Yesterday, I was touched — in my opinion, inappropriately — by a TSA agent at LAX.
I'm not going to talk about it in detail until I can speak with an attorney, but I've spent much of the last 24 hours replaying it over and over in my mind, and though some of the initial outrage has faded, I still feel sick and angry when I think about it.
What I want to say today is this: I believe that the choice we are currently given by the American government when we need to fly is morally wrong, unconstitutional, and does nothing to enhance passenger safety.
I further believe that when I choose to fly, I should not be forced to choose between submitting myself to a virtually-nude scan (and exposing myself to uncertain health risks due to radiation exposure)1, or enduring an aggressive, invasive patdown where a stranger puts his hands in my pants, and makes any contact at all with my genitals.
When I left the security screening yesterday, I didn't feel safe. I felt violated, humiliated, assaulted, and angry. I felt like I never wanted to fly again. I was so furious and upset, my hands shook for quite some time after the ordeal was over. I felt sick to my stomach for hours.
This is wrong. Nobody should have to feel this way, just so we can get on an airplane. We have fundamental human and constitutional rights in America, and among those rights is a reasonable expectation of personal privacy, and freedom from unreasonable searches. I can not believe that the TSA and its supporters believe that what they are doing is reasonable and appropriate. Nobody should have to choose between a virtually-nude body scan or an aggressive, invasive patdown where a stranger puts his or her hands inside your pants and makes any contact at all with your genitals or breasts as a condition of flying.
I do not have the luxury of simply refusing to fly unless and until this policy changes. I have to travel dozens of times a year for work, and it simply isn't practical to travel any other way. Airlines know that I am not unique in this regard, so they have no incentive to take a stand on their customers' behalf. Our government also knows this, so our Congressmen and Congresswomen have no incentive to stand up for the rights and freedoms of their constituencies against powerful and politically-connected lobbyists like the former head of the TSA. This is also wrong.
I have to travel back into the USA next week, and I'll be back and forth between Los Angeles and Vancouver for much of the next several months. When I think about all this travel, I feel helpless, disempowered, and victimized by the airlines and the TSA … and I'm one of the lucky passengers who has never been sexually assaulted. I can't imagine what it must feel like for someone who has been the victim of sexual violence to know that they are faced with the same two equally-unacceptable choices that I faced yesterday, and will likely face whenever I fly in the future.
It's fundamentally wrong that any government can force its citizens to submit to totally unreasonable searches so we have the "freedom" to travel. It is fundamentally wrong that the voices of these same citizens are routinely ignored, our feelings marginalized, and our concerns mocked.
I don't know what we can do to change this, but we must do something. I'm writing letters to all of my congressional representatives, contacting an attorney, and reaching out to the ACLU when I get home. I am not optimistic that anything will change, because I feel like the system is institutionally biased against individuals like me … but maybe if tens of thousands of travelers express our outrage at this treatment, someone will be forced to listen.
Edit to add one more thing: I don't believe that all TSA officersare automatically bad people (though we've seen that at least some are.) For example, I recently flew out of Seattle, opted-out, and got a non-invasive, professional, polite patdown. It was still annoying, but at least my genitals weren't touched in any way, which was decidedly not the case yesterday. I realize that most TSA officers are doing the best they can in a job that requires them to interact with people who automatically dislike them and what they represent. It isn't the individual officer who is the problem; it's the policies he or she is instructed to carry out that need to change.
1. The TSA recently admitted that the amount of radiation passengers are exposed to in backscatter scanners was 10 times more than they originally claimed. The TSA claims that the scanners are still safe, but what else would we expect them to claim?
Wil, I really hope that something can come of your efforts, whatever that may be. This is one of those situations where, a few decades from now, we will look back and wonder how we could have let our government get away with such an act. Like forcibly sterilizing mentally handicapped people, or running secret syphilis tests on unsuspecting black men.
As a civil libertarian I have never liked airports. Even before the institutionalized sexual assaults (and that’s exactly what these “searches” are), airports have for many years been little police states: Take your shoes off. Let someone rifle through your private (and sometimes intimate) belongings. Watch what you say. Don’t act suspicious in any way. Don’t object to anything they want to do to you. Or else. You are presumed guilty until proven innocent.
I will probably be flying overseas towards the end of this year and I am not looking forward to it. If the TSA tries anything I will have a difficult time keeping my mouth closed and not saying something that could get me taken to a back room.
When I was a kid, I used to love flying. Then some terrorists did some bad things, and our government is making all of us pay for it. Our gov’t has the Midas touch, except instead of gold, everything they touch turns to crap.
Are the maintenance records being made public? Are they being maintained by properly trained radiological personnel?
Once the new procedures were put in place I ceased taking optional flights.
Thankfully I have not yet had to fly so I have no first hand experience with what is happening in our airports.
Your blog entry, however, makes a few things very clear.
Wil, what you were put through was wrong.
How you were made to feel is unforgivable.
The actions of the TSA agent should be counted as criminal.
The radiation may be a small dose, but it is NOT spread out through the volume of your body, but rather all focused on the surface of the skin (and most of that is focused at the top of the head). The kind of radiation we get while up in the airplane, and other common natural radiation, is distributed throughout the body and therefore, dose-for-dose, less harmful to any one particular spot. The comparison between the radiation scanees receive and that received while actually flying isn’t a fair one.
I went through the same situation, and refused to be put through the scanner (less because of fear of radiation, and more because of data security and privacy.) What I didn’t have the presence of mind to do is ASK THE TSA AGENT TO CHANGE HER GLOVES. God only knows where they had been before they were inside my underwear.
I felt humiliated, violated, angry, and also had that awful skin creepy crawly sensation you get when you talk about ants or crabs. :/
Wil, you are a hero for posting this.
The pat downs are none other than sexual assault. The infuriating part about this whole thing is, you have a choice between nude pictures taken of you or sexual assault, but the TSA has not caught A SINGLE TERRORIST. In fact, terrorists have managed to get on planes and the people who always take them down are the great citizens on the plane who take action. We’re being sexually harassed and assaulted for NOTHING. They say it’s for our security, but if so, how is it that a gun was found in a Tulsa airport bathroom this week…behind security checkpoints?
I urge you to be optimistic about filing against the TSA. You’re a celebrity. This will make the news. There are millions of Americans who will support you in this. I don’t know of too many other things right now that infuriate the American population as a whole more than the TSA. Fight the good fight! We’re behind you!
By definition, Sexual Assualt is, “any type of sexual behavior or contact where consent is not freely given or obtained, and it is accomplished through force, intimidation, violence, coercion, manipulation, threat, deception, or abuse of authority.” (1)
Your experience, and reaction afterwards, matches that description, as well as the common reactions of persons who have been sexually assualted.
I honestly cannot imagine what going through that was like, and I am truely sorry it happened to you. What the TSA is doing is – as you noted – completely and utterly wrong. I can only hope and pray that the shared experiences of people such as yourself will lead to the TSA’s policy (or even the agency itself) being shut down.
On a more helpful note, Amtrak has a daily train from LA to Seattle (the Coast Starlight – http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Route_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241245648567), where one can easily pop onto another train to Vancouver, B.C. (Amtrak Cascades – http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Route_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241245667297). The trip is notably longer, but much more comfortable, dignified, and cheeper to boot. Somthing to look in to?
(1)http://theresurgence.com/2010/11/01/what-is-sexual-assault
We have to travel by air for a wedding in August. I’m not as worried for me as I am for my 7 year old daughter. How the hell am I supposed to explain that this stranger groping her is okay? (especially when its not). I want to puke at the thought of it… Terrified.
Also, http://wewontfly.com is a good resource for anti- scope-or-grope people.
This is one of the reasons I haven’t been to the US in a few years, despite really wanting to visit some of your wonderful cities and landscapes and see some friends again. First, US authorities introduce more and more red tape for foreign travellers and then they do it even to their own people.
Even before this huge security theatre started I was never made feel welcome by US airport/customs/immigration staff, I just felt like an annoyance to them and as if I was a potential criminal. Once, in Atlanta, one TSA guard even put his hand on the butt of his weapon when I dared question an instruction politely. This, incidentally, was the last time I was in the US.
Good luck with your endeavours!
I’ve heard quite a few people brag about “crotching” pot and other substances many times and being able to fly no problem. This, of course, was in the past, before the high tech X-Rays and the extreme “pat downs” (heh, yeah right) they are giving now days.
I hate that they do this too, I’m just saying that I can understand why they are doing this to a small degree.
Now, the question if carrying pot or illegal substances onto an airplane is putting anyone else in danger other than the person carrying it is a completely different matter. Yes, the person is an idiot and is risking a lot, but you can’t blow up an airplane with a bag of grass.
I just had to point this out because I’ve heard about it so much in the last 10 years.
I feel very sorry for you. I hope you guys in the U.S. will be able to make a change. I can’t remember to have been searched so rude even in times of socialism in Germany and Bulgaria. I can’t even imagine how it would feel like to have to travel to work and back home again under such circumstances. You’ve got my most honest compassion. I hope you can hold on and will be able to change something together with your countrymen.
Sorry, but it is unfortunately not that simple. Yes, the 4th should protect against this type of abuse, but no bit of the Constitution applies if you voluntarily waive your specific rights. And if you fly, you have. Your contract of carriage with the airlines is where you will find that you have done this. Much like a software EULA, you have to read the fine print.
The only way this changes is when the airlines and the airport operators stand up for their passengers. And the only way that happens is if it becomes financially beneficial for them to do so. Unfortunately, Wil is right that he just doesn’t have the luxury of not flying. His only choice would be to use charter/private flights (which still have screening, but not as much). But most of the rest of us can refuse. I have stopped flying along the East Coast, driving to Boston and Florida instead (or taking the train). And I am writing snail mail letters to the airlines when I do to remind them that they are actually losing 4 customers every time I do this.
Unfortunately I’m going to have to fly from where I live in Arizona, to Florida for an internship over the summer, and then back before the start of the fall semester. I’m not sure if either of the airports on each end (Phoenix Sky Harbor and Fort Lauderdale) have these enhanced procedures in place, but I will be researching that, and I intend to have lawyers on-call at each end.
I also plan on coming up with plenty of subtle strategies for completely trolling the system—not so overtly as to just get them mad at me, but enough to make them feel some degree of personal discomfort as a result. (Taking Viagra before going through the full-body scanner or wearing a cup and jock strap may or may not be on the preliminary list of options.)
The behavior of the TSA and its agents is outrageous and deplorable and it needs to stop. But, if you’ve got the time, you can apparently bypass the whole ordeal. This guy did: http://noblasters.com/post/1650102322/my-tsa-encounter
Should I be required to fly while the TSA is still on the rampage (heaven forbid), I think I’ll schedule my flight so that I can do this.
I would love to see how the radiation dosage from the machines, which is supposedly safe, compares to the radiation dosages that the workers in Japan received.
Many people don’t seem to realize that if you feel you have been touched inappropriately by a TSA agent you can find a police officer and file an official police complaint. The TSA is NOT law enforcement and its agents are no more allowed to assault someone in the name of “safety” than a person off the street. While filing a police report may not lead to immediate legal action against the person involved, it does create a paper trail and if everyone who felt the way Wil describes did this every time they flew, the issue should become too large to ignore.
I encourage anyone who feels violated in this way to seek out a police officer, just as you would if you were attacked by a stranger. You also have the legal right to request to have a police officer present during your search, which may subdue the agents somewhat.
Ben Franklin’s quote has never been so true as now: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Well said. That’s exactly what terrorism is, not destruction or mass-murder but actions that lead to paranoia and make targets turn on each other.
It is also unnecessarily painful for those who have medical issues that leave them in wheelchairs or with any kind of physical appliances. I traveled with a woman who had a brace from knee surgery whose incision site was examined every time we went through security – it was painful and difficult for her. We could not understand how someone in a wheelchair wearing a knee brace could pose such a threat that her still red and angry and painful incision site scar needed to be physically prodded.
There is nothing in our security measures that cannot be thwarted by the clever or criminally minded. Those who are determined do not consider the humiliation of their fellow humans at all when planning action.
Please keep us posted. Best of everything.
I don’t even have a choice. I’ve had a pacemaker since late 2004 and all subsequent flights have had to receive a pat down. Luckily, nothing terribly invasive so far but I have not flown since July so when it comes time to fly again in either June (Toronto) or October (D.C.) we’ll see how aggressive it gets. I’m sorry you had to go through this :/
The current SCotUS is a disaster for civil rights.
Shocking treatment, but I hear of it all the time. The ridiculous thing is that despite the high cost and violation of people’s privacy the measures have not been proven to work and improve security in any way. They were trialled and then implemented nationwide without the trial being properly analysed. Even ignoring the implications to your rights this is madness. As a UK Citizen who would one day love to visit the US this sure puts me off.
Wil I wholeheartedly hope you do everything you can to fight against this. And you should know you are not alone. A little research on this reveals sites full of people who have been violated. The more people complain the better the chance of things changing. If there’s one lesson we can all take from the middle east/north africa it is that people have power!
The TSA is a jobs program for people with authority complexes who are too dumb to graduate from a police academy. They do nothing but absorb taxpayer money and serve as a way of getting kickbacks into the corporations who manufacture the scanner equipment. And no politician in their right mind will touch them because they’re terrified of appearing “weak on terror”. The entire thing is infuriating.
It has gotten to the point now where I will (and have) driven the 1,100 miles up to my parents place to visit rather than fly.
The only reason the airlines have no incentive to stop this is because it is the government that is illegally doing it for them. If they used private security to screen passengers, there is no way in hell they would get away with this.
The reason I say the government is doing it illegally, is because the people of the United States have the right to travel interstate unmolested. Yes, I used the word “right”. The right to travel using common modes of transportation was recognized as a fundamental human right in British common law, long before our Constitution was formed. Nearly every state in the union still recognizes that body of common law.
Here is what the Supreme Court has said about it in the past (emphasis mine):
“… we need not identify the source of [the right to travel] in the text of the Constitution. The right of free ingress and regress to and from neighboring states which was expressly mentioned in the text of the Articles of Confederation, may simply have been conceived from the beginning to be a necessary concomitant of the stronger Union the Constitution created.” — Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489 (1999)
“It [travel] is a right that has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized.” — U.S. v Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966)
“… it [travel] is a right broadly assertable against private interference as well as governmental action. Like the right of association, … it is a virtually unconditional personal right, guaranteed by the Constitution to us all.” — US Justice Stewart in his concurring opinion, Shapiro v Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969)
Yes, you read that right. The Supreme Court has stated that the right to travel — particularly between the states — is a “virtually unconditional right“. Political historians note that while the Articles of Confederation contained an explicit right to travel, the framers of the Constitution probably thought it was so ridiculously obvious that they did not feel that including it in the Constitution was necessary.
I SO want someone to go, “Mmm, yes, higher. That’s it, scratch that itch, baby! Damn you’re good!” at the top of their voice when they’re being fondled. In fact, everybody should do it or some variation thereof because they can’t arrest a whole security queue.
Come to england; your choice is be scanned or don’t fly. Theres no optional molestation or friendly fisting. Simply expose yourself to radiation, what ever your age, health, feelings or leave the airport.
Apparently thats fair, if you dont like it your obviously a terrorist with something to hide.
The joys of living in an era where the government is there to please private lobby groups, and big business at the expense of our rights.
Quite ironic that we in the UK ended up with most of this crap because half of the world doesnt like the US 😐
If they did that right now, Dangerous Leanings, the current court would just rule in favor of the TSA. I’m honestly kind of hoping that there can be some kind of non-court resolution to the problem, though I can’t honestly think how there ever will be.
Hey Wil,
Been following you on twitter for a while now and am a fellow farker also. You’ve touched on something I genuinely feel really strongly about here.
First off, I understand that you feel violated.
You should.
These assholes are doing nothing to increase safety for travelers. In fact they are actually increasing the health risk to traveler’s with their backscatter devices.
As you pointed out, the devices are producing ten times the radiation they said they would. The thing is, the figures for “safe” exposure are in comparison with high penetration xray exposure. The difference is that backscatter radiation only hits the surface of a subject. The thing you have to realize is this; the amount of dangerous exposure is MUCH greater because the exposure is concentrated on the surface instead of penetrating through the volume of the body. Think of it being like taking the same quantity of radiation, and concentrating it all to a much smaller area of effect. You magnify the effect dramatically as a result.
Of course, you’re probably thinking what expertise do I have in this area? Honestly, you don’t know me from Adam. Well, my background is in computer engineering for hardware and in thin film deposition using high energy sputtering particle guns. So yeah, I happen to know a thing or two about radiation. No amount of additional exposure to radiation is “safe”. Unneeded exposure is precisely that, unneeded. Do you go in for unneeded surgery? Of course not. There are risks to any exposure, and the government is actually increasing the risk of skin and other cancers for people for no good reason.
That said, I know you have responsibilities that require flying. I’d suggest you talk to the ACLU on this and get other people you know to demand that the TSA be abolished. It’s long past time that people stopped sitting idly by and just letting the TSA run roughshod over them. I know that Jeri Ryan has complained on twitter about this too. Talk to her, get others in Hollywood to start coming out and demanding action. The public needs a clear cut cause that they can line up behind. The goal should be nothing less than the destruction of the TSA, root and branch.
I don’t know if you’ve read about it, but even the man who helped create the TSA (John Mica) has come forward and called for the TSA to be reined in.
In an open letter he urged private air ports to kick the TSA out of the airports and install their own security and ignore the TSA’s intrusive search procedures. In it he called the TSA a Kabuki theater. That it does nothing but give the illusion that the government is trying to do something. The end result is that extra expenses are being created, travel is slowed, and Good honest Americans like yourself are being illegally searched and detained because some idiots get their rocks off on the power they’ve been given.
Me, I think that we need to start demanding that local laws make the TSA illegal, and that police be instructed to take complaints against the TSA, arrest their agents, and throw them in jail and refuse to cooperate with federal agents who seek to undo such practices. Do this a few hundred times, arrest all their agents, fine the living hell out of them and they’ll not have anyone to man the TSA posts, and we can return to just flying like normal people.
All that aside, if you’re interested, there’s a facebook group that keeps people updated about the latest news on the TSA. http://www.facebook.com/wontfly
Sorry Wil, you’re taking a Conservatwit mentality here. Let’s set some facts straight:
There are no nude scans being taken. An embossed image of you is not a nude picture. Your features and details are not identifiable. If it was truly nude, there would already be a Playboy segment showing all the hottest female celebrity “airport nudes!” Hasn’t happened, huh?
The radiation fears have been dismissed countless times. You know bananas and much of the rest of the food you eat is irradiated, right? You get more radiation from eating a banana.
You’re right they don’t have a right to touch you inappropriately, but how did you determine that? They felt your crotch? Name another way to guarantee you have no underwear of doom on, as has been attempted. The guy touching you is no more into it than you are. Where’s the outrage over your doctor? They see you ACTUALLY nude, and even handle your most intimate parts. Why is this not an outrage? Can’t doctors respect your privacy, do their jobs with you fully clothed? Obviously not- just like the TSA needs to pat you down & use scans.
I haven’t flown since 9/11 because at first we did nothing to improve safety. Now we’re finally being vigilant, and I can’t fly because of people like you overreacting. If you have to step into a room nude and get an orifice check to fly, it’s worth more than me blowing up because you are prudish or whining about imagined rights. Because of the fearmongering, I can’t visit my family in another state, because the authorities are doing a half-assed job worried about offending people.
You say you have to fly… Then you have to follow the rules to keep us ALL safe.
Until there’s a better way, we have to sacrifice some freedoms on some occasions.
*edited for iPod damnyouautocorrect errors)
I was groped last year by TSA when I had been pulled aside for the “random pat-down” and kindly asked the agent to not hover the wand over my defibulator — which she kept doing I guess thinking there was a bomb in my collar bone/shoulder? I had forgot my medical ID proving it was there, even though I pulled my collar aside to show the scars and she told me it didn’t matter and took me to another area for the more extensive groping. It took me like 20 minutes to get through and this was at a very small town airport with no body scanners!
It was horrible and the gals I was traveling with encouraged me to file a lawsuit or at least consult a lawyer, which I didn’t since I forgot my card.
I hate TSA and try not to travel anymore. If ever a class action lawsuit were in order it should be soon!
I hope you feel better Wil. I got over it and just think back on it bitterly now. Just remember that you are better than them: more educated, more worldly and just a plain, better person, darn it!
This is an important issue and more people to need speak out. One thing that I feel you stated well is that this is an issue with an institution and its rules instead of focusing on the specific agent committing the act.
These searches don’t only affect the passengers, but also the thousands of white collar TSA agents who are forced by their employer to inappropriately touch or view individuals of the same sex and children. Image if you went to work one day, and your boss tells you “New company policy, you now have to grope peoples genitals for 8 hours a day. If you don’t comply then your fired”. In a down economy where finding a new job is extremely difficult, this puts a lot of hard working Americans in a bad situation.
I would not be able to live with the guilt of having to subject people to these acts, and I am guessing most TSA workers feel the same way. They are just trying to provide for their families.
Hopefully people understand that this is not the TSA workers fault and place the blame on them, or worse retaliate towards them.
This is why I don’t fly any more. I used to fly regularly, but stopped because the TSA ruined every trip. Since I do not have to travel for work, I bought an Airstream instead and now do my traveling to parks in and around California.
Alas, you don’t have this option, which I have found to be excellent.
Considering the TSA doesn’t even pass its own tests for stopping explosives, guns and contraband from getting past the scanners and screeners, I fail to see how you can possibly believe that sexually assaulting random passengers in any way qualifies as a reasonable “security measure” or actually makes anyone safer.
Travel != “fly”.
Nothing is stopping anyone from traveling. There is NO “right to fly”.
I loved that bit.
Several of these things will get you arrested. And believe it or not, _they_ can charge _you_ for sexual harassment if you do such things, even though legally speaking you can’t charge them for it because you agreed to it as part of buying your ticket.
What really gets me is how ineffective the whole deal is.
I’ve been through security on two separate occasions with a knife I’d forgotten I had on me to no effect whatsoever. I carried a folded knife with a 5 inch blade through the airport without *anybody* (including myself) knowing it until I was past the checkpoint and reached for a snack at which point I knew better even than to confess or I’d be “detained”.
75% of penetration tests on federal security checkpoints resulted in false negatives when they audited them.
The backscatter testing is *not* using the amount of radiation they claimed it was, nevermind whether it’s a safe amount or not. Unless you have the time and the testing equipment to verify *every* scan is a safe amount, the fact that even the creators of the machine can’t actually be certain of the amount is a problem.
Moreover, the backscatter machines admittedly will *not* find what they’re looking for. We already know that there are groups who intend to stuff their bodies with explosives and use themselves as a bomb which means the backscatter machine will see a naked person and the plane will blow up anyway.
The *effective* security measures worldwide look nothing like ours. The whole security theater of the TSA is for it’s chilling effects on national discourse and the freedom to travel, there simply isn’t any other explanation after realizing that even the TSA knows that their measures are not working for their stated purposes.
I’ve read articles of this type several times. Teh TSA continues the argument, “when you buy a ticket, you are accepting these terms… otherwise, don;’t buy a ticket”
I also find it amusing that TSA claims this is for security, yet, it seems EVERY YEAR some YOUNG TEENAGER with NO agenda other than to prove ha can sneaks EVERY ILLEGAL ITEM on their list onto an airplane. The TSA responds by throwing the kid into prison, “We have our own Security testing measures”. Well after 10 years, and 14 year olds still easily able to violate them AND NEVER WOULD’VE GOTTEN CAUGHT – but they inform them of it b/c that was the whole point, you’d think those measures don’t work!!
(What you experienced is intolerable, and I commend you for speaking out. My anecdote, thankfully, isn’t related to inappropriate practices, but rather the failure within the TSA itself.)
During my last flight, one TSA agent was scanning laptops with a wand device. A supervisor told them they could perform random checks, improving efficiency but still deterring potential troublemakers.
The employee said “This is just how I do it”, ignored their superior’s instructions and continued to open and swipe every single one.
Why is blatant insubordination tolerated within their organization? And if the people in charge can’t gain the respect of their own staff, how can they expect any from us?
Wil, thank you so much for bringing this up!! My 70-year-old mom not only had a similar experience recently, but on her way from Denver to Minneapolis (not even international) she was actually forced into a pat-down line, when she would have been fine with the X-ray, then had to be escorted into a private room for a More Invasive pat-down only to be told that the lotion on her hands had probably set off something (!). On her trip from Minneapolis to Denver, she had to endure BOTH the X-ray AND the pat-down. Both times she was in tears by the time she got out of security. How, exactly, does making a 70-year-old Grandmother cry make travel safer for the rest of us?
I’m incredibly glad I’ve only had to fly out of smaller airports since this new policy’s been started. I’m one of those lucky ones who can refuse to fly, so I don’t plan on getting on a plane for a while (unless I go to Europe, in which case I’ll convince my parents to let me fly out of Canada or something).
I don’t know if you’re familiar with AngryAussie at all, he’s done a lot of rant videos on youtube about the subject, and he found an article about the reason the airport in Jerusalem has such great security when they have none of the invasive methods/policies that we do in the US.Basically the TSA fails at actual safety because they just care about looking like they’re doing something, whereas real, successful security is very hard to see.
You shouldn’t have had to go through that. Nobody should.
I just want to put my two cents in – first of all as a person who has had a pacemaker implanted since 1982 (I’m on my third) I have always been patted down, never minded even as a kid due to the fact it was a woman patting me down and I am a female also. I, myself, would rather go through the X-ray or metal detector anyday, not because of not wanting to get patted down (not a problem for me and yes I have been sexually assulted in my past) but because of time wasted waiting for a “female assist” to pat me down. I have had the new pat down and truth be told it’s not much different from the old one. There was a time that it took almost 15 minutes to get a female assist to me to pat me down.
I have never felt assulted or uncomfortable over anyway they have touched me – except when one asked me about my shirt (I am a writer at heart) and it said “Ask me about my book.” And the agent asked me if it was the Bible. And this woman wasn’t even who was patting me down, but who checked my ID. I was more offened that someone would just assume my religious beliefs might be the same as theirs then the pat down, but I didn’t think that of her as a TSA agent, more as just a woman who doesn’t think.
I do understand why someone might be uncomfortable being patted down, but take it from me, who has been having it done since she was about 7 years old (I’m in my mid thirties) and I fly anywhere from 2 to 10 times a year, it never has been a big deal to me.
Honestly, I feel people should complain if they feel this way, but for me it was never a problem. Most people have very few x-rays in their life time (again myself has had probably 400 plus chest x-rays, not including CAT scans and other full body scans for medical reasons) and the amount of raditation that the machine gives off is so little that unless you are working next to it, flying everyday all day long like in “Up In The Air” or work as a X-ray tech, I doubt you will ever come close to the amount of radition I had just in the first 4 years of my life.
Now before anybody starts on me about not agreeing with Wil, I do agree, some of the agents are not nice about it, there are rude ones, ones who over step their “power level” just like in any field, but if this keeps my family safe, my friends safe and myself safe, I am all for it. My sister and her husband lived in New York City during 9-11 and she worked in a building that held abig Media outlet and Anthrax was found in her building after 9-11, therefore I am for protecting my family and friends.
I believe there should be better training of the TSA agents, I believe there should be other ways to “go through security” if you don’t like the idea of the pat down or the x-ray or scan. I have looked into getting the security clearence where you pay a fee every year to be able to skip the security line due to a special ID, I don’t fly enough to make it worth my while and truth be told most my flights are on Southwest so I’m not too worried about anything bad happening on my flight (well accept a whole in the roof) but truth be told, I think flying is very safe today, I will keep flying if I need to, due to traving from one side of the country to the other by car is really not an option, but in the end, I have never had a problem with the pat downs.
You live in a world where misandry runs rampant and hardly anyone cares, where we are exposed to dangerous toxins in our environment, and we eat food that is extremely harmful to our bodies.
All of it because it’s profitable for *someone else*.
Are you surprised?
Just realized that my comments could be a little misconstrued (serves me right for commenting while sleepy).
To be more clear, what I was trying to say is that in TSA’s mind, they have many justifiable reasons for doing these searches.
I think we can all agree that some random jerks sneaking drugs on an airplane is not just cause for security officers to sexually assault you. They should just stick to drug sniffing dogs.
Wil, if you’re flying into the USA next week, will you have to go through all the same security crap from a Canadian Airport? I doubt it.
I’m so sorry that happened,Wil.I refuse to fly myself,and I have the luxury of being able to do so,since I don’t travel often,but when my sister was planning to fly over the holidays,I was upset about the scanning procedures.My sister is 17 and,to be blunt,very attractive,and doesn’t realize how much attention she gets from older men.I was very unhappy with the idea of my baby sister being body-scanned or patted down,but fortunately,she went through the regular scanners,not the backscatter ones.I feel like if this is what we have to go through to be safe–and if,before this,people were okay with being made to take off their shoes and belts and hand over their Aquafina and unwrap their Christmas presents–we’re so scared of terrorism that our counter-terrorism measures are defeating the purpose;we’re so scared,we’re sacrificing our dignity.I don’t want to use the the-terrorists-have-won cliche,but really,at this point I’d rather take the risk than go through TSA.
This is going to sound dumb,but when I saw your Tweet it bothered me for the rest of the day,because I started wondering how your family feels about this and how I’d feel if it happened to someone I cared about.If you were to rally your fanbase and the Internet in general,I’d sure as heck go along with some kind of campaign,because this is ridiculous.
I don’t fly anymore. Luckily I don’t do anything which might require travel for work. And I am sad that my limited time off which used to make for awesome pax weekends… well, I no longer get to go. Too far away to drive or take a train. Until buying a plane ticket is no longer a criminal act I will be trapped right where I am. Learning not to be a shut in nerd is not worth the ptsd triggers and flashbacks.
Re: Being given the choice between an xray full body scan and being inappropriately touched by a stranger.
A recent article posted on CNN’s website reveals the lack of consensus among doctors about whether the xrays are safe, the amount of radiation being dosed, and the reliability of the calibrations being done. Frankly if my choice in expertise on radiation doses is a cancer doc at MD Anderson or “Dr Drew”, I am going with the actual expert in his field (hint: It is not Drew Pinsky). As the article mentions, radiation is cumulative. So we get a little radiation every time we fly, we are exposed to background radiation constantly, maybe we have a high radiation level in the soil where we live and garden. Then there is a bit of a nuclear accident in Japan and we get a bit more. Cumulatively, probably no big deal. Just try not to get cancer, because a lot of cancer treatments involve large doses of medical radiation to kill tumors. Except you already have accumulated quite a bit through the years. Well, hope you don’t get it until you are old.
I cannot imagine the horror of travelling with a child – what a choice to be given.
Honey, would you like another little dose of radiation, or to have me tell you that all that stuff we told you about “bad touch” doesn’t apply if the government says it is required?
If I sound a bit bitter, I live in Alaska. Not an option to leave here except flying. I am moving to the south 48 this summer so I will have the option of driving or taking a train to a lot of my potential destinations and will not be required to have my constitutional rights violated with no other recourse.
I don’t. But neither can I imagine such a policy that doesn’t involve invasive and upsetting methods, because fundamentally, that’s how explosives, guns and contraband are found, and they need to be found. I don’t blame the government for this as much as the 19 guys who took advantage of a more liberal security environment to commit unprecedented atrocities.
Believe me, I’m not thrilled about the choice between a relatively untested radiological device and a procedure which is legitimately upsetting to vulnerable groups of people and victims of genuine abuse. I’m very, very open to new ideas. But until someone comes up with one, I have a hard time not seeing this as the lesser of two evils.
When will we as Americans stand up and say enough is enough? I left my job because I was over the traveling. I too had to travel in and out of a popular airport. I thought the TSA agents rude,pushy and all around…. not nice people(won’t say the bad word I’m thinking),and they worked in the airport in and out of “The happiest place on earth”
To answer another point you made. I was sexually abused as a young girl. As an adult now if it ever happened to me. TSA would have a lawsuit after the fact and I’d scream bloody murder as it was happening. NO ONE has a right to touch me, period!
I know this story is old now (from ’02) might give you some insight on what little has been done (sadly) and what you may be able to do!
http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/penniphile/roadpennfederalvip.html