Yes, they have. The body-scanners are recently in place almost everywhere, and the new patdown policy is in conjunction with that.
How about a tin foil lining in your bra and panties? If they want to strip search you, make them work for it, not just scan and done.
Seems that’s at odds with a Washington Post overviewof the security scans:
I suppose the WaPost fact checkers could have missed a big one, but you’d think they would have been called on it by now. Or then again, maybe the ‘official’ information from the TSA is bullshit, and this is a story of epic proportions. It’s also possible that the agents at that particular airport rewired the cabling and installed a special monitor so that they got illicit images contrary to TSA policy. Perhaps it’s possible that they were bored and just putting you on. Maybe they were looking at something completely different, like operational feedback or a scan of someone’s carry-on.
Also: pics or it didn’t happen.
I already complained to my congress critter and senate human, federal level. Who else can I whinge at?
Oh, I can’t wait to see what happens when some jackass determined to get his eternal reward gets past the screening and makes it on the plane with a bomb up his ass.
I’m taking the train next time.
I have an odd feeling that what the Washington Post reports and what actually happens, don’t always jibe. And what is the traveller to do when told, on-the-spot, by a TSA [del]failed police officer[/del] (oh, let’s call them what they are) person who gets off on ordering others around, and in this context gropers, that he or she must agree to abrogate his or her 4th Amendment rights as a condition of being allowed to board a public conveyance–and better yet–of being allowed to refuse the search, thus agreeing not to travel on the public conveyance, but threatened with federal prosecution if he or she does not agree to submit to the possibly-unconstitutional search as a condition of *leaving *the airport?
America–the land of the free? I’m having my doubts. How can flag-waving patriotic Americans who brag about their “freedom” justify these restrictions on their constitutional rights?
Or maybe it’s just look-at-me-I’m-important-and-so-hot-you-wouldn’t-believe-it BS.
Roddy
Yes but if we were to - GASP - racially profile as Israel does, teh world would collapse! :rolleyes:
We’ll never be half as smart on security as they are.
I’d rather be intrviewed than have my junk grabbed. El Al has their shit together and we don’t. They’re great at making people throw away soda and toiletries, and don’t seem to be making it safer but the inconvenience and creepy is up. And I will be flying in January, so i’m very interested in knowing what searches i’ll be subjected to.
That’s a bad idea.
I seriously doubt the TSA agents get any kind of thrill from patting down the teeming unwashed masses. As for your image scanned boobs being so awesome as to command a crowd of viewers, you really think that? :rolleyes:
Want to cause a scene without risking arrest?
Wear a nighttime adult diaper under your clothes, and opt out of the scan, forcing a pat-down. The visible/palpable bulk will arouse suspicion on the part of the TSA official, followed by embarrassment (by everybody involved, including observant bystanders) when you are asked to lower your pants and are revealed to be wearing a diaper and claim to suffer from severe incontinence. Milk this embarrassment and loss of dignity for your fifteen minutes of fame in the media spotlight.
Any number of sexual/chastity devices worn beneath the clothes will do the trick, too. Visit www dot extremerestraintsllc dot com for ideas (caution: bondage gear vendor website).
This short, informational video shows you the best method for confounding airport security…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRpWnK6Rg3E
In my experience, boobs do not need to be awesome to attract male viewers. They only need to be boobs.
Umm, there are whole websites devoted to photographs taken by hidden cameras. Google terms like ‘voyeur’, ‘hidden camera’, ‘upskirt’ or ‘downblouse’ with the safe search off - NSFW!! The ‘quality’ of someone’s body would seem to be a secondary consideration to the act of taking pictures without the subject’s consent.
I don’t care who is looking (or not looking) at my body - if I did not choose to show you my nakedness, it is a violation of my privacy.
You may feel that the exchange of privacy for security is a fair deal - I don’t, which is why, in all seriousness, my acceptable driving distance has tripled in the last year.
I am still trying to figure out how not wearing panties will get me arrested. Protesting the procedures themselves? Sure- TSA screeners get very pissed off when you question them, even on simple things. But if I submit to the pat down but they get a surprise that ISN’T a gun or a bomb? Not sure how that would work.
Several times in the past, I have carried copies of TSA rules in my purse to prove to DMV rejects that I can, indeed, carry my knitting on the plane. They don’t even know their own rules, how can we expect them to know anything about civil rights?
And this summer, the screen was right there at the checkpoint (it may have been a trial rollout of the machine, I had never even seen one before that trip). My husband could see the monitor and so could the TSA employees (Dallas).
It’s funny- my kids are both competitive fencers and travel with 90% of their kit in their carry on bags (only the sabre goes checked). So in the bag are jackets made of stainless steel thread with wiring harnesses dangling from them, and stainless steel masks. Um, clothing with wires hanging from them? Never noticed, not once. Once I even made a comment about how the gal must be a fencer and know fencing, and she had no idea what I was talking about- she hadn’t noticed all the metal & wiring. :rolleyes:
In my experience, TSA people love their jobs- they strut around their 10 x 12 piece of jurisdiction, being rude and unfriendly to the folks just trying to get the hell out of town. I fly at least once a month, and maybe 3-4 times a year I meet a friendly screener with a sense of humor who seems like he/she understands their purpose. It’s pretty rare.
I can’t believe people are putting up with this. I’d think everybody who possibly can would be driving (even cross-country) or taking Amtrak or something, even if it takes four days instead of five hours to get where you’re going.
I’d rather have the pat-down than the body scanner thing, if I had to choose.
But making their lives hell doing an unpleasant procedure will make them not want to do the procedure. Allegedly the backscatter machines are random inspections for when people set off the metal detector, and I could see some minimum wage felonist thinking “Fuck this shit, I hate all the bullshit I get when I use the stupid backscatter machines, I’ll just use the metal detector wand instead”
I’m definitely finding some Viagra for my next flight 
Last year my wife and I drove from Michigan to Colorado over three leisurely days; same thing for the return trip. For this year we bought Xmas travel tickets before all this stuff became news. We’ll see how the trip goes; if it’s a major hassle, then next year we’ll drive.
I usually fly out of a Canadian airport with pre-clearance. The US pre-clearance is, in my experience, a little more involved than the clearance to get onto domestic flights or even flights to Europe. I have been patted down and had the backscatter image done, and usually more questions are asked. I’m not sure though how the rules work with regard to TSA jurisdiciton.
I don’t really understand all this hysteria about the TSA screening. Do I particularly like being patted down? No. Do I think they find everything? No. Would I like to see it change so the lines move faster? Yes. But I’ve never been particularly horrified by the process - every TSA agent I’ve dealt with has been polite, although perhaps a little brisk. Nothing that’s been done to me or anyone I was with or saw could possibly be described as ‘groping’. Anyone who has so much as touched me has explicitly asked my permission first, so I don’t see why I would feel that they had harrassed me or assaulted me. I’ve been in the backscatter and nobody gathered around to look at my boobs (how did you know they were looking at that and not, say, checking something strange on the x-ray? Did they go “woohooo, boobies!”). I am polite and cooperative and get out of there pretty quickly usually.
I keep hearing all this about how we’re just being sheeple who don’t protect our rights, but maybe the people who don’t raise a fuss just don’t see it as a particularly big deal. Sure, there are isolated incidents where some agents go too far, but just like cops or teachers or doctors there are a few bad apples who can give the rest a bad name. Those individuals should be diciplined accordingly. And hell, maybe the procedures should change, and people should work through the political channels to affect that change. But all this talk of making a scene or threatening workers to sue them for ‘violating your rights’ or whatnot - aren’t you just embarrassing yourself?
ETA: Because I know someone will jump on this - my experiences do not include just Canadian preclearance - I have flown out of lots of American airports too. In fact I just left JFK on an international flight last week. Had to go through security twice in two different terminals (long story), and had no issues.
Clarification- I THINK it was Dallas- we went through six airports in three weeks, and any more, all airports tend to blur into one big THE AIRPORT. Sorry for my own confusion- feel free to disregard what I say if I don’t have pics or an Anderson Cooper interview as back-up! 