Mark Bernstein complained an airport screener was damaging his TiBook’s delicate screen and got searched by the police for his trouble. “Is this how police states gather momentum?” he muses. “With a ‘reasonable’ intrusion, but one without responsibility or accountability or recourse? With summoning the police to punish anyone with the temerity to question [them]? (How long before we hear about theft rings at security checkpoints? It would be easy to palm small valuable or cash, people must leave valuables behind every day, and we’re all being trained never to question a screener, never to ask them for identification or to see a supervisor).”
Mark is the one who also noted “The next time a soldier in the airport orders you to produce your papers, try to think of a movie where the question, ‘Your papers, please?’ is asked by the good guys.”
May Gilmore win win his case. Incidentally, that site now links to an interesting fictitious article about Brett Glass, highlighting the dangers of having to show ID. The scary thing is I thought it was real, although the fact that it mentioned civil libertarians was a bit of a tip-off.