Enrique Tarrio, the Afro-Cuban Chairman of the right leaning men’s organization Proud Boys, was repeatedly harassed by TSA employees while attempting to travel to a regularly scheduled family vacation. Speaking exclusively and for the first time about the incidents to TGP, Tarrio told us that he was “aghast” and “shocked” by the harassment.
Apparently he was scheduled to travel a day earlier, but when he arrived at the airport to pick up his ticket at the ticket counter, the airline employee seemed confused and informed him that TSA was going to attempt to search his bags. However, Tarrio had not yet checked his bags, meaning that TSA was not able to legally force him to turn over his property without probable cause. Still, they asked Tarrio. He refused and set a flight for Thursday.
“I thought that the harassment was over. I was wrong,” explained Tarrio.
Unfortunately for Tarrio and his traveling party, two of which are elderly individuals who are at extreme risk of contracting COVID-19 the longer they are in the airport or traveling, the nightmare had just begun. Upon arriving for his flight, Tarrio’s bag was meticulously unpacked and his person was searched aggressively by TSA agents. When he was eventually given the all clear, things got worse. As he was heading towards his gate for departure, he saw nearly twenty TSA agents present at the gate harassing other customers, but he knew the real reason they were there was because of him.
“At the gate, they did the same exact thing. Rudely rifling through my personal belongings, inspecting and disrupting every nook and cranny. I’m a big boy, but to demean me in front of the elders in my family was beyond the pale. Plus, it put them at elevated risk of contracting COVID-19, especially given the fact that the TSA agents were swarming and surrounding us,” a horrified Tarrio said to TGP.
Then after, nearly several hours being wasted on inspecting his belongings, Tarrio and his family were finally boarding the plane, but there was one small problem… they had a connecting flight. He told us that at that point he was frustrated and saddened by the experience, but that he thought that they couldn’t possibly plan to do that at the next flight gate. Sadly but surely, they did. Wash, rinse, repeat. Nearly twenty TSA agents harassed Tarrio and his family in a show of force, letting him know that if he wants to travel as a free man in the United States, they intended on making it as difficult and miserable as possible.
“The TSA is one of the most hated and mismanaged “law enforcement” agencies in the world. It’s not the rank and file agents, who were for the most part very nice. It’s whomever sent this order from the top down to harass my family,” Tarrio concluded.
