Traveling to New
York to appear on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Jones
had already showed his ID as he approached the metal detector. Jones and
colleague Rob Dew noticed that a large number of people across all age ranges
were not removing their shoes as they walked through the metal detector. The
x-ray body scanners were not in use.
As soon as he approached security, Jones was addressed by a
TSA screener who said, “Hello Mr. Jones,” indicating that she knew who he was,
and immediately ordered him to remove his shoes.
When Jones refused, citing the fact that innumerable other
people had not removed their shows, the TSA screener claimed that only under
12′s and over 75′s were not mandated to remove footwear under TSA policy.
When Jones contested the point, arguing that numerous
travelers in their 40′s had not removed their shoes, other TSA agents ordered
him to take off his shoes, before Jones was approached by a police officer who
immediately got in his face and started threatening him with arrest.
Despite Jones’ protests that he was clearly being
discriminated against because he was a known critic of the TSA (the rest of the
TSA screeners also knew him by name), the officer growled, “Take your damn
shoes off or I’m gonna arrest you.”
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