In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
80-yr-old WWII veteran arrested at airport
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Texan Learns To Rue Remark
`Rifle' Mention At Airport To Cost Him
August 3, 2002
By PAUL MARKS, Courant Staff Writer
Eighty-year-old Fred Hubbell, tired and cranky after facing a gantlet of searches at Bradley International Airport, made a sarcastic remark about a rifle that he quickly came to regret.
Suddenly he found himself in handcuffs - with a firsthand sense of what the Transportation Security Administration means by "zero tolerance."
It was a new experience for the retired engineer and World War II veteran. He got to stroll through the crowded concourse Thursday escorted by a state trooper while onlookers wondered if he was some kind of terrorist.
He had a mug shot taken. He was fingerprinted. He spent about 20 minutes in a locked holding cell, as his worried wife waited outside. He was read his Miranda rights and offered the chance to phone a lawyer, which he declined.
What Hubbell said, by his recollection, was innocent enough.
Near the end of the second full-scale pat-down he and his wife, Grayce, had undergone by Transportation Security Administration guards, just steps from boarding a 7:30 a.m. flight they had almost missed, he saw the screener poking into his wallet.
Having been a first lieutenant in the Army and owner of his own metal-plating business for 25 years, Hubbell said he is used to speaking his mind. Sometimes, he admitted, it has got him in hot water.
"I said, `What do you expect to find in there, a rifle?'" he said. When the trooper asked me, `Do you think that was an appropriate remark?' I said, `I do.'" That's when Hubbell was taken into custody by Trooper Wayne Foster.
Dana Cosgrove, head of the federal security force that moved into Bradley last week, sees it differently.
"What he said [regarding the wallet] was, `You better look at it real good; there may be a rifle in there.' And all that the people around him in the waiting room heard was the word `rifle.'"
Anxiety levels after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are high enough at airports, Cosgrove said, which is why cracks about guns, bombs or terrorism are cause for arrest. The airport's public address system issues regular reminders in both English and Spanish.
"I want to be sure that when people step on that plane they're 100 percent comfortable," Cosgrove said.
The exact words Hubbell said and how he said them are immaterial now. A Stratford native now living in Texas, he was on his way home after visiting a boyhood friend in Madison. The last thing he wants, he said, is a trip back to Connecticut to contest the charge.
Issued a citation for "creating a public disturbance," Hubbell said he will settle the matter by mailing a check to state Superior Court to cover the $78 fine plus court costs.
"I was a bad boy, and I know that," he said during a telephone interview Friday, "and I shouldn't have said what I said, especially under the circumstances that we're living under today."
But his misstep - which, of course, caused him and his wife to miss their Dallas-bound plane and got them home several hours later than expected - is an object lesson on what the Transportation Security Administration means by "zero tolerance." Hubbell actually got off easy: Most such arrests result in misdemeanor "breach of peace" charges, which require a court appearance.
State police Sgt. Paul Vance said the lesser charge was used for Hubbell because no threat was made, and "it wasn't a situation where a person became obnoxious or irate."
Hubbell had a similar impression of the way he was treated by the state police. Foster was firm but not accusatory, he said, and the two spent considerable time discussing the incident. "It was really quite a friendly affair," Hubbell said, "except for the fact that I have to pay 78 bucks."
http://ctnow.com/news/local/hc-bradtexan0803.artaug03.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
`Rifle' Mention At Airport To Cost Him
August 3, 2002
By PAUL MARKS, Courant Staff Writer
Eighty-year-old Fred Hubbell, tired and cranky after facing a gantlet of searches at Bradley International Airport, made a sarcastic remark about a rifle that he quickly came to regret.
Suddenly he found himself in handcuffs - with a firsthand sense of what the Transportation Security Administration means by "zero tolerance."
It was a new experience for the retired engineer and World War II veteran. He got to stroll through the crowded concourse Thursday escorted by a state trooper while onlookers wondered if he was some kind of terrorist.
He had a mug shot taken. He was fingerprinted. He spent about 20 minutes in a locked holding cell, as his worried wife waited outside. He was read his Miranda rights and offered the chance to phone a lawyer, which he declined.
What Hubbell said, by his recollection, was innocent enough.
Near the end of the second full-scale pat-down he and his wife, Grayce, had undergone by Transportation Security Administration guards, just steps from boarding a 7:30 a.m. flight they had almost missed, he saw the screener poking into his wallet.
Having been a first lieutenant in the Army and owner of his own metal-plating business for 25 years, Hubbell said he is used to speaking his mind. Sometimes, he admitted, it has got him in hot water.
"I said, `What do you expect to find in there, a rifle?'" he said. When the trooper asked me, `Do you think that was an appropriate remark?' I said, `I do.'" That's when Hubbell was taken into custody by Trooper Wayne Foster.
Dana Cosgrove, head of the federal security force that moved into Bradley last week, sees it differently.
"What he said [regarding the wallet] was, `You better look at it real good; there may be a rifle in there.' And all that the people around him in the waiting room heard was the word `rifle.'"
Anxiety levels after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are high enough at airports, Cosgrove said, which is why cracks about guns, bombs or terrorism are cause for arrest. The airport's public address system issues regular reminders in both English and Spanish.
"I want to be sure that when people step on that plane they're 100 percent comfortable," Cosgrove said.
The exact words Hubbell said and how he said them are immaterial now. A Stratford native now living in Texas, he was on his way home after visiting a boyhood friend in Madison. The last thing he wants, he said, is a trip back to Connecticut to contest the charge.
Issued a citation for "creating a public disturbance," Hubbell said he will settle the matter by mailing a check to state Superior Court to cover the $78 fine plus court costs.
"I was a bad boy, and I know that," he said during a telephone interview Friday, "and I shouldn't have said what I said, especially under the circumstances that we're living under today."
But his misstep - which, of course, caused him and his wife to miss their Dallas-bound plane and got them home several hours later than expected - is an object lesson on what the Transportation Security Administration means by "zero tolerance." Hubbell actually got off easy: Most such arrests result in misdemeanor "breach of peace" charges, which require a court appearance.
State police Sgt. Paul Vance said the lesser charge was used for Hubbell because no threat was made, and "it wasn't a situation where a person became obnoxious or irate."
Hubbell had a similar impression of the way he was treated by the state police. Foster was firm but not accusatory, he said, and the two spent considerable time discussing the incident. "It was really quite a friendly affair," Hubbell said, "except for the fact that I have to pay 78 bucks."
http://ctnow.com/news/local/hc-bradtexan0803.artaug03.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Security screeners found a loaded handgun and a lock-blade knife in carryon luggage at Louisville International Airport and arrested the owner, an airport spokeswoman said.
Russell Baldwin, 43, of Atlanta, was arrested early Friday after an X-ray machine and search detected the weapons, said David Beyer, a Louisville FBI spokesman. Baldwin told authorities he was a retired police officer and had a permit for the weapon.
"We have no indication he is a terrorist," said Stephen Pence, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.
Baldwin was charged with attempting to carry a weapon onto an aircraft. He could face 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
A Transportation Safety Authority screener identified a handgun in Baldwin's luggage, and a knife was found following a search, spokesman Greg Warren said. The gun was a 9mm Smith & Wesson, authorities said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hancy Jones III said a detention hearing for Baldwin was waived Saturday and he was released on $100,000 unsecured bond. U.S. Magistrate James Moyer set Baldwin's arraignment for Aug. 28.
Warren said Baldwin told authorities he was a retired police officer from Georgia and that he had a permit for the gun. Jones said Baldwin was required to relinquish the gun permit.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Christine Turneabe-Connelly said Baldwin had not declared any firearms.
Rande Swann, an airport spokeswoman, said the incident did not disrupt airport operations or delay flights.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/3791500.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By ZARAR KHAN
The Associated Press
KARACHI, Pakistan - An elite force of karate-kicking anti-terrorist fighters will begin riding on domestic Pakistani passenger jets this month. The new sky marshals are gaining attention in Pakistan's conservative Islamic society - not only for their skills but because they include nine women.
The first female sky marshals completed a 10-week course last month in hand-to-hand combat so grueling that some of their 49 male classmates dropped out. Only one woman failed to finish - because she broke her wrist.
The women say they're ready to keep Pakistan safe from terrorist attacks. But they also see themselves as making inroads in a society where women are widely seen as separate - and inferior - to men.
"Passing this tough training proves that Pakistani women have the potential to show their skills in all fields that are considered the domain of men," said one female graduate, Asma Khan, 22.
Part of the national airport police, Pakistan's first batch of sky marshals - all male - were sent into duty after the 1981 hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines jet. Those first sky marshals were armed and eventually had to be taken off commercial jets after other countries protested.
However, after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States - and fears that Pakistan would become a new terrorist battleground - the sky marshals were revived, this time unarmed.
The first recruits finished a martial arts course taught by Pakistani army instructors July 22 and will begin flying in mid-August. Initially, they will be limited to domestic flights, but if the program is successful, officials say, the sky marshals may start flying internationally as well.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/world/3791626.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
D/FW plays key role in security bill
By BRYON OKADA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
D/FW AIRPORT - The U.S. House vote to push back the year-end deadline for screening luggage - a provision in the homeland security bill - culminated an airport industry lobbying effort largely orchestrated by Dallas/Fort Worth Airport's director.
An alliance of 39 major airports spearheaded by D/FW's chief executive officer, Jeff Fegan, got representatives' attention. The group waged a 10-day informational campaign on Capitol Hill using 15 D/FW staffers, seven high-paid lobbyists and influential members of Congress from North Texas.
At several turns, Fegan and other D/FW Airport executives openly opposed the leadership of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"This was, for lack of a better word, a battleground," said Kevin Cox, D/FW senior executive vice president.
Months ago, officials of large airports concluded that it was impossible to have the technology and work force needed to screen luggage with bomb-detection machines in place by Dec. 31 without service grinding to a halt.
But through May, the different sectors of the industry stayed silent as the Bush administration repeatedly asserted that the deadline could be met. Airport officials said they wanted to convey support for the new Transportation Security Administration, which had the task of meeting the deadline.
No one wanted to tell the emperor he wore no clothes.
"Everyone was waiting for another sector of the industry to come clean," said Angela Gittens, director of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, which operates Miami International Airport.
"Jeff [Fegan] was really the point man. He said, 'This is really an issue of the truth shall set you free,' and we agreed. Since the airports are where the mess will occur, and the community looks to us, we decided we would have to come clean."
Fegan had already been frustrated by the Transportation Security Administration. In April, the airport was ready to roll with the industry's first plan to meet the deadline. It needed the security agency's approval to begin an eight-month reconfiguration of its terminals to accommodate the van-sized screening machines.
Approval never came, as the agency's plan was stalled by budget squabbles with Congress.
The flash point came during a speech by then-Transportation Security chief John Magaw at a May conference of the American Association of Airport Executives in Dallas.
Magaw reiterated the Transportation Security Administration's plan for making the deadline and said the agency had been testing bomb-detection machines in Virginia and Grand Rapids, Mich. The tests, he told the airport executives, would tell the agency what it needed to know about the feasibility of the deadline.
Airport executives were stunned, Gittens said, because lessons learned at the smaller airports would not apply to large hubs.
"It was spontaneous combustion," Fegan said. "I had a conversation with [Aviation Manager] Bruce Baumgartner from Denver. He talked his plight. I talked my plight. We called the large airports. It continued to grow.
"Conclusions became unanimous among the larger airports," Fegan said. "Unless we stood up and told the truth on this issue, we were going to be faced with a situation where TSA says we'd make the deadline and it would go unchallenged."
A letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was crafted at the Dallas convention. When other airport directors called the letter soft, Fegan redrafted it. Fegan tapped connections made as former president of Airports Council International-North America. Eventually, 39 airport directors signed.
The letter, which urged Mineta to rethink the deadline, got a quick "go away" from the Transportation Department, airport directors said. But what has now become known as the Airport Alliance was formed.
With other alliance members following suit, D/FW Airport turned its efforts to convincing Congress that it had made a mistake by adding the deadline to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in November.
"The key objective was, with a firm commitment to safety and security, seeking some additional time," said Rodney Slater, secretary of transportation during the Clinton administration and a lobbyist for D/FW.
"The entire effort sought to have Congress revisit this and take into account that, almost two-thirds through the year, there were still challenges facing everyone in meeting the deadline," Slater said. "It was to in no way relax the commitment to the American public to ensure that we have the safest and most secure aviation system in the world."
Some members of Congress told D/FW lobbyists that they understood the fix the airports were in. But, as the aviation industry was before, many were hesitant to break the silence. Observers noted that the Sept. 11 anniversary is approaching and it is an election year, not the best time politically to appear soft on terrorism.
Eventually a D/FW connection kept the effort moving.
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who had been a member of the D/FW Airport Board when she was mayor of Fort Worth, reversed her stance and called the deadline a potential "train wreck."
She filed an aviation security bill that would relax the deadline and allow airports to build more secure, more thorough baggage-screening systems that match their situations.
Critics assailed the proposal. But behind the scenes, D/FW executives had set up a makeshift phone bank with airport staffers. They delivered a brief scripted message on behalf of the Airport Alliance.
Lobbyists massaged egos, emphasizing to Congress and the Bush administration that the airports shared the same goal: secure skies. When Mineta went before Congress and seemed to back away from the deadline, D/FW immediately issued a letter supporting him.
Gittens and other Miami International Airport officials delivered to Granger the support of two key Florida legislators, including a Democrat. That support, along with the co-sponsorship of Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, countered those who labeled the Granger bill partisan.
"It was a bipartisan effort - it had to be - because the Congress had responded so overwhelmingly in the passage of the legislation," Slater said.
Eventually, the Granger bill was attached to the homeland security bill.
During the final days leading up to the House vote, D/FW officials contacted every member of the House.
The 295-132 House vote last week to create the Department of Homeland Security included a one-year extension to the deadline for screening luggage with bomb-detection machines. The extension was widely supported by both parties.
The Senate has yet to pass its own version of the legislation. There is no provision for extending the deadline in the Senate's working version, although Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said the baggage screening deadline may be revisited when the Senate Commerce Committee marks up her air cargo security bill in September.
Senators are scheduled to debate the homeland security bill beginning Sept. 3.
Bryon Okada, (817) 685-3853 okada@star-telegram.com
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/3791752.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
August 4, 2002 Posted: 11:06 PM EDT (0306 GMT)
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A 17-year-old Canadian passenger on a US Airways flight from Toronto was arrested for using a lighter on his shoe, authorities said.
The teen told police he was burning loose material off his tennis shoes as the plane taxied into Pittsburgh International Airport Saturday. The boy's father was seated next to him.
Authorities said the teen would not be identified because of his age. He was cited for disorderly conduct and released into the custody of his father, said Allegheny County Police Sgt. Robert Clark.
Federal authorities interviewed the boy and his father after a flight attendant found the boy flicking a butane lighter and took it away from him, Clark said.
Police met the plane at the terminal around 8 p.m. and checked the roughly 40 passengers on board, according to KDKA-TV.
"There is no such thing as a joke at an airport anymore," Clark said.
Police said the boy and his father were connecting in Pittsburgh on a flight to California, but US Airways asked them to make other travel arrangements.
In another incident, FBI agents arrested a man early Sunday for allegedly trying to pass through a security checkpoint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with razor blades in his shoes.
The man had set off a metal detector Saturday night and when he removed his shoes, as requested, four razor blades fell to the floor, airport spokesman Bob Parker said.
He told authorities the blades fell from his shirt pocket when he bent over, Parker said.
The 29-year-old's name was not released. He was being held on investigation of a state weapons charge.
An FBI agent in Seattle said no one was available to comment.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/04/shoe.arrest.ap/index.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
When Clinton left office they gave him a 21 gun salute. Its a damn shame they all missed....
IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)
rodney colson