TSA Follow-up
I blogged about the TSA’s new “security” procedures earlier this week. Among other things, I pointed out the parallels between their “enhanced pat-down” and the legal definitions of criminal sexual conduct.
Here’s a follow-up. The gentleman is the father of a friend of mine.
TSA Pat-down Leaves Traveler Covered in Urine.
Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach … “One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”
Click the link for the full story.
Anyone still want to argue that what the TSA is doing is in any way acceptable?
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SylviaSybil
November 21, 2010 @ 2:25 am
I read that article earlier. What really impressed me was the part just at the end where someone said it had recently been discussed in an agency board meeting and they expected to implement a new policy on how to give the enhanced pat down to those with disabilities. Excuse me? Is that supposed to reassure me that they’re on top of this? Because this “enhanced patdown” was rolled out at the end of October if I recall correctly. And they’re only just now, three weeks later, telling their people how to apply it to the disabled? How many thousands of disabled people fly every day, all across the country, and it didn’t occur to the TSA to make provisions for them when they first implemented their policy? We’re expected to trust my safety to an agency that couldn’t remember a factor every one of its agents have to deal with on a daily basis. Yeah, great, that inspires confidence. *eyeroll*
Jeff Linder
November 21, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
The biggest issue I am having with this, although I have been unable to confirm directly, is that apparently the agents were trained via ON-LINE TRAINING????? How in the bloody heck do you train someone to do a proper patdown ON-LINE?
I’ve said this on other forums, I used to work with law enforcement. I know for a fact there are ways to conduct a professional, thorough pat down, that while a little awkward meets both the goals of insuring safety while respecting the person being patted down. It’s a matter of proper training, practice, and consistent supervisory enforcement. The TSA is apparently capable of none of those, and this program should be rolled back until they are.
KatG
November 21, 2010 @ 9:26 pm
This all reminds me of when the schools tried to enforce “zero tolerance” policies that had been only vaguely worked out by untrained state governments and school boards. Consequently, we had a lot of stories in the media about kids being suspended because they had a bottle of aspirin or a spoon with a pointy handle or unwisely decided to let their teacher star in a horror story assignment for Halloween. I can’t help but feel exceedingly sorry for these TSA agents (while also feeling sorry for passengers of course,) who have to enforce the policy handed down haphazardly to them and do these pat-downs with little training. I sincerely doubt most of them enjoy doing it. And I’m sure that they are instructed to ignore claims of the passengers that certain areas should be avoided for one reason or another, such as a urine bag, because hey, they might be a terrorist who is lying and even if they are unlikely to be a terrorist, everyone has to be treated “the same.” I suspect that TSA will ease up once the holidays are past, and the system will improve with certain aspects dropped, at least until we get the next underwear bomber.
Shawn
November 22, 2010 @ 11:06 am
I see that there’s a congressman in favor of disbanding TSA altogether and allowing airports to hire private security.
This completely sidesteps the issue. The issue is a question of security vs. civil rights, and whether the security procedures are effective enough at protecting us that it’s worth sacrificing personal privacy. I have no more faith in a private security agency than I do in TSA when it’s the POLICIES that are the problem.
Likewise, I’m seeing statements from officials that seem to be saying that these “enhanced security procedures” stem from recent security threats such as the package bombs sent from Yemen & intercepted in Britain & Dubai. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but those packages were not carry-ons that passengers hid in their underwear, were they? My understanding is they were checked items. So how do full body scanners and invasive pat-downs protect us from THAT threat?
When I see such illogical justifications, it reduces the credibility of the officials & lawmakers in charge exponentially, and I end up trusting them less and less.
Jim C. Hines
November 22, 2010 @ 11:08 am
Maybe we should print up T-shirts to use when going through TSA security checkpoints: “Hey, you’re checking the wrong package!”
David
November 25, 2010 @ 11:17 pm
Jim:
“They” always seem to be preparing for the previous problem. Canadian author Pierre Berton wrote 2 popular history books on the War of 1812. He commented that he finally understood his army training (I think for WW2) when he was researching the battles of War of 1812.