The U.S. government has charged Samuel Tunick with allegedly typing in a passcode to wipe his phone before officers could search it. “I hope people understand that the charges against me are meant to intimidate people,” he said.
Just another example of the Trump admin trying to intimidate protestors using whatever the fuck they can to bring up whatever charges they can.
The trouble here is that this happened to him in an airport, not during a protest.
Emphasis added.
I remember reading warnings about having laptops and devices checked at airports a decade ago. As a matter of fact I think that’s why I was looking into having hidden, encrypted partitions: because getting caught with some pirate TV series on my laptop might have meant having to pay a bribe or whatever.
Regardless, it doesn’t really change my point - if there’s a chance you’re going to interact with a government official and they might want to look at your device, wiping it is going to attract attention.
Which according to mafia he has about the same rights as Fauci’s beagles. Which is what makes this case interesting. The bewigged political activists will be doing legal cartwheels to keep the “before admitted to US” scam alive.