Over the weekend, someone in California who was going to visit his relatives and he check to see if San Diego International Airport was doing the body scanners and pat downs. The TSA website didn’t indicate that they used pat downs or body canners. He recorded the whole confrontation with the TSA by refusing a pat down from his now famous saying, “if you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.” He was escorted out of the checkpoint and got his ticket refunded. You can read more about his TSA encounter at his blog.
Since the underwear Christmas Day Bomber incident of last year, the TSA have to add these measures to keep passengers safe. However, pat downs and full body scanners are crossing the line with the visual strip search reveals the breasts and private areas. In addition, the extensive pat downs are criticized as being a “legal” sexual assault, excitement for the pedophiles/perverts and intrusion of privacy. Not to mention, both of these protective measures could possibly violate the 4th Amendment and might not be effective in stopping a potential underwear bomber.
Here is my take on the controversy. I think pat downs are an intrusion of privacy because since when they have the right to touch or see my privates? I would only allow only my doctor, girlfriend or my parents, not TSA agents. I feel that it is just a sick excuse to grope someone’s breasts and privates for the pleasure of it. Also, think about the children and those child pedophiles! Besides, a large line can be a protential advantage for the terrorist without being on the plane, a major reason why pat downs are ineffective and risky.
Full body scans is also big issue with privacy and health concerns. Most body scanners use x-rays, which can be harmful for mothers who are pregnant, elderly people, cancer patients and men. While these machine gives off little radiation, it could be an issue for frequent fliers, which needs to go through the scanners frequently. The frequent exposure to the x-rays can potentially impact someone’s health. TSA denies that the scanners are an impact towards someone’s health even though a lot of people have concerns. Fortunately, people can opt out and take the pat down instead.
In addition, there are privacy concerns with the body scans. While the TSA denies that the scanners stored any images of naked bodies, this is not the case. According to specification document released by the Freedom of Information Act, it reveals that the scanner actually saves the images if the training mode is turn on. As a result, EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), a non-profit organization is now suing Homeland Security to have them suspends the use of these machines and extensive pat downs. Like the pat down, the full body scanners are still ineffective towards stopping the terrorists and just add inconvenience towards the travelers.
Like the pat down, I don’t like the body scanners either. I still don’t want them to see my privates. The scans are basically free porno and it’s likely that the TSA employees are enjoying these high-resolution scans of a person’s naked body. To me, this is disgusting and crosses the line.
In the end, pat downs and full body scanners are like 1984, government invading people’s privacy with private areas and take away people’s rights away. Both of these measures do nothing to protect passengers from the terrorists since they won’t change their security measure to make it more effective. Unlike the US, other countries don’t have pat downs or even full body scanners. This is because they lookout for a terrorist behavior and secure the aircraft that a hijack or bombing cannot happen. I think everyone who operates the TSA needs to get fired and replaced with competent people who would take security seriously. Until the body scans and pat downs are eliminated, everyone is better off taking a road trip, a bus or train and forget flying. I would be doing that since flying sucks anyways.
