Passenger Strips Rather Than Be Patted-Down

Normally the fact that a passenger stripped rather than to submit to being scanned or be patted down would be interesting but of not much relevance on a gun blog. Except when the person is well-known San Diego open carry activist Samuel Wolanyk.

You may remember that at the end of September the City of San Diego reached a settlement with Mr. Wolanyk for his improper arrest for unloaded open carry. He won $35,000 and a Finding of Factual Innocence and the SDPD also agreed to enhance the training of their police officers.

In this case, Mr. Wolanyk, a frequent flyer, chose to strip to his underwear rather than undergo a pat-down or go through the scanner. As NBC San Diego reports:

Through a statement released by his attorney Sunday night, Wolanyk said “TSA needs to see that I’m not carrying any weapons, explosives, or other prohibited substances, I refuse to have images of my naked body viewed by perfect strangers, and having been felt up for the first time by TSA the week prior (I travel frequently) I was not willing to be molested again.”

Wolanyk’s attorney said that TSA requested his client put his clothes on so he could be patted down properly but his client refused to put his clothes back on. He never refused a pat down, according to his attorney.

Wolanyk was arrested for refusing to complete the security process and for recording the incident on his iPhone, according to his attorney.

My guess is that TSA is more upset about the recording of the incident on his iPhone than having Mr. Wolanyk strip down.

The logic of TSA also baffles me. If you have a guy in his underwear in front of you, why do you need him to get dressed so you can pat him down? Can’t you just look at him and see he doesn’t have any weapons taped to his body? They could also examine the clothing on the floor if they thought something was secreted away in it.  But then again, using the word logic in conjunction with TSA is an oxymoron.