I would almost agree. Airport security was the least annoying it’s ever been on our Italy trip last month.
Granted, we were flying first class and got some special lines to go through so maybe they don’t bother the first class folk… But I went through the scanner and did the whole shoes/belt off thing and it was pretty painless.
Although, realistically, I guess it’s painless until it isn’t.
I haven’t seen this come up, and I only just heard about myself just now, but I found this new program to be somewhat unsettling.
Unless every TSA agent is going to receive in depth psychological training, I don’t see how this is a good idea. For example, my husband is not one for small talk, certainly not with strangers. Sure, he’ll answer your questions, and be perfectly pleasant doing it, but try to engage him in idle chatter about the weather and whatnot and he’ll slowly become more uncomfortable, really just wanting to escape the conversation. Is that going to be considered “suspicious”?
It appears that it’s only in effect at Logan airport in Boston currently, as it’s being tested right now. Thankfully I usually fly into Providence when I go home to visit my family. ;)
Other opinions?
It’s definitely possible to train people to detect problems in behavior through casual conversation… most TSA agents will not be able to do this. Indeed, most TSA agents most likely don’t have the basic skills to even be trained for this… frankly, from what I’ve seen, a lot of TSA agents really aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.
I suspect what they’d do is have a few specially trained folks who are dedicated to this kind of thing.
And the training allows them to know that your husband just isn’t one for smalltalk. :)
I suspect it’ll be a one hour video tape they watch that allows them to harass anyone they want. Of course they can already do that and fondle them while they do it, but this is an added weapon for the army of ineptitude.
The TSA never does anything the right way, I don’t see why this would suddenly be the exception.
plus what does “in testing in Boston” mean? Are they gonna congratulate themselves when the airport doesn’t blow up in a few weeks and roll it out nationally due to the “massive success”?
I think thats what they did with the backscanners.
“Nothing exploded! Mission accomplished!”
TSA is very much a Tiger-Proof Rock organization.
They already seem to do the small talk chat with me on a regular basis when I travel. It probably is just the TSA people being bored and friendly. Now it’ll just be another part of their job. I don’t usually talk with strangers so it bugs me a little especially since I’m already tired/stressed from traveling.
The article mentions Israel’s system which is very similar. I remember the first time I encountered it (pre-9/11) and found it very intrusive and rude, but understood the purpose of it.
Great story about one woman fighting back and the threats she receives for it.
Amy Alkon is an advice columnist and blogger who is just one of many people who has had a horrifying and traumatizing experience going through airport security lately. After being pulled aside for an “enhanced” search, she found the process to be so invasive and so in violation of her own rights that she was left sobbing. She wrote about the experience on her blog, noting that she didn’t think the search was just “invasive” in the emotional sense, but flat out physically invasive:
Nearing the end of this violation, I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia. She really got up there. Four times. Back right and left, and front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked – utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault.
Upon leaving, still sobbing, I yelled to the woman, “YOU RAPED ME.” And I took her name to see if I could file sexual assault charges on my return. This woman, and all of those who support this system deserve no less than this sort of unpleasant experience, and from all of us.
Via the always amazing Popehat
Heh, the lawyer for the TSA goon has the email-address [email protected].
… I’m sure she works at ScrapingTheBarrel.
That article is a good read.
I figured this was on topic:
“it was for my own protection”
The big problem.
Anyone else find it humorous that the company that makes the body scanners, per the Slate article, is “Rapiscan Systems”?
I miss living in a free country.
I have a friend with an arabian sounding name who conducts many business trips. He has no problem to visit Mexico but refuses to fly to the United States. For him the USA is slowly becoming a police state.
These incidences occur under a democratic president, who will defend your civil liberties?!
That is a seriously upsetting article.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/sep/11/us-airline-passengers-detained/
FBI Detroit spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said ultimately authorities determined there was no real threat.
“Due to the anniversary of Sept. 11, all precautions were taken, and any slight inconsistency was taken seriously,” Berchtold said. “The public would rather us err on the side of caution than not.”
Actually, this part of “the public” would rather you guys do your goddamn jobs sensibly instead of running around like chickens with your heads cut off just because a flight attendant is afraid of brown people.
It’s a shame you’ve latched onto the racial angle. This disgusting state of affairs affects all of us. Making it about race means empty-headed white people think they won’t be targeted. They’ll ignore the problem.
The problem is bureaucracy.
He said they had to act on a report of suspicious behavior, and this is what the reaction looks like.
Without DHS and the rest of the security apparatus, racists can’t do anything. They can think whatever they want about a couple guys with diarrhea. Or they might not think anything at all if their government hadn’t told them to be eternally vigilant or put them into a state of fear by constantly chasing ghosts due to the lack of disincentives against false-positives in bureaucracy.
Fuck the media too. Compare this woman’s first person account to the Sun’s recitation of routine police procedures and “official” statements, complete with this ludicrous doublespeak:
Wintner says the Frontier flight crew radioed to request police help when the plane landed, prompting responders to greet the flight and question passengers after the aircraft taxied to a remote location at the airport.
What heroes.