Carol Jean Price convicted of battery against TSA

by Lisa Simeone on July 12, 2012

Carol Jean Price, one of the few people in this country who has fought back against the TSA at the airport, has been convicted of battery against a TSA agent. The jury took only 20 minutes to reach a verdict.

So many of us who’ve been ringing alarm bells about the TSA have been wondering what would happen if a case such as hers ever reached a jury. Many said no jury in America would convict.

I guess this case put the lie to that.

I wrote in a comment just a few minutes ago, in answer to a reader’s question, that I believe we in this country are nowhere near a critical mass of people outraged enough at TSA abuse to do something about it. I’d say we’ve just seen evidence for that belief.

Tagged as: Airport, assault, crime, DHS, Security, Travel, TSA

cjr001

Another travesty of justice.
Fisher1949

So the jury concluded that a TSA search is indeed battery. Perhaps the screener who groped Ms. Price should now be charged.
- Eleanordew
  
  That is an excellent idea. I believe Justice Ginsberg used that strategy in her Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU. Get a case in which the injured party is a man, get a verdict in favor of the injured party, then use that as case law to turn it around.
Toreleiblue

Well, I’m hesitant to suggest this because there’s debate about targeting individual screeners but I’d like to mention my strategy. First I go through security like a good sheep but if and screener wrongs me, I remember their name and once I’ve passed security I look them up on social media. I haven’t done anything with my intel so far….

Look, we can’t rely on jury nullification to help us as shown. Our congressional reps and senators ignore our letters. Therefore, I have no problems calling out individual acreeners. If Joey TSA fears being referred to by name on Facebook, you think he’s going to do more than a “cursory” pat down
- http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone
  
  Toreleiblue, you’re right that, so far, the courts and our so-called representatives aren’t helping (though there are still lawsuits making their agonizingly slowly way through the system). And you’re right that there are many other ways to protest, some quite creative. We’ve written about them here at TSA News (bikini-clad protesters for one example, John Brennan’s nude protest another).
  
  Gene Sharp provides dozens of other ways to protest injustice, including naming and shunning, in his famous pamphlet, From Dictatorship to Democracy. It’s been translated into 27 languages and was used extensively by the protesters in Egypt. You can get a free download of it here:
  
  http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations98ce.html
  
  Amy Alkon also publicly named her assailant. The TSA agent then had the nerve to try to extort money from her — and lived to regret it. Alkon got a superb First Amendement lawyer, Mark Randazza, to represent her pro bono.
  
  Human creativity is infinite. I encourage people to come up with their own creative ways to resist.
Daizymae

This is chilling and frightening. It does not bode well for our future.
Daizymae

Was this a jury trial or was it tried by a judge? If it was a jury trial, you can bet on it that the prosecutor removed any juror who was anti TSA. He would have made certain to get rid of anyone who sees how monstrously wrong this whole thing is.
- http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone
  
  Daizymae, see 2nd sentence. Jury.
  - Daisiemae
    
    Well, it’s clear that the jury was carefully picked by the prosecutor. As a former court reporter, I know that’s how it works. The defense attorney also gets some say, but any person who expressed any kind of opposition to TSA would be excluded by the prosecutor. Also, any person who ever had a bad experience with TSA (isn’t that most travellers?) would be excluded by the prosecutor. So the best the defense attorney could hope for would be a juror who isn’t a rabid TSA apologist. That leaves only people in denial because it hasn’t happened to them. Fertile minds for a pumped up prosecutor with a film of the “assault.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Hollis-Weber/100000095895830 Robert Hollis Weber

I’m no fan of the TSA, but I suspect that the jury reached the legally correct verdict. What TSA does every day is assault people. Assaulting them back is no more legal than their government sanctioned attacks.

Having said so, I think there are times when a $500 fine would be a small price to pay for the satisfaction of putting one of these thugs in their place.

I have long been an advocate of Toreleiblue’s suggested tactic: NAME THEM AND SHAME THEM. Sure, there are professional employees of the TSA, but even the best are tainted with the stink of corruption, abuse and criminality that overwhelms John Pistole’s little fifedom. Putting on that uniform every morning should be the most humiliating thing a TSA employee does each day.

I remain convinced that this dark era in our history will end in the not-too-distant future, despite the odious fools who are all-too-willing to hand over their rights (and mine along with them) because they fear that the treat of terroism lurks in the pants and bras of the traveling public.
- http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone
  
  Robert, you raise a very good point and I was hoping someone would bring it up sooner. I agree with you that this probably wasn’t the most effective test case. I’m going to do a post on the larger question of which techniques are effective.
  
  I’m an advocate of non-violence not because I’m squeamish but because of its proven power and efficacy. I understand Carol Jean Price’s anger and I’m on her side, but touching the TSA agent — even though Price had been assaulted — wasn’t the way to go.
  - Daizymae
    
    I totally agree that violence is never acceptable except in the act of self defense (totally NOT saying that this incident was self defense).
    
    However, I still think it is monstrously wrong to convict this woman of battery while the TSA screener’s far more serious assault (which included breast, genital, and anal contact) is held up as a legal act. That is the part that is monstrously wrong.
    
    TSA continually declares that searches of breasts, genitals, and buttocks are “proper procedure”. If TSA screeners are not prosecuted and convicted for battery when they commit these assaults, then no other American should be either…especially when that “assault” did not involve contact with breasts, genitals or buttocks.
anc1entmar1ner

Never touch a TSA agent. As illustrated above, the courts are stacked against you if you do. Instead, write protests to the TSA here:

http://www.tsa.gov/contact/index.shtm

Also look up the email contact forms for your congressman and senators. Here is a good site that makes it easy:

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Don’t forget the White House. Complain to them here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

I have been able to get this whole process down to under an hour. Please do this every time you are groped.
- Pipo
  
  Haven’t you heard ? Congress is a sham, the millionaire senators are a sham and the whitehouse is a sham, too. No integrity left.
pierotte pepe Vassau

screw the TSA freaks…slaves no more…bring it on …we cant wait to ……lol
pierotte pepe Vassau

and we will….We know there coward hearts and they all need to drive home….Alone.
IMF16

I’m no fan of the tsa but obviously the reporting was slanted on this one. She was not arrested until she refused to exit the way she was supposed to and insisted on going in a different direction. She was pointed the correct way several times. She was only arrested when she refused.
- http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone
  
  IMF16, I think you have her mixed up with someone else. Carol Jean Price was arrested for touching a TSA clerk. She was then convicted of battery.
  
  Are you thinking of Andrea Abbott, who was bullied and harassed by the TSA, then bullied worse and arrested by a cop?
  - IMF16
    
    Yes, I was talking about Abbot. She was referenced in the same article.
    - http://tsanewsblog.com/214/news/history-repeats-itself-with-tsas-strip-search-tactics/ Lisa Simeone
      
      I think the cops were wrong to arrest Andrea Abbott. She was trying to protect her daughter. A TSA agent groped her daughter inappropriately, and the cop deliberately tried to block Abbott’s line of sight and in general bullied her. Then the cop arrested her for talking. For speech.
      
      Abbott didn’t touch anyone, didn’t behave in a disorderly fashion, didn’t do anything wrong. The cop just wanted to show her who was boss.
      
      That’s not my idea of “to serve and protect.”
      - Daizymae
        
        Unless it means to serve and protect bullies and criminals.