Papers, Please!

A traveler attempting to return home from a political conference (a gathering clearly protected by the First Amendment right to assemble) was arrested at a TSA checkpoint at the airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday after they (1) politely declined to show tangible evidence of his identity and (2) began recording audio, video, and/or still photographs of the incident with a handheld device. The traveler, Phil Mocek, has been a regular participant in discussions of ID requirements and TSA procedures on Flyertalk.com, and has been mentioned here before for his efforts to uncover what the “rules” if any) are at TSA checkpoints. According to initial reports and discussion elsewhere, he was released Monday, after a night in jail, and charged with “concealing identity, disorderly conduct, refusing to obey an officer, and criminal trespass.”

As of now, it’s unclear whether the arrest was primarily in retaliation for Mr Mocek’s declining to proffer evidence of his identity or his recording of audio, video, and/or still photographs.  It’s also unclear whether he was arrested by, or at the behest of, Feds or local or state law enforcement officers (or TSA contractor rent-a-cops?), an issue that has figured prominently and sometimes decisively in other ID-demand and checkpoint cases.

We wish Mr. Mocek success in defending against these bogus charges and obtain obtaining redress from those responsible. We’ll have more to say as soon as we have a chance to see the actual complaint.

(We’ve been in touch with Mr. Mocek. As of now, he’s due in court on February 5th, 2010, but can’t comment on what happened, on the advice of counsel.  But if you’d like to help him fight back, you can contribute to his legal defense fund.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Freedom To Travel, Papers, Please, Secret Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.