TSA Enhanced Pat Downs : The Screeners Point Of View
In the past few weeks since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) implemented its new “enhanced” pat down procedures there has been considerable backlash from the traveling public. This backlash has been loud and angry … but what is not heard or seen in the media is the quiet resentment of this new policy within the TSA.
A few days ago I contacted 20 TSA Transportation Security Officers (TSO) to ask their opinions of the new “enhanced” pat downs. Of the 20 I reached out to, 17 responded. All 17 who responded are at airports where the new “enhanced” pat down is in place … and the responses were all the same, that front line TSOs do not like the new pat downs and that they do not want to perform them. I expected most to not like the pat downs … but what I didn’t expect was that all 17 mentioned their morale being broken down.
Each of the 17 TSA TSOs that responded to me detailed their personal discomfort in conducting the new pat downs, with more than one stating that it is likely they are more uncomfortable performing the pat down than passengers are receiving them.
Some comments from these TSOs include:
“It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh. Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!”
“Do you think I want to go to work and place my hands between women’s legs and touch their breasts for a few hours? For starters, I am attracted to men, not women and if I was attracted to women, it would not be the large number of passengers I handle daily that have a problem understanding what personal hygiene is.”
“Yesterday a passenger told me to keep my hands off his penis or he’d scream. Is this how a 40 year old man in business attire acts? He’ll scream? My 3 year old can get away with saying he’ll scream, but a 40 something business man? I am a professional doing my job, whether I agree with this current policy or not, I am doing my job. I do not want to be here all day touching penises.”
“Being a TSO means often being verbally abused, you let the comments roll off and check the next person, however when a woman refuses the scanner then comes to me and tells me that she feels like I am molesting her, that is beyond verbal abuse. I asked the woman if she thought I like touching other women all day and she told me that I probably did or I wouldn’t be with the TSA. I just want to tell these people that I feel disgusted feeling other peoples private parts, but I cannot because I am a professional.”
“I was asked by some guy if I got excited touching scrotums at the airport and if it gave me a power thrill. I felt like vomiting when he asked that. This is not a turn on for me to touch me it is in fact a huge turn off. There is a big difference between how I pat passengers down and a molester molesting people.”
Aside from the issue of TSA TSOs being required to physically touch passengers in places they do not want to be touching them during the ‘enhanced’ pat down, morale is decreasing for front line TSOs, due in part to an increase in verbal abuse. Each of the 17 TSOs who responded to me detailed a new level of verbal abuse they are experiencing at work.
The TSA has experienced a high level of turn over since its inception, however its turnover rate has decreased recently. With this decrease in morale, caused directly by a change in TSA policy, it is likely to begin experiencing a higher than average turn over again … which will further decrease the effectiveness of airport security.
Some comments from these 17 TSOs include:
“Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”
“I come to work to do my job. It is not up to me to decide policy, it is up to me to carry out my duties as dictated by the Transportation Security Administration. When a person stands in front of me and calls me a pervert or accuses me of molesting them it is disheartening. People fail to understand that neither of us are happy about the intrusive pat down I am carrying out. I am polite, I am professional and while someone may not like what I have to carry out, they came to me because they choose not to utilize the alternative and less invasive method of security at my airport.”
“I served a tour in Afghanistan followed by a tour in Iraq. I have been hardened by war and in the past week I am slowly being broken by the constant diatribe of hateful comments being lobbed at me. While many just see a uniform with gloves feeling them for concealed items I am a person, I am a person who has feelings. I am a person who has served this country. I am a person who wants to continue serving his country. The constant run of hateful comments while I perform my job will break me down faster and harder than anything I encountered while in combat in the Army.”
“Do people know what a Nazi is? One can’t describe me as a Nazi because I am following a security procedure of designed to find prohibited items on a passenger’s body. A Nazi is someone with hatred and ignorance in their hearts, a person who carried out actions of execution and extermination of those based on their religion, origins or sexual preferences. I work to make travel safer, even if I do not agree with the current security procedures. Further more, I am Jewish and a TSA Transportation Security Officer, an American Patriot and to call me a Nazi is an offense beyond all other offenses.”
There are multiple sides to every story, and I think the point of view of those on the front lines of the TSA, those required to carry on the policy and procedures created by the TSA, are an import part of this story. I think those organizing efforts to change the TSA’s policy should also consider the impact to the TSA TSOs.
Rather than dehumanize the TSA TSOs, work with them, understand their views and opinions and work together to change the current TSA policies.
Happy Flying!
Nazi is short for National Socialists which was a political party bastardized by Adolf Hitler. You know, Socialism. Might some of you crack a history book and read a little, maybe then we could all get along and you wouldn’t have to take your anger out on a professional doing their job. Would you enjoy it if I came to your mindless job you probably bitch about and verbally abused you because you are a moron? Didn’t think so. These are human beings trying to keep America safe. Apparently you don’t all remember the masses clamoring for airport safety after 9/11. You made the bed, sleep in it. If your heart didn’t bleed for these people for what they have to do to put bread on the table then you are what is wrong with our society. You just want to put your problems on the shoulders of other people. You are horrible and you should feel bad.
Great article, Fish. I found the link off The Daily What and greatly enjoyed it. It makes me want to fly somewhere just so I can personally thank a TSO, because I am sure no one else does.
Searving their country?? Who do they think they are?? That makes me sick!!!
I am flying in a few hours w/ my 12 yr old daughter and she is so afraid of what is going to happen when we get to the airport. A holiday trip shouldn’t start with terror!
I am a soldier in the US Army, and I can see where they are coming from. Do people think a lot of the armed forces want to be in Afghanistan or Iraq? It’s our job, and we do what we are told to do whether we like it or not. I had a brother who worked at the airport and it’s a descent paying job, so ask yourself this: every time you’ve had a job and they made a policy you hated, or didn’t agree with, did you immediately quit that job? I have been through many things in my life, but getting angry at someone who is just doing their job just isn’t worth it. If they don’t check you, then who will? And really to say these people are perverts and molester is just sickening. There are people out there who are perverts and have molested people and all these people are doing is seeing if you are hiding anything you shouldn’t be. Don’t like it? Take a bus, no one tries to hijack or blow them up.
Yes, you have the right to not be subject to unreasonable searches. But when they are deemed reasonable (for example: as a security measure) then the method of search, it would be assumed, must also be “reasonable”.
What is reasonable? I will admit ignorance here, does the constitution define “reasonable”?
If anyone is a victim, it is the airlines. They used to offer a flight in exchange for money. Now they have to offer a flight and an involved security procedure plus the flight for your money.
But people are not complaining that they are being “searched unreasonably”, they are whining because someone needs to get pretty close to their balls to do so.
Nobody complained about the routine searches before (y’know, you go through the metal detector, it bleeps, you get a pat down). It is just a bit more invasive now.
Big deal, someone’s got to touch you, what exactly is the problem? Its not like they just walk up behind you in the airport lobby and give you the reacharound, you go to the airport knowing exactly where, when and how you will/may be searched.
Has anyone been measured for a suit? That gets pretty personal…
Fair enough, I think it might make the lines longer. Thats about the biggest thing I can think of.
Ok, I get it, nobody wants big brother d**king about with our lives, nobody wants a slow decay into some sort of dystopian police-state.
But really, if it WAS the big scary government forcing a fear-mongering overbearing security procedure upon yu, exactly what will it accomplish for them? What would their motives be?
Do you know what I think the motives for the “enhanced” security procedures are?
-If they weren’t there, the next time something DID happen (and Im not even talking terrorism here, almost anything) then there would be a flood of lawsuits screaming “Why weren’t more precautions taken?”
Can you think of any better precautions? There arn’t that many alternatives to physical, on-body searches.
There are always two sides. The TSA agents that feel upset by the responses of fliers need to understand that many people are against the pat downs because we have been abused by angry TSA staff.
So what came first? The ego-power hunger TSA agent who abuses his authority, and the angry flier? What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Everyone should be polite, that means both sides, and understand it’s a new or different person in front of them, and act accordingly.
> A Nazi is someone with hatred and ignorance in their hearts, a person who
> carried out actions of execution and extermination
And most of them didn’t like it either, but, they ALL followed orders.
Look at milgrims experiments. They say one thing, very clearly. The vast majority of us. That is, the next time you are in a crowd, look left, right, forward, and back. Statistically speaking, you need a couple more people before you can say that one of you would refuse to torture a man to death, if a man in a lab coat with a lab protocol told you to continue the protocol.
Why were jews killed in concentration camps? Ever wonder that? A friend of mine, a history buff, pointed it out to me recently. The Nazi’s found that their soldiers didn’t like to murder unarmed civilians, even jews. It was bad for morale. So… their job just became putting them on trains. Not so bad for morale. Then you can do the dirty work off in another place, by a few people.
Essentially, they did the same thing that we do here. We seperate the jobs, so no individual has to call himself responsible, but, the whole system can still be overbearing and… molesting people on an industrial scale.
The direction of the march is obvious. Fasicsm has always thrived on irrational fear. Thats all this is, irrational fear of extremely rare and unlikely events. We could roll back airport security to 1985 levels, and it would still, mile for mile, be way safer than driving.
And THAT is the bottom line.
@ 650 David
You are a horrible bigot that has no idea about anything in the world. You probably still think locking up all the Japanese Americans during WWII makes perfect sense. I mean, hell, they could have been spies. Oh right, it turns out most spies for Japan were white Americans who hated America. Any race, color, or creed can be a terrorist, so shut the hell up.
We don’t know how many disasters have been prevented so far by making it very hard for criminals to smuggle weapons on board. Listen to the recordings from passengers who called home one last time from a hijacked plane to say goodbye. That could be your child, mother, brother, husband. Or you. Get over it and appreciate that everything possible is being done to save innocent lives. I don’t care about your pricacy in this case, because it may save my life. I also don’t care that the likelyhood of being hijacked is next to nothing. It may be so low because we have this system in place.
The “I’m just doing my job” excuse is an extremely poor and lazy cop out. The TSA is a business, and like any other business in order to succeed and thrive it must have the support of it’s customers, in this case air travelers. Instead of just rolling over on the “I’m just doing my job” excuse, if you sided with your unhappy customers and helped bring these complaints to upper level management/government then we could start to see some real change and you will get the support of the traveling public. So stop whining and do something about it, because i hate to tell you but the customer is always right, no matter what the job.
I would have a modicum of sympathy for these folks if it weren’t for the fact that every experience with these folks has told me they are not trained for customer service. They are surly, rude, and downright mean to passengers who do so much as grumble about the procedures. If they know that their job entails humiliating and inconveniencing thousands of people a day, the least they could do is pretend to feel sorry about it, or at least be polite. A little “I apologize, ma’am, but I’m going to have to pat you down”, or some show of sympathy toward the passengers they’re herding through these procedures would go a long, long way toward combating the negative feelings shown toward them on a daily basis.
@ #656 Stephen Carpenter
“molesting people on an industrial scale”
Surely “molesting” implies some kind of sexual, malicious intent?
Do you think some organisation decided “HAHAHAHA!!! I know! Lets use the excuse of “airport security” to get thousands of goverment employees to get their rocks off feeling up random people!!”?
Sounds pretty ridiculous hey?
Keep in mind that TSA WBI scanners cannot store or transmit images while in service in the field … it simply can’t happen with the current hardware … so the images will never end up colour inverted. As soon as someone passes through the scanner the image must be wiped for the next image to appear.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Now I find parts of this comment humorous. What about those 35,000 images that were saved from the courthouse in Florida? Seems as if they do have the capacity to store images now doesn’t it? And, You can’t say the colors will never be inverted, you don’t know that Fish. Once they have the images they can do whatever they would like. Sorry for any typos, this was posted from my phone.
TSA workers serving the country? How naive do you think the public is? Pat-Downs and scanners are Police State measures to accustom law-abiding citizens to humiliation at the hands of government!
All it takes to waste this improper motive and insulting security measure is for the flying public to abstain from flying–once, twice, three times a year.
Hey, let’s bankrupt an airline and see how long “Obama scare” continues.
-G. Baloghsma
You know, they said it eloquently in the movie Clerks. Personal politics have to play a part in the job you choose. You are working for an agency that has decided I can only be made safe by impinging on my personal space and personal freedoms. I’d really love to see statistics on how much safer I >ACTUALLY< am today over the pre-grope / pre-full-body-scan days. Yes, it is terribly, terribly sad that several thousand people lost their lives in 9/11 – I HONESTLY feel for the families of those people. Also, where is the safety data, especially for frequent travelers, for in the "full body scanner" – I can completely understand why people don't want to be bombarded with radiation / x-rays any more than they have to. How thoroughly are the folks doing the pat-down trained? I hope more thoroughly than a police officer, who doesn't touch your private areas during a pat-down, is.
While the TSA agents feel "you need to work with me, this is a tough job" the fact is this IS your job. You need to grow a thicker skin, but be calm and polite and considerate. Imagine every person you are confronting is your own mother or father and treat them with that level of respect. The citizens whose personal space and freedoms you are impinging don't experience this every day and I am sure it IS jarring to them to have you touch them in these places – you shouldn't be surprised by their expressing their frustration about this. While the TSA agent knows "why" he or she is doing the groping (or just that it is part of the job), how comfortable would it make you feel if you were the one being groped? If someone was groping your child?
“All it takes for the triumph of tyranny is for good men (people) to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
Let’s stop doing nothing!
Baloghsma
Ravinggenius:
I suggest you reconsider your name. Any person who works for the Federal Government are payed by the U.S. taxpayer, hence the term “Serving your country”. The employee is serving the people who ultimately pay them, regardless of what we think of the TSA they are still serving the country.
Suggesting that the TSA screeners get off on feeling out people is simply irresponsible and grossly ignorant. I completely agree that these searches are a blatant violation of our 4th Amendment Rights however we need to keep in mind that many of these screeners have families to feed in a time where the economy is still in recession and jobs are still scarce. Unfortunately, to find stable, alternate employment is easier said than done. At the end of the day when the TSA employees go home, it is their children and families they are working for, not the desire to grope one’s junk.
____________________
Ravingenius:
Do TSA employees work for the federal government? Yes, therefore they are serving our country.
Wrong! Just because someone works for the federal government does not mean they are serving the country.
To the TSO’s complaining:
1. The TSA has always been hated and always been verbally abused. You should have realized that before you took the job. If you don’t like it quit. I realize that you’re just doing your job, which is why until recently I’ve never given the TSA crap (although you’ve crossed a line).
2. It’s an immediate way for passengers to tell you that they don’t like what you’re doing. Maybe you should take your concerns to your supervisor and ask that he convey up the chain. Passengers clearly don’t like what the TSA is doing, and we have a right to complain. Telling us we can’t complain, which is what your union would like to do, is just another step further in the wrong direction.
3. You’re probably also uncomfortable with the fact that you’re being asked to touch people in these ways. Make your personal concerns known as well, and make it known to your supervisor. Doing your job without speaking out is no excuse.
Billy Bob,
The images you reference were from the US Marshal Service… not the TSA. The US Marshal Service has different hardware, procured through the Dept of Justice. The TSA uses different procurement channels through the Dept of Homeland Security.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
To those who are comparing the TSA workers to Nazis:
Yes, I understand the similarities of their “just following orders” refrain. However, I would like to point out that one set of orders was intended to bring about the mass murder of an entire race. One is not. I’d say that’s a pretty big difference.
Feel free to complain about a loss of personal liberty due to these people following their orders. But it is insulting and disrespectful to the memory of their victims to compare that to what happened when the Nazis followed THEIR orders.
Personally, I support any measure that will help to ensure no one boards my flight with a weapon of any sort strapped to their body. No, I don’t want to be touched by a stranger, but if even one life is saved as a result, it’s worth a few minutes of my discomfort. Imagine if that life were yours. (Sure, go ahead and respond and tell me how these measures will not make flying any safer. And maybe they won’t. But you don’t know that for sure. You can say you do, but you really, truly don’t. The screenings certainly won’t result in MORE people bringing weapons on planes, and that’s the outcome I care most about.) However, you are all entitled to your own opinions, and I respect your right to express them. But I do not respect anyone making this Nazi comparison. It is both offensive and inaccurate.
These TSA officers are doing what is necessary to make our country safe!
I absolutely agree that they are serving our country.
If you have the option to walk away from your job then congratulations but some Americans do not have that luxury in times like today.
Besides- without TSA there would be no flying! so maybe you shouldnt encourage them to quit or go on strike.
if you do not like this policy then do not fly! there are alternative ways to move across our country that are less invasive.
hate your job? do us all a favor and quit.
@661 pete:
No, but thats kind of besides the point. The point is, irrational fear (which is all the justification for the TSA is) and “security” can be used to justify ANYTHING. Seriously… ANYTHING.
If you believe terrorism is a credible threat to your flight, then don’t even think about letting your children near a car. Those things are veritable death traps compared to planes… and thats counting not just terrorists but ALL of the reasons for problems on planes, including mechanical failures, pilot errors, and air traffic control mistakes. ALL COMBINED, still safer than driving, mile by mile.
Yet, we allow this irrational fear to set our policy. We will be humiliated in public, or forced to allow some peeping tom in a dark room to check out our bodies. Never mind our bodies… to violate the privacy of the area under our clothing…. and for what? To make no difference AT ALL in real safety.
Best case scenario for the TSA, is they make getting a bomb on a plane hard enough that terrorist planners just hit schools and shopping malls instead. Yay TSA, making us safer every day!
Seriously, if some airline decided to implement a full cavity, flashlight up the rectum cavity search just to board their plane, even if they did it with no private rooms, right out in public. As long as they posted the policy so I could see it before I bought my ticket, I wouldn’t complain (I might laugh).
However, its not an airline. Its the government, and they impose these restrictions for everyone. WHy? If there was an airline that allowed me to walk on the plane, sit down, and buy a ticket, in cash from my seat with no x-ray…. I would feel perfectly safe flying in it. Period. I would choose them EVERY TIME.
Why can’t we, as air travelers, vote with our dollars for which security regime we want?
One further point about TSA’s credibility, and about whether they are doing “what is necessary to make our country safe!” as FL put it.
TSA has stated that they routinely conduct tests of their security by trying to smuggle fake weapons through as a blind test of the screeners. However for “security reasons” they do not release the results of these tests to the public thus we have no way to judge as a flying, and tax-paying, public how well they are doing. Ergo we do not really know whether these procedures are keeping us safe.
Furthermore, in the few cases where reports have been leaked to the public or where reports have been written, the results are abysmal. In Portland, apparently, TSA routinely tipped off the agents that they were being tested. While a 2006 report on Newark Liberty International Airport reported 20 of 22 tests failed. Subsequent IG reports have blasted the TSA’s effectiveness.
Ultimately the TSA as an agency has refused to engage with the public or submit to any real oversight always claiming “security” and when they do get some or some is leaked the results are awful. In effect when the public complains the TSA simply screams back “Shut up we are keeping you safe!” and continues on. In the cases cited above, for example, the TSA chose not to address problems or admit to failures but to hunt down the sources of the leaks.
As a consequence one is left feeling that, as an agency, they do not want to, or may not be able to, keep us safe but are focused more on keeping us scared and compliant.
what a pack of losers!
they’re not ‘serving their country’, they’re simply lackies too dimwitted to realize or care they’re actually abusing people for a paycheque.
yeah, & Nazis did *that* too… they whinged after the fact that they were patriots ‘doing their jobs’.
if you wanna serve your country, stop being a whingy little bitch & say something to your employers about such abuses of people.
nobody cares if you’re abused, you’re the loser freak who is willing to take the paycheque to mistreat people, cop an attitude & violate human rights.
We’ve seen your nasty little sneers, abuses of people & the way you swagger about. Really nice how you moan about how horrible it is to have to touch fat people, too.
lovely: aren’t you just the cream of humanity to look down your noses at other people.
why don’t you get a real job that doesn’t abuse people for fun & profit, & stop bitching? don’t you love how the HomeLand Abusers are now using the feelings of their lackies to influence international opinion?
how about those millions of people whose governments are being strongarmed by the US into buying & implementing all these dumbass policies? …yeah, its about *the US* not the rest of us putting up with you, right?
you “TSOs” make me sick. you have the audacity to complain about the procedures and yet there you stand implementing them. If you don’t feel that the procedures are right then find a new job. we have all had to do that at one time or another.
TSOs are the next brown shirts. blindly following flawed ideology.
You all say this is a chosen profession… the only reason I’ve chosen to work for TSA is because at first they offered decent pay compared to the minimum wage I was getting and I would be able to go to school to better my career in a different CHOSEN profession. Since then, my need for paying my bills and keeping a roof over my head has put my schooling on hold like many TSO you come in contact with. I’m the sole provider for my family at the moment so this is a job and I do my best at my job. Professionalism takes away the supposed harassment you think you’re getting. Unless I’m standing their calling you stupid for being here and saying other humiliating things to your face, you are NOT being molested or harass. Most passengers are saying these things to OUR FACES and they know we can’t just talk back with out some sort of backlash from our superiors. None of you like being called names at your job and you think you can justify it because of what our job is? There’s plenty of soldiers who have had their funerals protested at because of the war they were fighting, yet you’d be outraged by that. Police officers that have been kicked, beaten, shot and killed, all because of what they do day to day, and yet, you’d be outraged by that. These people are protecting us day in and day out and yet, some of you people can’t see that I’m the front line defense in preventing another plane being hijacked and not see it fly into another building killing 3,000 + people again? There are people out there that want Americans dead because they hate our western society. They think their religion and views on how we should be and they use violent tactics to get their point across. They will take down trains, planes, any area that has massive amounts of people to make a big impact on us. They will and have used disguises to look just like you to get past security and do harm. While this threat is there, there will be a need for my job. And I bet that if you needed a job, you’d be next to put your application in with TSA and do what you have to, to put food on your table.
So where will these agents draw the line? When will they stand up to these idiotic policies? When the government introduces cavity searches? Is it at this point the agents will have no fear of losing their jobs because they will have no families to feed, will they now be capable of standing up to their bosses? The point is, it is never easy to stand up and say no to wrong. There will always be something to lose; jobs, income, family, even one’s life. I think if both the agents and the passengers protest these absurd measures, then positive change can be achieved. But that will require sacrifice from both parties – be it quitting your job, or choosing not to fly.
#634 Other Oscar; as a non-American, I completely and totally agree with you.
It is sad though that the terrorist have won. The American people are fearful, frustrated and their way of life is changing (and not for the better!) I had posted earlier that I flew into NY in February 2010 and at the airport in Amsterdam, all passengers had to go through the full body scan AND the pat down. On my way back, passing through Amsterdam, we did not go through these procedures. So everyone flying into the States is a potential terrorist, and now too all Americans in their own country are potential terrorists. I rest my case.
For those who say that we would be the first to attack the TSA’s if there was an attack on a plane, you are implying that we would do away with all manner of screening. No, that is not what we are saying. Many people have pointed out the example of Israel and other countries that do not have the body scan and pat down procedures at their airports and have had no terrorist-plane attacks. So it can be done in a non-humiliating way. Humiliating for both the agent and the passenger. The government should spend time and money in those alternative methods. In this case, follow the money. Who is to gain from these procedures? Follow the money!
@651 Eric
I am offended at the assertion that I may be against the TSA because I don’t care about the deaths on 9/11. Far from it.
9/11 was tragic. It was also, a publicity stunt. That is all terrorism ever is. It is a message. Actually its a dual message… a message of “be afraid, we are a real threat” to us, and a message of “See what we can do, we are effective!” to supporters.
The TSA helps both of those messages. The TSA’s very existence says “Yup, They are a credible threat, and they are effective, we will spend millions and billions, while we cower in fear from the real threat”.
The reality? Far from the perception. They are NOT a real threat. Face it, blowing stuff up is easy. Anybody with a few hundred dollars and some time on their hands (and maybe… basic math skills… oh… I guess that does cut out a lot of Americans…) can blow stuff up. Get away with it even. How long did it take to catch the Unabomber?
That is the EASY part. The hard part? Training, coordination, operations. Running an operational organization that handles people who want to carry out attacks, plans them, and executes them? That is hard. That is where most plots fall apart or are stopped.
If this were a real threat, we would have seen planes going down daily. When that became hard, we would see trains, malls, sporting events. Simple fact: we don’t. These people have been operating since the damned early 90s, and it took then 3 tries to take down the WTC towers…. in all those years.
This is not a credible threat. Its a rare event by a small, rather insignificant organization, that shouldn’t worry us.
For those who think the body scans and the pat-downs are necessary, please read this link – http://www.huliq.com/10061/john-tyner-might-israels-airport-security-better-us –
@677 Junk Toucher
> You all say this is a chosen profession… the only reason I’ve chosen to work
> for TSA is because at first they offered decent pay compared to the
> minimum wage I was getting and I would be able to go to school to better
> my career in a different CHOSEN profession
Ok… so you chose it. I am sure there are many Nazi officers who joined up for the great pay and good benefits too. You know a lot of them didn’t even hate jews? It was just a job afterall.
Anyway, you chose, good pay, and good benefits, in exchange for molesting people and being verbally abused by people who resent you for making them be humiliated so you can catch a paycheck.
Its just part of the job. Its not like you enjoy pushing people into ovens, but it sure beats stocking shelves for a living, eh?
-Steve
If you don’t like being called a molester, DON’T MOLEST PEOPLE! If you don’t like being called a child pornohrapher then DON’T LOOK AT NAKED PICTURES OF KIDS!
You TSOs do BOTH! A nazi comparison is valid to anybody that “just follows orders”. It doesn’t matter what the end result of the action is, but saying that “I’m just doing my job/following orders” didn’t work at Neuremberg and won’t work now! In SO many ways the average TSO is worse than the average Nazi since many nazis did not join the military and actively hurt anyone but EVERY TSA AGENT IS A MOLESTER WHO VIOLATES CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. You can choose the right path BUT YOU DON’T – so expect to be held accountable!
If you don’t do the right thing soon, expect letters and phone calls to your neighbors and posters around the neighborhoods of all TSOs outing them as perverts and molesters complete with pictures and phone numbers. That is where this is headed and it is going to happen very soon…
If you believe terrorism is a credible threat to your flight, then don’t even think about letting your children near a car. Those things are veritable death traps compared to planes… and thats counting not just terrorists but ALL of the reasons for problems on planes, including mechanical failures, pilot errors, and air traffic control mistakes. ALL COMBINED, still safer than driving, mile by mile
@679 Stephen Carpenter
The real truth of this is that, yes, this is all unneccessary procedures to ensure safety, but the sad part of this article is that it seemingly is falling on deaf ears. People have lost their reasoning skills.
Like, if they hate the policy then they should quit? There is currently a recession and jobs aren’t really easy to come by. Why would you quit a job that provides for your family, especially now.
And no one has really stopped and considered what is really worse, being pat down by one person or having to pat down hundreds of people. I would prefer the first one. And I would be thankful for it. I mean when rude fliers can break a two-tour soldier without a second thought? How low has our respect for one another come?
If you hate the policy, don’t take it out on the people making a living and hating it MORE than you. They are the ones touching hundreds of people and then having to go home to families. There are more civilized ways to voice your hatred of something. Not on workers who have no hand in actually changing the policy.
It’s time for the TSA workers to go on strike, then. To refuse to implement these procedures which are pointless and degrading for all involved.
You want to make me submit to violations of my 4th amendment rights and expect me to abdicate my 1st amendment rights at the same time? Forget it.
The workers of the TSA have some power to bring this to an end. They can organize and stop it or they can counted as collaborators.
#633, forget nazis, what you said is exactly what terrorists say. Well done.
I think all the TSOs should call in sick on Wednesday. All of them, every airport in the US. They should stay home, put up their feet, watch TV and celebrate.
Teach these ungrateful privileged complainers a lesson, and put giving thanks back into Thanksgiving.
These TSOs are my neighbors, my children’s friends’ parents, and the single parent that lost their ‘good’ job. Most of them only have a high school diploma and very few have any security training other than what TSA gives them.
I do believe they find the ‘pat downs’ objectionable but, for those that don’t know, it’s cold out there with few jobs (even fewer that have benefits).
The problem I have with the theater is two-fold:
1) Osama Bin Laden has repeatedly said (paraphrase), “I spend $1 in order to make the US spend $1M.”; and,
2) Contrary to governmental agency myth, I have not heard of any serious plot that would have otherwise succeeded being caught out at the security line.
Why is it that flag-carrying airlines that face much more daunting, and meaningful, risks don’t follow TSA’s lead? Is it because they use ex-military intelligence types for airport security? Is it because they don’t advertise the real measures being taken? Is it because they do extensive background screening and profiling? Hmmmm….
I pity my neighbors/friends that work as TSOs but understand that they need to feed, clothe, and provide basic health care for their families. I only wish my government would hire, or we would elect, competent people that proactively learn from other, more advanced, examples.
Don’t like the nasty comments? Tough! Resisting abuse of our civil rights is a duty of ever American. The people who abuse us have a choice – join the resistance, quit the job, or knowingly and willingly follow the orders of an increasingly oppressive government like a good little brown shirt. We should have no sympathy whatsoever for people who “just follow orders,” no matter how abusive, to keep their jobs.If they quit due to stress, go home crying, break down, etc. – GREAT. If the TSA can’t maintain their staff due to high turnover, that’s a win.
Honestly, people are unhappy with themselves and their pathetic lives. Therefore, when they get to the airport and have something/someone to lash out at, they let the flood gates open and begin acting like self-righteous assholes “because they can and because they feel justified.”
As posted, flying IS a privilege. You’re more than welcome to take a bus or a train, drive or hike; flying is not a right.
All that said, I’m opposed to being groped, but I’m MORE opposed to being blown up.
I am concerned that the scanners may expose me to unnecessary radiation.
I would rather strip naked in front of the agents then have them touch me through my clothes. I do not care what they see, I just do not want them to touch me.
For those who like Nazi references, “Arbeit macht frei.”
I’m noticing the argument by the anti-TSA people is becoming more childish by the day. As a someone who travels often I understand that security lines are a hassle and take forever. However, MOST of the issue has to deal with the idiots in the line not the TSA. 75% of the people in line don’t get prepared to go past security which lead to major delays. I just want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Whatever security obstacles I have to go through to get there, I will. I’ve been patted down before by TSA agents and I’ve never had an issue with it. If you aren’t comfortable enough in your own skin and with your own sexuality that you can not handle a pat down or another man brushing your junk, then you need to grow up and have no business being in an airport as you probably have no money and no real reason to be there.
Rick…if you don’t have a problem with a stranger touching your junk (so to speak) then may I suggest that you have a problem with knowing what is right and wrong, moral and immoral behaviour…by God.
Of course you may not believe in God which is another issue but don’t decry the statements against what the TSA is doing as some kind of brainless idiocy by those who are not “comfortable enough in their own skin”.
I am very comfortable in my own skin for one. My objections have nothing to do with what you assume to be the case. They fall squarely on the side of wanting the U.S. Constitution to be respected by the U.S. Government (specifically the 4th Amendment) and a belief that the human body is not meant to be fondled in the interests of keeping us safe.
The image of a little child being patted down by a TSA agent that I saw yesterday makes me sick. The incosiderate treatment of innocent Americans while Muslim women are allowed preferential treatment in not having to endure a full pat down makes me angry.
This is not about anyone feeling comfortable in their own sexuality as you maintain. If you believe that may I say that you are the one that needs to grow up (your words) and not those who are resistant to the indignity that TSA screening has become.
Carlos
I called Southwest and let them know as long as the TSA is doing patdowns and using scanners they will not be getting my money.
I used to fly with them the most.
If everyone on this list and their contacts and their contacts called the airlines..ALL of the airlines, and told them they are not getting their money, we may make a difference in this 4th amendment destroying TSA policy. Money Talks. Airlines listen.
I have always enjoyed the trains…
If you TSA perverts and deviants don’t like the cold reaction from the American People then I suggest you get you Union Bosses to file suit against management. Tell, your Union Bosses that is wrong for management to require you to violate the law in order for you to keep your job.
Cause I’ll tell you this perverts: If anyone one of the public busts your head because you are molesting them I going to rule it a valid case of self-defence. I don’t want to even hear your sobs. I was only following the unlawful orders of the Obama Junta is not a valid excuse!
If you haven’t read the US Constitution I strongly suggest that you do so now. Comrade Obama may have issued those unlawful orders but you are directly responsible for following them and carrying them out.
I can appreciate that this is bad for the TSA employees, but maybe not for the reasons stated. Yes, they are on the receiving end of verbal abuse, and that is wrong. It is equally wrong to displace that verbal abusive into abusive attitudes (whether spoken or not) towards others, like the passengers or the obese….Yes they are being demoralized, the ones viewing the scans are viewing pornography as part of their job description. My state police agency provides psychological support for the guys working on Internet Crimes, because no matter what the context this is very, very personally destructive over a period of time…..I don’t think everybody gets that, for those who have been sexually abused or carry body shame for any other reason (injury, disability, eating disorders, etc.), the scan is just as horrible as the pat down. Just KNOWING that somebody is looking at their naked body can trigger all kinds of destructive reactions, and they can last well beyond the actual experience…..No end of demoralizing going on here. Wonder who benefits most from a demoralized society? Just sayin…..
Wow, I’m surprised how mean-spirited some of these comments are. Save the bitching for those who make policy. It’s not like leaving to find a new job is a walk in the park, especially in this economy. Have a heart, people.
“As posted, flying IS a privilege.”
Oh, really Tim. Who gave you the authority to grant rest of us the privilege to board an airplane? Did god grant you that authority? Or did you and few other tyrants take this power on by your own authority?
For the life of me I don’t remember the fourth amendment being lawfully repealed. For that matter no citizen has the right grope another nor the right to transfer that power on behalf of another agent. You really should read the Declaration of Independence. It might introduce you to something called natural law.
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ” – Ben Franklin
Oh, Tim I afraid that one of the wisest man that ever existed would consider you a very lousy American.
Here’s the deal, crybaby parasites – if the policy that you hate carrying out causes you to get an increased amount of abuse from the public, report it up the chain and agitate for effective security measures instead of job-creating Security Theater. If you are the public face of ridiculous and illegal policies, and that bothers you, it’s time to look in the mirror instead of being upset with American citizens who are subject to what you are doing.
Sorry, Mr. Redcoat, I know you’re just doing your job and enforcing the policies of the Crown… if everyone would simply comply, life would be so much simpler….
When it is on record that TSA TSOs have been caught calling the AIT scanners a “Dick Measuring Device,” when TSOs have been caught making fun of the size of co-workers’ genitals, when TSOs bust a patient’s urostomy bag, ask to see a prosthetic breast, when most TSOs are sexual deviants, pedophiles, and child molesters(some convicted), when male TSOs escort female passengers to the pat-down area by saying, “Come here, cookie, I need to feel you up before you board that plane,” when TSOs plant fake cocaine on female passengers to try to win sexual favors from them, etc. . .
The list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on . . .
And we’re supposed to sit back and say this is acceptable?
Have a heart? Forget it. They keep telling us, “if you don’t like it, don’t fly” — well, if they don’t like getting verbally abused when they are violating people’s rights, they can damn well get another job as far as I’m concerned. Not a walk in the park? Too bad. I don’t have another way to go see my family, but they don’t seem to care about that when they force me to submit to their abuse.
TSA workers ought to also be protesting and refusing to carry out this unnecessary BS, and if they aren’t, I have zero sympathy for them.