Critics say it proves Senator wasn’t being detained

Security video of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s run in with the TSA earlier this week has been leaked to a newspaper, and critics say it proves that Paul was not detained by the federal agency.

The footage, obtained by The Tennessean shows the Senator seated in a chair within a glass walled cubicle in the security area of Nashville airport after refusing to undergo a pat down.

As Paul talks on the phone, presumably to his office as he had stated in interviews, three TSA officials stand guard, along with police officers standing outside the cubicle.

The video then shows Paul later being escorted through the airport by an official. The footage represents about one minute of the incident which Paul said lasted over an hour.

The Senator is partially obscured by a column blocking part of the cubicle for some portions of the video. When asked why the camera would be set up only to be obscured by a column, airport spokeswoman Emily Richard told The Tennessean that cameras are “placed for the widest view possible, not a specific area.”

The airport authority and the TSA have declined to comment on the footage.

Watch the video below:

Although the report in The Tennessean points out that the footage contradicts a police report that claimed Paul was “irate”, critics jumped on the footage to suggest Paul over reacted and exaggerated the incident.

Max Read of blog site Gawker said he believes the video proves the Republican was “totally full of sh-t” when he called his spokesperson.

“I got a lot of mail, some of it syntactically and orthographically correct, disputing my account of Rand Paul’s full-of-sh-tness by referring to the dictionary definition of the word ‘detained.’” Read wrote.

“Here is my feeling: when your argument centers around ‘the dictionary definition’ of anything and involves the adverb ‘technically,’ you are full of sh-t. When you tell someone you are being ‘detained by the TSA,’ you don’t mean ‘sitting in a chair while they decide what to do.’”

Another blogger suggested that “the way Paul was treated (not a finger laid on him) doesn’t quite illustrate the harshness that word [detainment'] usually suggests.”

In response Paul supporters pointed out that just because Paul wasn’t shackled and pushed around doesn’t mean he wasn’t being detained by the TSA.

“‘Detained’ is a legal term that very much applies to this situation. It does not matter that he is not in handcuffs or behind bars; when a peace officer restricts your freedom to vacate an area through verbal instruction (the consequence of disobedience being immediate arrest for disorderly conduct), you are detained.” one commenter noted.

Following the incident Monday, Rand Paul told reporters “I tried to leave the cubicle to speak to one of the TSA people and I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle! So, that, to me sounds like I’m being asked not to leave the cubicle. It sounds a little bit like I’m being detained.”

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, andPrisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Source: Prison Planet.

Sen. Rand Paul told his communications director this morning he was being detained by TSA at the Nashville airport.

The Twitter account associated with Paul staffer Moira Bagley, @moirabagley, tweeted around 10 a.m., ET, “Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”

A TSA spokesman said the agency was looking into the matter but could not immediately comment.

Paul apparently set off  an airport security full-body scanner “on a glitch,” a spokesman in Paul’s office told ABC News.

The Paul staffer said TSA agents would not let Paul walk back through the body scanner and were demanding a full body pat-down.

The Paul spokesman said his office called TSA administrator John Pistole about the incident this morning.

The Senate is back in session today at 2 p.m., with votes scheduled at 4:30 p.m.

The issue of pat-downs has been an important one to Paul, the son of libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. Sen.  Paul brought this issue up at a hearing earlier this year.

Source: ABC News. Video at link.

*Taken from Geekologie.

Jason Valdez (whose Facebook profile you can view HERE to read everything that went down), 36, barricaded himself and his ladyfriend in a motel room after police tried to serve a felony warrant on a drug related charge. Then sat in the room for 18-hours providing Facebook status updates but didn’t have the decency to write a Yelp review for the motel.

Utah police were involved in a standoff with a guy in a motel and he updated his Facebook status throughout the ordeal — which ended with him shooting himself in the chest as a SWAT team raided the place (he’s now in critical condition at the hospital, but expected to survive).
Many of the reports claim that it was a “hostage” situation, because there was a woman in there with him, but, if you read through the messages, it seems pretty clear that she was there willingly. The guy, Jason Valdez, even posted photos of the two of them and joked about his “hostage.”

Listen dipshits (you know who you are) — before this turns into the idiotic trollfest about race that I know you bottomfeeders are capable of, how about we like, not do that? I know it’s not easy for some of you more short-sighted halfwits, but remember: the easiest things to do in life are rarely the best. Take your mom for example.

Sign Of The Times: Guy Updates Facebook Status During Police Standoff [techdirt]

Thanks to mud, who got on my jeans and now I’m gonna have to wash them despite only having worn them for a week.

*Taken from My Fox NY.

A 62-year-old woman has been charged with menacing a police officer after authorities say she pointed a weapon at sheriff’s deputies attempting to serve her with an eviction notice at her Hudson Valley home.

The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office says a more than five-hour standoff ensued Tuesday morning when deputies tried to serve a court-ordered eviction notice at Constance Palmer’s home in Hyde Park.

Authorities say she refused to come outside and pointed a weapon through a window. After Palmer surrendered around 2:45 p.m., police learned that the weapon was a BB gun that had been altered to make it look like a shotgun.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that Palmer was being held in the county jail on $25,000 bail. It couldn’t be determined if she had a lawyer.