Airport 'pat-downs' cause growing passenger backlash

[Shortline Bus]

Airport 'pat-downs' cause growing passenger backlash

 

By Derek Kravitz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, November 13, 2010

 

Airport travelers call it groping, prodding or just plain inappropriate - a pat-down that probes places where the sun doesn't shine. The Transportation Security Administration calls it the new reality of airport security.

 

 

Following the uncovering of a terrorist plot last month to blow up cargo planes en route to the United States, the TSA has instituted a new type of pat-down of passengers, a move that's part of a general tightening of air security. If a full-body scanning machine shows something strange or a passenger declines to go through the machine - which is now in use in the Washington region's three major airports - an officer will perform a more personal search.

 

The examinations routinely involve the touching of breasts and genitals, invasive searches designed to find weapons and suspicious items. The searches, performed by TSA security officers of the same sex as the passenger, entail a sliding hand motion on parts of the body where a lighter touch was used before, aviation security analysts say. The areas of the body that are being touched haven't changed.

 

"There's nothing punitive about it; it just makes good security sense," the TSA said via its blog. "And the weapons and other dangerous and prohibited items we've found during pat-downs speak to this."

 

But the new pat-downs have prompted a growing backlash among pilots and flight attendants, civil liberties groups and security-weary passengers who say the touching goes too far.

 

 

"It's more than just patting you down. It's very intrusive and very insane. I wouldn't let anyone touch my daughter like that," said Marc Moniz of Poway, Calif., who is planning to accompany his daughter's eighth-grade class from San Diego to Washington in April. "We're not common criminals."

 

In the latest escalation of the debate over the balance between security and passenger rights, privacy advocates have enlisted consumer rights activist and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who called the screening techniques "extremely voyeuristic and intrusive."

 

"If anyone is going to try to get through, they're going to [conceal items in body cavities], so this isn't going to stop that," Nader said. "My prediction is that TSA is going to lose all of this."

 

Brian J. Sodergren of Ashburn, who works in the health-care industry, is organizing an "opt out" day to encourage passengers to say no to advanced imaging technology, known to industry insiders as a "virtual strip search." He's planning the protest for one of the busiest travel days of the year - Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving.

 

"Many people only fly around the holidays and may not be aware of the security changes," Sodergren said. "I think once people are made aware of what is happening, they may have reservations about the new procedures."

 

Another group launched a Web site, WeWontFly.com, and says it has gotten more than 70,000 hits per day since going online a week ago. The Web site asks passengers to say no to scans and pat-downs and for TSA to remove its "porno-scanners" and "gropers."

 

"We're opposed to letting TSA treat us like criminals," said James Babb of Eagleville, Pa., an activist who is organizing the We Won't Fly campaign.

 

 

For more read http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111206580.html

[GojiMet86]

I wonder how the people doing the search feel...

[Shortline Bus]

:mad:

I wonder how the people doing the search feel...

 

Since 9/11, this is the first time in America my friend, so many passengers have been so angry. Res

 

This is the latest 'safety' and yet most controversial tacit of the TSA since it's inception in 2001 and after last month's (Oct. 2010) failed fed ex cargo air package bombing from Yemen. Already some members of the US Senate and Congress are proposing to ban this pratice.

 

I am not sure with the Holiday season about to start even more air travelers like me will be very upset.

[metsfan]

Eagleville PA, figures.

 

Instead of being mad at the TSA, try counting how many terrorist attacks have happened within the 50 states since they took over.

 

- A

[INDman]

I hope people start filing molestation reports against the TSA. This shit has gone way too far.

[Joe]

Eagleville PA, figures.

 

Instead of being mad at the TSA, try counting how many terrorist attacks have happened within the 50 states since they took over.

 

- A

 

Correlation is not causation. Just because X and Y simultaneously occur doesn't mean X caused Y or vice-versa. Come on, you should know that.

 

All this TSA bullshit (yes, metsfan, it's bullshit, no matter how much your girlfriend tries to convince you otherwise that her job is important) is just more and more security theater. Useless procedures, routines, people and administration just to give Americans the sense of security without actually providing the security.

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2010/11/17/tsa-training-lacking-investigators-find/

 

http://logisticstoday.com/operations_strategy/tsa-ineffective-bureaucracy-rep-john-mica-0524/

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-10-12-TSA_N.htm

 

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/04/another_tsa_fai.html

[553 Bridgeton]

This is the world we live in, if you dont like it, find alternate travel ways, and if you have to fly deal with it.

[IRT Bronx Express]

This is the world we live in, if you dont like it, find alternate travel ways, and if you have to fly deal with it.

It's either by car, bus, train, or walking. :tup:

[Joe]

This is the world we live in, if you dont like it, find alternate travel ways, and if you have to fly deal with it.

 

Unpaid PR employee of the TSA. Good job. When the government comes a knockin' on your door asking you to waive all your rights, will you kneel down just like they want and sign away?

[Zman]

Unpaid PR employee of the TSA. Good job. When the government comes a knockin' on your door asking you to waive all your rights, will you kneel down just like they want and sign away?

 

Rights ain't gonna do me a whole lot of good after a bomber blows me out of the sky.

[Joe]

Rights ain't gonna do me a whole lot of good after a bomber blows me out of the sky.

 

...but the almighty TSA will STOP the bomber!

[Urbanfortitude]

Guess all that high tech X-Ray equipment isn't good for shit if they're doin this.

 

 

I wonder how the people doing the search feel...

 

While i was in Shannon, Ireland gettin a patdown from airport security in what looked like a barn to fly back to the states, the guy seemed to be enjoying himself. -_-''

[Joe]

Guess all that high tech X-Ray equipment isn't good for shit if they're doin this.

 

The body scanners were just a way to force people into accepting these pat-downs.

[553 Bridgeton]

Unpaid PR employee of the TSA. Good job. When the government comes a knockin' on your door asking you to waive all your rights, will you kneel down just like they want and sign away?

 

Um no. But wth is anyone going to do about it? Obviously the government didnt care about it when they went ahead with the BS at the airports.

 

Just like I said if you dont like it, deal with it, because even if they lift this, then some other BS will come about and people will cry once again. If you dont have to fly, then this change doesnt matter. If you have to fly, then deal with it.

[East New York]

Trust and believe the TSA is not preventing terrorist attacks. It's the intelligence community.

 

Personally, the body scanners don't bother me one bit! No shame in my game! I might even make somebody's day!

[Roadcruiser1]

Nope there is still one last method of travel. By ship, and that takes days of travel to get to your location. A trip on the RMS Queen Mary 2 to Europe in July costs 1400 bucks and takes 14 days and it's only a one way trip. You have to pay another 1400 and another 14 days to get back. I am not against traveling by ship. Just do you have the time and money, and it is a good replacement from aircraft.

[PATCOman]

It's either by car, bus, train, or walking. :tup:

 

or a donkey like the good old days.

[Shortline Bus]

or a donkey like the good old days.

 

Oh yes the donkey. Since my family is all over the USA and beyond, maybe I get to san diego, ca. in 6 months. Just like in 1492 in days of Chris Columbus.:tup::cool:LOL

[Grand Concourse]

They need to ship Napolitano's ass back to Arizona. She and Holder [and his pushing for that damn trial in NYC] both should've been fired if Obama was more competent.

[B35 via Church]

Eagleville PA, figures.

 

Explain.....

[metsfan]

Correlation is not causation. Just because X and Y simultaneously occur doesn't mean X caused Y or vice-versa. Come on, you should know that.

 

All this TSA bullshit (yes, metsfan, it's bullshit, no matter how much your girlfriend tries to convince you otherwise that her job is important) is just more and more security theater. Useless procedures, routines, people and administration just to give Americans the sense of security without actually providing the security.

 

How about you back the hell off about my girlfriend, who risks her life to keep people like you able to fly at all.

 

Grow up and get a clue.

 

- A

[metsfan]

Explain.....

 

That area is full of self entitled boneheads.

 

I'm done arguing about this topic. If any of you knew what they have stopped from happening AT THE AIRPORT you'd ***t your pants.

 

- A

[Aqueduct]

If I have to fly and go through this I am going to sport wood going through the checkpoint to mess with the people doing it, they certainly will spend less time on me then. Also, making strange arousal sounds will ensure a speedy process too.

[SubwayGuy]

2 comments:

 

1- Security theater is not to be confused with, nor is it a substitute for, security.

 

2- "Those who sacrifice their freedom for security deserve neither" - Ben Franklin.

[INDman]

How about you back the hell off about my girlfriend, who risks her life to keep people like you able to fly at all.

 

Grow up and get a clue.

 

- A

 

Risks her life? She's not a cop, she is no more at risk at her job at the airport then the guy delivering food to the planes or the guy who cleans the terminal. TSA agents are security guards, nothing more.