Opinion: New TSA Security Measures Go Too Far: Seen Naked or 'Enhanced' Pat-Down? I'll Drive, Thanks

By Jennifer Hartline
11/16/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Passengers are describing it as fondling, groping, aggressive, humiliating, and over the line.

The reports concerning the Transportation Security Administration's new airport security measures are alarming. Since late October, airports around the country have begun requiring an "enhanced pat-down" procedure for anyone who refuses the full-body scan. What used to be done with the backs of the hands is now done with fingers and palms. Passengers describe it as fondling, groping, aggressive, humiliating, and over the line.

We all want our planes to be safe. No one wants to be afraid to fly. But there has to be a better way to achieve security than this.

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WASHINGTON, D.C.- (Catholic Online) - I see long car trips in my future. Lucky for me I don't mind driving. Barring unexpected emergencies, I think my flying days are over. Count me among the many, many Americans who are unwilling to be seen virtually naked and/or physically groped by a government employee.

The reports coming from all over about the Transportation Security Administration's new airport security measures are alarming. Since late October, airports around the country have begun requiring an "enhanced pat-down" procedure for anyone who refuses the full-body scan. People who have experienced this pat-down tell a very different story than the official statement given by TSA.

First, travelers describe the shout-out: "We've got an Opt-out!" which is yelled at the top of the agent's lungs so everyone around can hear. Next, they're taken to a roped-off area usually still in view of everyone else going through security and the "pat-down" begins. The agent begins at the ankles and works his way up, now using the palms of the hand and the fingers when necessary, feeling every inch of the traveler's body - including the genitals and breasts.

What used to be done with the backs of the hands is now done with fingers and palms, and much more thoroughly and intrusively. Passengers are describing it as fondling, groping, aggressive, humiliating, and over the line.

TSA swears that these pat-downs are done by a person of the same gender, but the reports I've read this past week say otherwise, that woman are being patted-down by men, and that even small children are being searched by agents of the opposite sex. Though frankly, there's NO WAY this side of eternity I would allow any adult to search my child's body and touch my child's genitals, man or woman.

This is going way too far. This to me is simply the beginning of the end of appropriate bodily privacy. This is a forced invasion under the guise of safety. The underlying goal is that people will gradually become accustomed to having their modesty shredded in public and their bodies exposed or groped whenever the government deems necessary.

Thanks to the Shoe Bomber we're all walking through security barefoot. Fine, I don't care how many people see my feet. But the latest bombing attempts - have they been discovered on a terrorist's person? No, they've been found in the baggage beneath the plane. Meanwhile, we're doing virtual strip-searches and groping people's genitals. Doesn't it just seem like the terrorists are two or three steps ahead of us?

Along with the gross bodily invasion, my objection to these new security measures lies with TSA agents themselves. In the last ten years, I have flown numerous times with my small children and sadly, my encounters with TSA agents have been ridiculously consistent. There are surely some agents who defy the trend, but time and time again, I found them to be extremely unhelpful and indifferent. Traveling alone with small children isn't easy and security after 9/11 made it even more difficult.

Trying to manage a stroller, car seat, carry-on's, plus two or three kids under age 4 is exhausting. Removing everyone's shoes and jackets; collapsing the stroller while holding the baby; hoisting the stroller and car seat up onto the x-ray machine belt while holding the baby; having my walking child(ren) pushed by the agent through the metal detector alone; trying to keep my eyes on my child(ren) while the agent stands there waiting for me to dismantle everything with one arm; finally making it through with the baby only to find our shoes, bags, stroller, car seat, & jackets left in a heap for me to collect. All the while, the TSA agents just stared, or glared if I wasn't moving fast enough. These excursions through security always left me sweating, worn-out, and angry.

On my last flying adventure, I was battling food poisoning from the day before. I was dehydrated and barely able to keep myself upright. Going through security, the agent confiscated my small water bottle despite my pleas and then "selected" me for a more extensive carry-on search. I was carrying my infant daughter and I begged to be allowed to sit down before I fell over, but the agent refused and forced me to stand there while she spent ten minutes going through every article in my carry-on.

So no matter how often the TSA assures the American public that their employees are "professionals" who are "specially trained" to handle these enhanced security measures in a "respectful manner," I don't buy it for a second. I've seen otherwise. Now more ...

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1 - 10 of 63 Comments

Pam
2 years ago
Thanks, Pete, for that long quote of Patrick Henry. You and others (not to mention the author of the article--Jennifer) have contributed quite sensible insight into this degrading "search"at our airports. It is so ridiculous--and just when I was about to cry, Sam made me laugh: "ZERO, nada, zippo, none, terrorists have been caught in any US airport by going through TSA passenger security checks. They have the routine down as soon as it starts: Use the Israeli system of profiling." And meanwhile, I also recall our borders--miles upon miles, where anyone who wants to can just walk, or even drive through? All the while, our nation's leaders prefer to "profile," it's own citizens at airports through personally degrading procedures, rather "profile" aliens and those who really "fit" the description. Our government is endorsing more and more policies in more than one realm that are turning our country upside down--and inside out, on it's head! I really like Bro Robert's perspective, too--the idea of getting back to the basics of those "good ole days"--that I can remember!
Cynthia Leighton
2 years ago
In my opinion, these TSA scans and grope-downs are our signal "white flag waving" that we have surrendered. Might as well fly white sheets or pillow cases on every flag pole coast to coast, border to border.
Beth
2 years ago
LOVE the part about citizens "giving up their rights" when they purchase an airline ticket. Why the concern over "profiling", then? What a joke.

Okay, I'm curious - how exactly does the Israeli system work? I've never flown there. In all honesty I have to say that if my ethnicity/gender/nationality was at all similar to that of the people who have attacked our country, I would be more than happy to undergo additional scrutiny. It only makes sense. It may not seem "fair", but neither is it "fair" that my kindergartner be subjected to body scanning or genital groping. Personally I'd rather see fewer people being treated "unfairly", with more effective security to boot.
vance
2 years ago
Pete, I appreciate your comments. I agree that something different needs to happen. I believe SS touched on the right answer. We need to adopt the Israeli system which has had great success and they do not put 80 year old grandma through the groping exercise. I doubt that Obama will change anything but hopefully we will have a CHANGE in 2012 to a constitutional government once again. We can only HOPE. God bless.
Br. Robert
2 years ago
Being a person who worked in the Security and Law Enforcement profession for sometime ( I stopped after observing the wickedness that occurs behind the curtains), I can attest to you that this is exactly the objective of the administration.

Situations such as the "Shoe Bomber" and others are in fact designed to set several administrative rules into motion, with the end result being what is stated above, and worse to come.

Luckily, the human race will become much closer to mother nature again as more and more begin to return to their roots and travel by land and sea. It may not always be the speediest solution, but it is much more beautiful and healthy for both us and the environment.

May God Bless us and look over the bodies and spirits of the unfortunate meek and innocent who are being abused in such a way!
Sam
2 years ago
ZERO, nada, zippo, none, terrorists have been caught in any US airport by going through TSA passenger security checks. They have the routine down as soon as it starts. Use the Israeli system of profiling.
Sandy
2 years ago
San Mateo and Santa Clara district attorneys are going to prosecute TSA employees who grope breast and genital areas since this is sexual abuse. Where is Obama since he is the employer of TSA? Women who might be pregnant, cancer and former cancer patients who have undergone radiation therapy, small children etc., should not use the xray machines. Does this mean they need to be groped? ISREAL teach us to be smarter like you - great safety record without abusing your citizens. Let's each CONTACT our own State's Attorney General. The Feds are abusing citizens. And yes - we do not lock down America !!! If you fly over Thanksgiving, take a camera and have a witness to prosecute abusive TSA employees.
Pete Brady
2 years ago
vance, as well as others, I CAN understand the urgency of each individual person wanting to feel safe and secure from any terrorist act every time they board an aircraft. It is intimately tied to the loss of control over one's life once you take a seat in that long metal tube, and must quite literally just "sit there." You can not yell, "stop the bus I want to get off," or pull the emergency lanyard to bring the train to a screeching halt. For one hundred, two hundred, and more people "control" rests solely in the hands of the pilot in command. You HAVE to trust that it all works. And it is just not right that someone else, a terrorist, can take advantage of that situation and either commandeer the aircraft or destroy it "AFTER" you have so willingly surrendered control and placed your trust in it, the whole "flying" thing, that it all works. It IS understandable that a person will suffer certain annoyances to give themselves that last bit of extra assurance they feel is needed by enduring a security screening. That security screening SHOULD reduce the probability of a terrorist act to as close to NIL as possible. There is no absolute guarantee that it will, but it ought to at least come reasonably close. But I think the defining line of what is "reasonable" is crossed when that security screening process "degrades" our humanity. At that point I think we must admit that we have lost sight of what the problem is, that we have failed to address it. We are at that point with "porno-scan" and groping of genitals. And in the case of "terrorism," instead of fighting it and "winning," we are in fact "institutionalizing" it, making it something we HAVE to "live with." This we MUST not do. We DO NOT "lock down" America. We do not let them roam freely. To be secure, to screen properly, we know who they are, where they are, all the time, as much as we possibly can. They step out of their sandbox into ours, then it is "they" who will suffer not "us." That is the philosophy under which we ought to operate.
Sam
2 years ago
It has already been said - - we should follow ISREAL's lead and airport security measures. They do not treat their citizens like objects; they do not expose them to radiation; yet their security record is the best in the World. What is wrong with the Obama administration - the TSA ultimately works for him.
Pete Brady
2 years ago
Wow, thank you SS. Being a third generation American from Ireland, glad to have you as a fellow "American." Your input provides some much needed perspective. // Hi ya', vance, I know how uncomfortable it makes me feel to be just a little bit on the opposite side of an issue from you, but I think SS answers you to a degree. For the present, I need a little slack, but I'd like to get back to you on your most recent post.

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