I'm ashamed to admit that I never thought it would happen. I've heard about the development of body scanning machines for airport security, but I guess I never thought that they'd actually get deployed... the airlines, homeland security, whomever, would come to their senses. I was wrong!

Last night, a very good friend of mine flew back to home via Denver. Apparently there were several choices of security lines to pass through, and she randomly chose the one that led to the body scanner. This isn't the simple metal detector we've all passed through... annoying but reasonably impersonal. The body scanners are cameras; sensitive not to light, but radio waves or low intensity x-rays emitted by the machine. They pass beneath your clothes, reflect off your body, and the resulting full-body nude image is recorded and transmitted to a room where someone gets to look you over. I'm an engineer, not an activist, and I realize that there isn't likely to be any tissue damage due to the scanner, but that's not the point. I don't want anyone looking at me, my friend, nor my teenage daughter's nude body! (OK, I don't have a daughter, but you get the point).

My friend refused to be subjected to the body scan, and was led off to the side, still in the open, and was asked to be subjected to an 'enhanced' body search. People are looking on, some thinking she may be a criminal, others just relieved that another sheep was culled out of the herd, not themselves. The enhanced body search means a person will physically touch you, running their hands over your body, tracing your breasts, feeling your bottom, and sliding their hands up your legs until they feel resistance... you know, actually feeling your crotch. She reluctantly agreed to this (she did want to get on the plane after all), but was repeatedly asked why she didn't want to go through the scanner, and other personal questions. 45 minutes later, they finally 'frisked' their prisoner, and she was allowed to move on to the airline gates, and board the plane home.

In this country, known to some as the land of liberty, we are not required to be subjected to this sort of search. The 4th amendment to the constitution prohibits unreasonable search and seizure by federal law enforcement agents, such as the TSA, which is the newest branch of our federal government, Homeland Security. We travelers are not in the process of committing a crime, so a search is considered unreasonable, so TSA is required to ask your permission. You are not required to say yes, nor are you required to go through the body scanner. However, they will make darned sure you feel like a criminal, and most likely refuse to let you pass on to the airline gates. You will obviously not get a refund from the airline, as they aren't in control, and you will likely be placed on a no-fly list, precluding all future travel. You are presumed to be guilty, just for asserting your rights.

How did we get to this point? I don't have much issue with the idea of security, but I do have a strong issue with the evolving methods of security enforcement. The intent is to dissuade potential bombers, hijackers, and carriers of full tubes of toothpaste from getting on the plane. Security checks are probably good deterrents to anyone trying to smuggle a bomb on their person. Has a single bomber been actually caught using airport screening? Probably not... anyone going to all that trouble is likely crazy, but not completely stupid. In the process of deterring huge numbers of bombers (sure thing), we are subjecting every single innocent passenger to humiliation, embarrassment, fear, su****ion, and anxiety. Something is very wrong here... every innocent person is subjected to harassment, and there is effectively no net-positive result from the searches (no actual bomber caught).

In addition to the discomfort of every single innocent airline passenger, can you imagine working the front lines at TSA? OK, maybe some perverts actually enjoy touching embarrassed, helpless feeling passengers, telling them it's for their own good. To me, that sounds like a nightmare. I'm sure they aren't proud of their job, of the dozens of knives they've found hidden in bras (yeah, right), able to tell the difference between a colostomy bag, a menstural pad, an external catheter, or the horribly timed erection of a teenage boy. Show and tell at at your child's class must be fun, telling them that you hide in a room all day, looking at naked people for a living. I'm sure you'd be proud to tell them all how many guns you've actually found... i.e. none. My friend mentioned that the agents she encountered were visibly sympathetic to her, but were bound by the rules. Passengers feel violated, no criminals caught, TSA agents in a traumatizing job. No-one wins.

We live in the United States of America, where the constitution was written not to define the rights of the government, but the rights of the people. Our rights as citizens of this country are being abused by the department of homeland security, and I am so ashamed. We have a well defended right to travel in this country, without license, permit, or permission. We have a strongly defended right to privacy, against unreasonable search and seizure. These rights are perhaps not 'legally' violated by the TSA... you have the right to refuse to be searched, but if you want to now or ever again use this form of public transportation, you are very effectively coerced into giving up your rights to privacy and choice. Clearly that was not the intent of our founding fathers!

The current process of airline security creates fear and anxiety among the innocent, are on the verge of violating the constitution, all without catching a single bad guy. These methods are clearly wrong, and need to be abandoned in favor of methods based on a different perspective! The terrorists can take time off, as our well-intentioned government does everything it can to 'protect us', by limiting our freedom to travel, forcing each and every one of us to agree to very invasive body searches, and treating us like criminals if we resist. I love this country, but am feeling so sad for 'we the people'. We are permitted the freedom of speech... if enough of us insist our government treat us like humans, we can make things better! The next time I travel by air, I plan to stand up for my rights as I'm proud that my friend did. I hope you will as well.

 

On the other hand, if the TSA catches just one potential terrorist out of thousands of pre-flight screenings, and my daughter (who does exist) happens to be on that flight, I will be thankful for security line choices and options to be screened. If we don't like the choices, we don't need to fly. What would you sugggest?

 

Not trying to put down your post in any way Bro, but I want one of those screening jobs! But I do agree that there should be a way to do this without a full nude picture at the end! If I was a hot lookin lady, that would **** me off!

 

Hey, if a full body cavity search keeps me safe on a plane then I'm all for it! As long as I'm not on the receiving end of that one.

 

put a weapon in the magazine pouch behind every seat, yeah right next to the barf bag. that way when the "bad guy" gets up to do his no good then everybody else on the plane is ready to take action.


Jk but seriously more air marshals maybe?

how about cheaper flights for those that dont care about thier safety. of course they would have to fly in the oldest in the fleet planes and flights would take longer cause they wouldnt be allowed to fly over heavily populated areas but hey they would save a few bucks and not hassle with security. they would just have to sign a waiver saying that in the event of any trouble the pilot will aim the plane nose first into an empty field and then eject.

 

you mean your not?

it would be funny to watch TSA's faces when a tranny walks through the scanner lol

 

Unfortunately, the actions of a few have resulted in this kind of screening before being allowed to board a vehicle carrying hundreds of lives.

Sorry you don't like it. You're right, we do have freedoms and liberties. One of which is your right to not fly and be subjected to that. That's a pretty simple solution. You can choose to walk away, no one is forcing anyone to be subject to search or seizure. Take Amtrak instead. But if you want to fly, you have be checked. It's your choice, though, no one's forcing you or anyone else.

The guy that nearly blew up the plain over Chicago last Christmas had the bomb in his underwear. How else are you going to catch psychos like that? It's really the lesser of two evils. Would you prefer your friend die in an aircraft that was blown out of the air, her torn apart and ripped to shreds in the air, or be subject to a visual screening?

I'll take the screening.

 

It's the same thing as driving a car. You have to give up you 5th ammendment rights and agree to submit to a breathalyzer on demand (which may or may not incriminate you) in order to obtain a drivers license under the implied consent rules. They get away with this by calling driving a priviledge rather than a right. Same goes with flying apparently. The difference here is that there is supposed to be "probable cause" for you to have to submit to a breathalyzer. Whereas when you board a plane, you are required to submit to this invasive search before boarding, without probable cause.

If this new policy were being implemented by the TSA under the Bush Administration there would be nothing but outrage from everywhere like there was for the Patriot Act. Funny how there was so much outrage about the Patriot Act when it was signed into law by the previous administration. But when it was re-authorized and strengthened under the current Congress/Administration the outraged critics were suddenly silent on the matter.

Sorta like when everyone was anti-war when the bullets in Iraq and Afghanista had R's on them, but now that they are Democrat bullets the anti war marches stopped and everyone went back to doing bong hits.

Mike

 

Now that these scanner stories are reaching the saturation point in the media, you'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard about it by now. Nobody can claim ignorance to the rule after this week. So going forward, if you don't wish to be 'violated', don't fly. Voting with your checkbook is still the most powerful way to speak your mind in this country, so if enough of the traveling public finds this new security measure to be 'over the line', revenues will fall and (more) airlines will crumble into bankruptcy. Survival of the fittest applies to every industry in this country.

I personally have no issue with it, because if some minimum wage flunkee sitting behind the monitor somehow gets his / her jollies over seeing an x-ray image of my naked body, all I can feel for them is pity.

Who here objects when a doctor asks you to disrobe, stand in front of him totally nude while he fondles your ***** and sticks a lubed finger up your butt? And ladies, you have it even worse, with the pelvic exams, ect. Or is THAT ok because you rather be made aware of any bad health situations you have, therefore making the humiliation worth it? Why is this different? Isn't the humiliation worth not being blown out of the sky in a 500mph pressurized, flying tube?

I've seen a LOT of griping online about this, but nobody has offered a viable alternative. That's because there is no better way to screen passengers than to see everything they're carrying as they walk to their gates, and even that method isn't 100% secure. But it's closer to secure than traditional x-ray machines, where explosives and weapons are still making their way onto planes in this country. A little 'exposure' is worth it to me, because there's NO way I'm driving from Texas to Florida every time I want to visit my parents.

 

[quote=94Ninja250

Who here objects when a doctor asks you to disrobe, stand in front of him totally nude while he fondles your ***** and sticks a lubed finger up your butt? [/quote]


And we pay them for that too!!!!!