Here’s the live blog recap of Boing Boing reader John Brennan’s trial for taking his clothes off in protest at a TSA screening checkpoint at the Portland Airport. John was found not guilty — hurray!
10:40am — The first witness is in the case is TSA officer Steven Van Gordon, who relayed the story of Brennan opting out of the full body scanner, requiring him to walk through a metal detector and get a pat down. Brennan didn’t raise any protest when Van Gordon patted him down. But when Van Gordon tested his gloves after the pat down, the computer detected “nitrates” on the gloves and Van Gordon told Brennan he’d need additional screening. That’s when Brennan got upset and said, “I guess I have to show you that I don’t have anything” and stripped totally nude. “He whipped them off pretty fast,” said Van Gordon.
“Were you able to see his genitalia?” asked the prosecuting attorney.
“Yes,” said Van Gordon. While the TSA officers called Port police, the crew stacked plastic bins around Brennan to shield his nudity from passing passengers who’d begun pointing and taking cell phone pictures.
When port police arrived and asked Brennan to get dressed, that’s when the Naked American Hero said he was protesting and that he was protected under Oregon’s nudity laws.
The prosecutor seems to be painting the picture that Brennan wasn’t legitimately protesting because he didn’t raise any issue during the pat down and wasn’t wearing any sort of written message—like painting his chest with some words of protest—admonishing the TSA.
Portland’s “Naked American Hero” not guilty!