

We've covered Checkpoint Refusal videos before (1, 2, 3) — these are videos recorded by people who object to the DHS's internal checkpoints, where you are asked (but can refuse) to state your citizenship and allow your car to be searched — but I missed the most prolific, funniest, and weirdest checkpointer of them all: Robert Trudell.

Trudell is the clown prince of checkpoint refusers. He wears funny wigs, he sings, he refuses to talk, he sucks on helium balloons before talking, and once, he got spectacularly roughed up, all while being recorded by an astonishing array of cameras in his car.

I learned about Trudell from this week's This American Life episode: Front, (MP3) which is the best episode of TAL I've ever heard (which is saying something) and is not to be missed. Be sure and listen to the first act, about the unbelievable story of the ATF's fantastic, farcical storefront gun-stings, which has to be heard to be believed.