an incident occur similar to 9/11?
We already are prevented from suing the airlines and gvt when TSA screws up (read the fine print on your ticket/bording pass). So what is TSA buying us anyway?
I'm glad he got off, but worried about the civil cases that the TSA can still press. Kinda surprised he had to go as far as he did. I mean, as a frequent flyer, I'm surprised he wasn't at least wearing <a href="">adult diapers</a> and many of us do!
I fly regularly and never have an issue with going through any of the scanners or procedures. I in no way feel that it is an invasion of privacy. I do have choices. I could choose to stay home. I could choose to take a bus. I could choose (if I could afford it) to charter a private plane. I could choose to drive.
John Brennan is my hero! Thank you, sir, for making a successful, calm, informed, and impactful protest of an absolutely intolerable situation.
Hey TSA, I'm not your porn star! I will never pose naked for your goons in that strip-search machine. I support John Brennan 100% because he demonstrated exactly how invasive and sick the TSA's demands really are. What part of NO don't you understand, as you screener thugs go around shoving your hands down the pants of innocent people who don't want to have sexual relations with you?
It's so disappointing that when the best our gvt can do is create the illusion of security that then there's even a question of whether and how we can protest it.
I'd be more willing to accept TSA checkpoints if they'd caught at least one of the bad guys who walked past them onto the planes. But since the way we've actually stopped the bad guys is by passenger/crew response to confirmed threat I don't understand why we continue to support that which the data shows is ineffective and we continue to restrict that which the data shows is effective.
Hee Haw
I travel internationally quite a bit and have seen the progression of airpoort security. I wrote this song several years ago on the subject...thought you all might enjoy the picture video I made of it.
"Naked at the Airport" by kahish
I travel quite a bit and have watched the progression of the invasive security checks. The bummer is it is mostly for show and intimidation. My Hubby was pulled out because they saw his money belt through the full body xray machine. They put him in a room with 3 people and never even checked for the money belt and we missed our connecting flight. The link is to a song I wrote years ago and put up a utube video with it. Sometimes you can only make fun and laugh.
This site does not allow links...I hope you can find my video/song if you want to see it. It is called "Naked at the Airport" and is by me, kahish. I have trouble finding it sometimes. I have it posted on my website kahishsworld dot com also but guess I can not post that either. John Brennan was brave to make his statement. Glad it worked out for him.