Big Brother Loves Pat Downs
TSA Patdowns Have No Limits and Are Dangerous for Women
by Kathryn Ciano
TSA agents can do whatever they want.
If that seems crazy, consider the facts. Here we have a government agency-gone-wild that gives officials total discretion over what circumstances require. If an individual in an airport seems suspicious, TSA agents can touch that passenger in whatever way they want until they are satisfied that the situation is safe.
Still sounds crazy? Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims that airport security cameras take private photos merely to scan individuals for weapons. Napolitano claims that these photos are viewable only to TSA officers and that they are not so invasive that officers could see anything inappropriate.
Here is an example of one such “private” photo, leaked on the internet by TSA officers.
It’s not just about pictures anymore. In this video on YouTube, Owen J. J. Jones tells the chilling story of TSA officials putting their hands into his pants to check for, well, junk.
TSA officials put their hands down his pants. Baggy sweatpants made it impossible for officials to see the precise contours of the man’s crotch, so officials were directed to grope inside his pants until they were satisfied he wasn’t hiding anything.
Sometimes leaving discretion in officers’ hands is a good thing, as when police have authority to arrest (or even shoot) an aggressor who is trying to hurt them. But police officers undergo an enormous amount of psychological screening, while TSA does not screen patdown officers at all. TSA does not even screen agents with full patdown discretion for a history of sexual harassment outside the general felony questionnaire included in a background check.
Safety is important, but there must be a limit to how far federally-backed employees can go to check our bodies and body parts for weapons. Images like the photos above violate child pornography laws in many countries, including the UK.
It does not matter whether the person viewing the images is a male or a female. Not only does the potential to distribute naked photos of these “virtual strip-scans” objectify and humiliate innocent individuals who have done nothing more than enter an airport; the apparently-limitless authority TSA agents enjoy permits them to decide and do whatever they deem necessary to whomever they would like to do it to.
Americans are entitled to a presumption of innocence. A runaway government agency cannot subject individuals to being treated like criminals merely because the agent feels it would be more prudent, or, hell — when there are no limits perhaps it would simply be more interesting — to grope.
It comes down to limits, especially inasmuch as women are subjected to such invasive searches. If there are no checks on TSA agents’ authority, nothing prevents TSA officials from subjecting women to the kind of body search we would only expect to encounter in prison.
Make it private. Keep federal immunity out of our underpants. Or set and enforce some limits on the authority of these non-cops for hire. At least, ladies, let’s admit it’s wrong to grant full permission to subject innocent Americans to search-to-satisfaction.
When we agree up front to bend over backwards — or any which way — to let a stranger touch us in the name of federal-backed security, the terrorists have already won.
SOURCE
by Kathryn Ciano
TSA agents can do whatever they want.
If that seems crazy, consider the facts. Here we have a government agency-gone-wild that gives officials total discretion over what circumstances require. If an individual in an airport seems suspicious, TSA agents can touch that passenger in whatever way they want until they are satisfied that the situation is safe.
Still sounds crazy? Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims that airport security cameras take private photos merely to scan individuals for weapons. Napolitano claims that these photos are viewable only to TSA officers and that they are not so invasive that officers could see anything inappropriate.
Here is an example of one such “private” photo, leaked on the internet by TSA officers.
It’s not just about pictures anymore. In this video on YouTube, Owen J. J. Jones tells the chilling story of TSA officials putting their hands into his pants to check for, well, junk.
TSA officials put their hands down his pants. Baggy sweatpants made it impossible for officials to see the precise contours of the man’s crotch, so officials were directed to grope inside his pants until they were satisfied he wasn’t hiding anything.
Sometimes leaving discretion in officers’ hands is a good thing, as when police have authority to arrest (or even shoot) an aggressor who is trying to hurt them. But police officers undergo an enormous amount of psychological screening, while TSA does not screen patdown officers at all. TSA does not even screen agents with full patdown discretion for a history of sexual harassment outside the general felony questionnaire included in a background check.
Safety is important, but there must be a limit to how far federally-backed employees can go to check our bodies and body parts for weapons. Images like the photos above violate child pornography laws in many countries, including the UK.
It does not matter whether the person viewing the images is a male or a female. Not only does the potential to distribute naked photos of these “virtual strip-scans” objectify and humiliate innocent individuals who have done nothing more than enter an airport; the apparently-limitless authority TSA agents enjoy permits them to decide and do whatever they deem necessary to whomever they would like to do it to.
Americans are entitled to a presumption of innocence. A runaway government agency cannot subject individuals to being treated like criminals merely because the agent feels it would be more prudent, or, hell — when there are no limits perhaps it would simply be more interesting — to grope.
It comes down to limits, especially inasmuch as women are subjected to such invasive searches. If there are no checks on TSA agents’ authority, nothing prevents TSA officials from subjecting women to the kind of body search we would only expect to encounter in prison.
Make it private. Keep federal immunity out of our underpants. Or set and enforce some limits on the authority of these non-cops for hire. At least, ladies, let’s admit it’s wrong to grant full permission to subject innocent Americans to search-to-satisfaction.
When we agree up front to bend over backwards — or any which way — to let a stranger touch us in the name of federal-backed security, the terrorists have already won.
SOURCE
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