“You respect this badge right here.”
That’s what a Transportation Security Administration supervisor told a 16-year-old at the New Orleans Airport while he attempted to film his father’s pat-down. The videographer initially asked the supervisor politely if he could film the process, which the supervisor denied, according to the YouTube post, where the video first appeared. The teen then filmed the pat-down anyway, which resulted in the supervisor calling the police on him. That’s where the video begins.
The videographer stated on YouTube, “he then proceeded to call the police on me unlawfully even after I explained to him that it clearly states on the TSA website that you are allowed to film the TSA agents as long as you don’t film their monitors and are not interfering with their process, which I wasn’t.”
The teenager is absolutely right. The TSA website clearly states it’s okay to film TSA procedures:
After the police showed up, you can clearly see in the video that the officer stood around and really didn’t do very much. As the videographer had said, he wasn’t violating any rules. Of course, this didn’t stope the TSA supervisor from going on a rant about how he should, “respect the badge.”
You can watch how it unfolded here:
[Featured Image Credit: N i c o l a via Flickr]