It finally happened. I had to fly. Honestly, I’d heard so many stories from friends and bloggers that said that they’d all but shut down the scanners that I didn’t even think I’d be faced with a decision whether to be scanned or groped. Well, my wife and I were heading home for Christmas on Sunday, and were trying to make her family’s Christmas party that evening. We got to the airport, checked our bags, got through the initial checkpoint and got to the x-ray machines. I put my stuff in the bins as usual, when all of a sudden a TSA goon pulled me aside and asked me to step into the scanner. I didn’t even have time to weigh my options. We were, as usual running a bit late, so any wrench I threw in the moronic system could potentially make us miss our flight, which would more than likely make us miss the Christmas party, which would have significant ramifications on my intimate life for who knows how long. All this went through my mind in an instant, and the decision was made just to put up with the scanner given the circumstances. As soon as I got through the scanner, my first thought (after wondering how my man parts measured up to the guys in front and back of me…) was that I felt violated at the thought that the only 3 options that were made available to me were to either:
1. Absorb what I believed to be an unhealthy level of radiation while showing some perv in a back room a much more intimate view of my junk than I would prefer.
2. Have my junk physically violated by some perv in full view of my fellow passengers. Or
3. Refuse either, and suffer the consequences of either being detained for hours or leaving the airport and being fined up to $11,000, not to mention losing the $1200+ that I’d paid for our flights.
I want to know where their warrant to search my person is. Not to mention the searching/seizure of my personal affects. Last I checked, the 4th amendment hadn’t been suspended. Here’s the full text of this sacred amendment to our constitution for those that are not familiar with it:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
That seems pretty clear to me. Couple this with the recognized right to travel within or without the country without restriction, and it seems as though our constitutional rights are being violated on a daily basis.
My personal course of action from here will be to contact my state senator and communicate my extreme displeasure over this situation. My suggestion would be that you do the same. If enough of us make ourselves heard, there will be no choice but to listen and stop this nonsense. Don’t be the frog in the pot of simmering water. Recognize the problems before it’s too late! Today the airport, tomorrow your front door.
Some people still don’t get what the big deal with the whole pat down thing is. Well here’s a site that just features pictures captured by fellow passengers looking on while their fellow law-abiding citizens are felt up, stripped, molested, etc. Look and be outraged!
Looks like the TSA’s done it again. This time they may have messed with the wrong person though. As India’s ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, was about to board a flight to Baltimore after attending an event at Mississippi State University, she was flagged as a possible terrorist and pulled out of line to be groped by Transportation Security Administration agents. Even when she presented her diplomatic pass, they still insisted that she be groped. When she asked that it be conducted in private, they took her to a glass room where she was still fully visible to those in her party. Needles to say, as humiliating as these procedures are for Americans, we tend to be far less modest than Indian culture. This was virtually an assault on Ms. Shankar’s cultural boundaries. From what she says, she will not be coming back to the US any time soon.
Interesting post from NoBlasters.com on making it through security without going through backscatter scanner or getting groped. Sounds like quite an ordeal, but in the end they refused to tell him that it was a requirement that his genital area be felt, and the Airport Police refused to arrest him unless TSA ordered him arrested, which they couldn’t legally do. Sounds like it was quite frustrating to the knuckle draggers, which brings a bit of joy to my heart.
On November 21, 2010, I was allowed to enter the U.S. through an airport security checkpoint without being x-rayed or touched by a TSA officer. This post explains how…
CNN has (amazingly enough) a decent article on whether (and how) you should shoot video at a TSA checkpoint. They even reference TSA’s blog post on the subject from last year. What i gathered from the article is this: Know your rights in and out, and worry more about the audio than the video.
According to the TSA on their blog, our attempts at an opt-out day were a miserable failure. They even have the cutest little picture of two little kids holding a “We support the TSA” poster. Just heartwarming. (and i’m sure that was in no way staged.) According to them, lines were faster than ever, and there were no problems to be found. Everyone was just as cooperative asthey could be, etc, etc.
Upon looking into it a little further, it appears that many of the scanners were turned off in an effort to pre-empt the protests. For example, NJ.com reports that the scanners were barely used on the busiest travel day of the year. If this is not the case, and the lines actually were shorter than previous years, that leaves on of two remaining possibilities. Either there were fewer travelers this year, and people opted-out by just not flying at all, or the American people are becoming sheople that just do what they’re told and don’t stand up for themselves. Let’s hope it’s the former. I personally think that quite a few people chose not to fly this year, and the TSA took measures to make sure that the Opt-Out Day appeared to be a failure. Can’t have it look like the opposition is winning. (Man, this sounds more and more like the communist countries I was brought up to disdain in the 70′s-80′s). Let’s hope enough people wake up to this creeping tyranny before it’s too late!
We want to hear your take. Was it a success, or a bust?
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
According to this article on The Hill, Big Sis says we’ll probably get the pleasure of seeing our wonderful friends at the TSA in more and more places. After all they are the Transportation Security Administration, so i guess that gives them the right to control any type of transportation.
“The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.
I say that this has to be stopped before we’re showing our papers at every fricking road block that they feel is essential for our “safety”. Isn’t that how Nazi Germany started? Enough is Enough. “Give me liberty or give me death!”
I apologize in advance for the 30 sec commercial on this one.
From CBS News: Bloggers, such as Erin Chase and John Tyner, are voicing their outrage over the implementation of genital-touching pat-downs on passengers by Transportation Security Administration… Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7061201n#ixzz16EaIpm37
Hopefully someone will be able to make something stick. The thing that makes me sick after the outright violation of rights, personal space and the unwanted sexual contact is the amount of money taxpayers will be spending to defend these idiots in court.
What esle is there to say? Evidently the TSA takes any warm body it can get. And when the pay is a little over minimum wage + the benefits of either feeling people up, or watching their nude bodies through a Naked Body Scanner, they’ve got plenty of applicants. Don’t you think that these positions would require significant, major screening? Let us know what you think about it.
