TSA DEA?

For those of you not following: John Perry Barlow groggily packed some mary jane in an ibuprofen bottle leaving this years Burning Man festival and was busted at LAX for drug possession by the TSA. Because marijuana is highly explosive or something. Via mefi, an excellent write up of the proceedings.

The surprise witness in question was a former aviation screener who worked for a foreign military during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia….He proceeded to testify that in his extensive military experience with improvised explosive devices and with aviation security screening, he had learned and taught other people how to deal with suspected explosive devices safely.

First follow-up question: If you think a bottle contains an improvised explosive device, is it appropriate to shake it?

No, that’s almost the worst thing you can do.

Second: Is it appropriate to open the bottle?

No, that’s the worst thing you can do.

I know one person that has been called and served at trial for jury duty. Mom.

The case was as follows: Car full of kids pulls out of a the seedy alley in Frederick city and doesn’t have lights on as it does so. It is dark out. The police pulled the car over for driving at night without illumination and for some reason saw the headlights being out as a good reason to search the car. Beer was found in the trunk. The passengers and driver were under 21. Curses!

In court the kids were found not guilty because the jury decided the police didn’t have probable cause to perform the search. It made the city paper, Mom was quoted something-or-other (she was on the “this is bullshit” side of the jury) in the city paper which isn’t archived on the web or I’d linkify, and justice was served.

This whole Barlow thing is the same, only the guy caught used to write lyrics for a band called the Greatful Dead, hang out on The Well, write for a magazine called Wired, and was a cofounder of the EFF, and happens to have a few lawyer friends. Oh, and he was caught by the TSA, not some random police officer.