In BOS, a male screener told me there was a 'very long wait' for a female screener and it 'would be better' to let him do it. I told him I would wait and that he should put my things where I could see them. He asked me which belt they were on. I was stupid and pointed. He then moved to stand so that I couldn't see the belt at all and kept repeating that it 'would be better' to let him screen me. I told him that if he got one inch closer, I would scream my head off...he backed down and eventually a female came. I tried to file a complaint, but never got any response. A (rather small-busted) friend told me that a male TSA at BOS tried to frisk her, shouting that she couldn't possibly be female. No idea whether it was the same guy or whether she filed a complaint.Sure, if everyone is super-professional about this, then it wouldn't be so bad. But here we have low-paid idiots running around harassing people and then groping them.
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We were flying from Nashville to Orlando to go to Disney for my son's birthday. My son is 9 years old. Nashville has installed the new backscatter scanners, aka "naked" scanners. Now I am not a modest person and for me myself I don't care. To be honest, I had not given it much thought. We were given no option to opt out of the scans that I could see, no signage or instructions. I later found out you can opt out and choose the pat down instead. Well, we all three went through the machine. Husband and I were fine. They scanned the kid and then informed us they had to pat him down. I asked why, they said he moved. So I am thinking run of the mill pat down, wand over his body and light touch. He is 9 years old for the love of Pete but that was not the case. Had anyone but a physician doing a necessary medical exam touched my child in the places the TSA agent put his hands, I would have filed charges. He groped the inside of his legs and touched his genitals. He put his hands around my son's neck in a choking position, felt all the way down his chest area and his buttocks. He placed his hands inside my son's pants waist band and felt around his waist. The agent was loud and intimidating even for me, a 36 year old women. He barked at him to "hold up your pants" and "spread your legs, shoulder width." All I could think was my son looked like he was being frisked and how humiliating this was for him to be stared at by everyone as they passed by us. Now, this whole scenario was out in the open, we were not given the option of privacy. My son was scared and humiliated. I am not a momma hen or a wacko and we fly regularly and have never minded the security measures needed but this was a shocking experience. Shocking enough for us to forgo air travel (which we have always loved) until these new security rules change and come closer to something akin to reason. And yes, we have contacted the authorities and other to complain about this situation. We also contacted the airline to tell them why we were cancelling and to let them know that these kinds of things will impact their business. To each his own and all are free to travel as they like but I am not convinced treating my child like a prison inmate progressed the cause of national security one iota.
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Today when flying from Boston Logan to BWI my 17 year old daughter had quite an unpleasant experience due to the new scanner malfunctioning. There was some confusion of whether there was a scan or not. She was told that she needed to submit to a full pat down after being told "it did not scan" . She was told she would need a pat down. Being 17 she had no idea what that meant and how intense a full detailed full body pat down can be. Even when she began to cry, the TSA agent continued the pat down. My daughter felt molested and humiliated and as a parent I was helpless to stop this violation. Also, the gentleman behind her had a full body pat down which leads me to believe the machine was not working for anyone. However his pat down was not as intense as my daughters. My daughter who is a seasoned traveler and even visited Israel this summer has never experienced such extreme searches If they were to have asked her the reason for her visit, as they do in other countries, they would have learned she was no threat and was merely on a college visit to MIT. As a parent, I have serious concerns that such a search would be done on a 17 year old minor.
After a 15-year-old girl came forward claiming Charles Henry Bennett, 57, touched her inappropriately when she was 12, deputies said he was arrested early Friday and booked into the Orange County Jail.The fact that these kinds of searches are being done is going to attract perverts to the job.
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Bennett’s apparent MySpace page says Bennett wants to meet “submissive females” and is a swinger who is a master of BDSM.
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.I'm pretty sure a little guy named Ghandi said something along the same lines.
And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement.
Next time you fly, ask the ticket desk if your child under 12 years old was randomly selected to be screened with a pat-down or hand-held metal detector. If a code is on your child's boarding pass, ask to be deselected, which could mean no search...I suppose that doesn't help with security systems that use pornoscanners and everybody gets pat-downs, but perhaps good advice nonetheless.
EPIC has filed a lawsuit to suspend the deployment of body scanners at US airports, pending an independent review. On July 2, 2010, EPIC filed a petition for review and motion for an emergency stay, urging the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) full body scanner program. EPIC said that the program is "unlawful, invasive, and ineffective." EPIC argued that the federal agency has violated the Administrative Procedures Act, the Privacy Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Fourth Amendment. EPIC cited the invasive nature of the devices, the TSA's disregard of public opinion, and the impact on religious freedom.posted by scody at 6:50 PM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan. . . . Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000.Surely this will convince people that the TSA is on our side. First the grope, and then the probe.
• A) The large population of older travelers, >65 years of age, is particularly at risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology ofSo, not really that much to worry about unless you are over 65, or a child/adolescent, or pregnant, or immunocompromised, or possibly if you have breasts or testicles. Also, it may not be that great for those with corneas, thymus, or white blood cells. Especially if TSA agents ramp up the resolution to get the best possible image of your hot/funny-looking/suspicious bod. But we can probably trust them not to do that, right?
melanocyte aging.
• B) A fraction of the female population is especially sensitive to mutagenesis provoking
radiation leading to breast cancer. Notably, because these women, who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms, are particularly prone to cancer, X-ray mammograms are not performed on them. The dose to breast tissue beneath the skin represents a similar risk.
• C) Blood (white blood cells) perfusing the skin is also at risk.
• D) The population of immunocompromised individuals--HIV and cancer patients (see above) is likely to be at risk for cancer induction by the high skin dose.
• E) The risk of radiation emission to children and adolescents does not appear to have been fully evaluated.
• F) The policy towards pregnant women needs to be defined once the theoretical risks to the fetus are determined.
• G) Because of the proximity of the testicles to skin, this tissue is at risk for sperm mutagenesis.
• H) Have the effects of the radiation on the cornea and thymus been determined?
"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747," Rafi Sela told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada.It's obvious that this man is soft on terror, the question is, does groping go far enough? I think TSA-administered colonoscopies are simply the responsible thing to do if we're going to keep Americans safe from terror.
"That's why we haven't put them in our airport," Sela said, referring to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world.
"To undergo the scan, which utilizes backscatter technology, passengers step between two booths, turn to the side, and raise their hands above their heads. A slightly blurred black and white image of the traveler’s body pops up on a screen viewed by a Transportation Security Administration agent in a separate location.Most/many of the U.S. airports are using the Rapiscan Secure 1000 Single Pose scanners.
If something out of the ordinary is detected, the agent radios the TSA worker at the scanner to have the passenger searched. For privacy reasons, the agent with the passenger never sees the passenger’s image, and the agent viewing the image never sees the passenger. The process takes less than 20 seconds."
"[Boston's] Logan Airport will be the nation's first airport to get new technology in response to invasion of privacy complaints from travelers.posted by ericb at 7:09 AM on November 18, 2010
The scanner shows a stick figure instead of a naked body.
A box then surrounds any questionable item on the person."
Airline passengers aren’t the only ones complaining about the Transportation Security Administration’s new enhanced security procedures. Many TSA employees aren’t too happy, either.I have a hunch that this is where things are going to continue to get worse for the TSA (well, that and the metric boatload of lawsuits that are either already underway or in the works). If you have a public that is increasingly refusing to submit to the procedures plus a workforce that is increasingly feeling at risk for performing those procedures, then what?
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents TSA workers, is urging the TSA to do more to protect its employees from abuse from airline passengers angry over the new security methods. The union reports that some members "have reported instances in which passengers have become angry, belligerent and even physical with TSOs (transportation security officers). In Indianapolis, for example, a TSO was punched by a passenger who didn’t like the new screening process," the union said in a Nov. 17 statement posted on its website.
Immediately after the launching of the “National Opt-Out Campaign” by Washington grassroots lobbyist and “ordinary citizen” Brian Sodergren, Rep. Mica sent out letters to the heads of at least 100 airports across America advising them to “opt out” of the government-funded TSA program and hand over the job to private contractors. [Emphasis mine.] One of the first airports to sign on to Rep. Mica’s privatization program, Orlando’s Sanford Airport, happens to lie in Rep. Mica’s district. The airport also happens to be a client of Rep. Mica’s daughter, D’Anne Mica, who is listed as a partner in two lobbying/PR firms consulted by Sanford Airport. One of Ms. Mica’s PR firms,“Grasshopper Media,” boasts of its “history of success in organizing strategic and comprehensive grassroots campaigns.” In other words: Astroturfing.posted by kipmanley at 6:46 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Following a pat-down, one passenger commented, “That’s it? That’s all there is to it? Why is the media making such a big deal? I’ve received more invasive pat downs just going to a rock concert.”A reporter told me that the TSA quietly modified its pat-down techniques in response to recent protests and ahead of National Opt-Out Day. I can't verify that, but it wouldn't surprise me.
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posted by Flashman at 8:55 PM on November 10, 2010 [11 favorites]