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!

866 Comments

  1. Fish:

    You need to review the difference between “analogy” and “equivalence.” An analogy shows a common pattern or characteristic shared between two things, intended in rhetoric to illustrate a deeper principle or further an argument. An equivalence is used to suggest that something is fundamentally like something else in all relevant respects. So if someone says “TSOs are Nazi stormtroopers” or “TSOs are just like the SS” then you have a valid objection to the Nazi comparison.

    If, however, the TSOs say, “I’m just following orders,” while doing something wrong, and people rightly point out that we didn’t accept that argument out of actual Nazis who strip searched people and confiscated their belongings in support of an illegal and immoral policy, then while people aren’t saying TSOs should be hung at Nuremberg because they’ve killed people, they are saying that they are excusing actions in support of an unconstitutional, immoral, and useless policy with the same argument we didn’t accept in 1945/46.

    So if you’re prepared to accept that argument now, you’re prepared to say that “just following orders” is an OK excuse so long as you didn’t actually kill people. And that means that any actual Nazis who didn’t kill people were wrongly convicted, and you’re against that.

    If you can’t stand that conclusion, then you have to say why that principle doesn’t apply here, and come up with some justification that following illegal and immoral orders is OK when the result isn’t death for the person whose rights are violated.

    I can’t come up with that justification, which is why I have no sympathy for police who get civil rights lawsuits for violating the rights of people even though they weren’t seeking to kill them. And similarly, while I don’t want to abuse the TSOs, I also don’t want them to think I approve of their actions and will let them know it. And if they say they were just following orders, I’ll remind them that we didn’t accept that excuse out of Nazis, don’t accept that excuse out of people working for Bernie Madoff, and I don’t accept that excuse out of them.

  2. I’m pretty sure we as Western Civilization decided in 1946 that “I was just following orders” isn’t an acceptable excuse. If you work for the government, you’re personally responsible for the orders you carry out on its behalf. That’s the nature of civil service. Boo hoo for the TSA screeners pwecious feelings.

  3. I have to say, regardless of whether they feel bad about molesting people, people still have a right to be hurt because they are being molested. I feel bad for these people but they can’t expect to be exempt from the shame of molesting people just because someone else told them to.

  4. I say the faster we can break the TSOs the faster we can change the policy. I’m sorry – they’re crying about unkind words? We’re being assaulted by them for goodness sake. Who has the worse end of that stick? If the TSA can’t find anyone to do the job, then so be it. Much like we have the “choice” not to fly, these people have the “choice” not to work for an employer that requires them to sexually molest people hundreds of times a day. Cry me a river! TSOs ARE Nazis, perverts, and creeps. If you don’t like being informed of your loathsome character – quit. I won’t fly, and you shouldn’t work for the TSA.

  5. I’m not American, and I know the rules might be different, but I did screening for 5 years at an airport on Canada. Let me say that without a doubt it was the worst job I’ve ever had… and hopefully ever will have. You feel like your trying to help keep people safe, but no one cares, you get yelled at (and for one coworker kicked) for doing your job. I understand people are angry about these new pat-downs, even I think they sound too invasive (compared to the old style). But being an asshole to the TSOs will not help you’re cause. You’re just breaking down a person, someone just like you. You might think you could never do that job or be that person, but you don’t know circumstances behind why someone is in the job that they are. So yes work together with the TSO, talk to them about what they’re doing, ask then how they feel a about it, encourage them to talk to their supervisors. Don’t scream rape, pervert, etc at their faces. Be polite. Becaus even if a TSO quits there’s plenty of people that comes in to replace them. But only this time you’re getting searched by someone new, and slower than the original officers. Write to people in your government, protest outside of Washington, but please don’t a douche. Despite the job being horrible the people I worked with were (for the most part) really fun, and wonderful people. TSOs are not all Nazis. It’s time to get rid of this immature us vs. them attitude, because it won’t get anyone any decent results.

  6. American,
    The choices currently given to those selected for additional screening by the TSA are, a) the AIT scanners, b) the “enhanced” patdown procedure, c) leave the airport under threat of a civil lawsuit and a $11k fine.

    From my research on health care, an unexpected $11k expense is sufficient to bankrupt many Americans.

    My personal policy is that the original patdowns (back of hand) is acceptable. Looking but not touching by a same-gender agent is acceptable, but photography of is not.

    Therefore, if I am selected for additional screening, I will opt-out of the AIT scanner.

    I will not consent to an enhanced patdown.

    I will have the TSA number on my cell phone, and offer the agent to use their HumInt information to pull all my data and determine whether I truly pose a threat to the country I love. I consider terrorism against my own country an act of treason. (Terrorism against another country is an unacceptable act of violence.) If my country considers me to be treasonous, then it needs to fire me.

    I will offer the same-gender agent selected to pat me down the option to take me to a private room, where they can examine my clothes without me in them, provided the private room has no cameras.

    I will be polite and courteous with the TSOs performing their duties. But these are my boundaries. Look, don’t touch, and no photos.

    If none of these options are acceptable, I will not fly.

    I do not take kindly to the threat of a lawsuit and an $11k fine. But I will defend myself in court if necessary, and let the legal system work its course.

  7. I’m sorry – when a woman tells a TSO that when they are touching and groping her breasts and genitalia it feels like they are molesting her, I can’t work up any sympathy for the TSO considering that ‘verbal abuse’. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, ANYONE touching my body without my consent and approval will be molesting me, even moreso if it is being done under duress (Do you want to fly today?) If a TSO feels ‘verbally abused’, imagine how that woman feels? Perhaps she was also a survivor of sexual abuse.

    We hear constantly that ‘flying is not a right’. But I have a right to freely travel the US. I don’t have a specific right to drive or ride a bike or take a train or any other form of conveyance – are those of you who say ‘flying is not a right’ prepared to let the police frisk you for no reason any time they want every time you step onto a public right-of-way? After all, if it’s going to make us safer, and you have nothing to hide, you should have absolutely no problem with it.

    For those TSOs who are prior service – thank you for your sacrifice to our country. However, the oath I took was to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. I would not take a civilian job that required me to violate that oath once, let alone all day every day. I’d work a double shift cleaning up manure at a stockyard first. I’d live homeless on the street first. But that’s just me. My allegiance is and has always been to the Constitution of the United States first, and to my CiC second. If my CiC demanded I violate the Constitution, my allegiance to him or her is gone.

    Remember – our government answers to us. We do not answer to it. The minute we forget that and allow our RIGHTS to be usurped, we are lost.

  8. If there were a viable alternative to flying for those of us who live more than a two-day drive from our loved ones, I’d be happy to tolerate all the ‘if you don’t like it, you don’t have to fly’ comments.

    If you really think that these ‘you consent to whatever because you want to fly’ arguments are valid, why not offer a REAL choice. Have some high-security terminals with electronic strip searches and invasive hand-searches (hell, why not go one step further and do a cavity search). And then have other terminals with more reasonable magnetometers-and-luggage-xray security. Let people choose what level of security they want.

    The bottom line is that none of this is necessary. If you bought one lottery ticket in the past 30 years, you are more likely to have won than to have been killed by terrorists if you’d flown twice a week every week for the last 30 years. With those odds, it is unconscionable for the TSA to force people to risk their lives on far more dangerous highways if they’re uncomfortable with being strip-searched – electronically or otherwise.

    And the TSOs who enforce this policy, if you really find it as distasteful as you claim, need to refuse to do it. If we have a ‘choice’ not to fly, then surely you have a choice whether to implement a policy which causes distress and discomfort to both you and the public you serve, without providing meaningful protection. Frankly, to do otherwise is to harm the country you claim to serve.

  9. TSA workers WHO KNOW THIS IS WRONG, SHOULD NOT SHOW UP TO WORK ON THE 24th. TSA workers, just because you are following orders does not mean you cannot Protest. As you dehumanize us, we too realize they are dehumanizing you. Join the protest and DO NOT SHOW UP FOR WORK ON THE 24th Till they give you back your dignity!!

  10. Radiated or molested some choice.How about use your brains and profile .For all you people saying it saves lives never has any terrorist been caught this way . Period.

  11. Wow. I was planning to attend an annual convention in Manhattan and visit my daughter in New Jersey in January. This is unimaginably horrible. I’m thinking that I should just stay home. Maybe we should all just stop flying.

  12. So, telling those people how disgusting and offensive is what they are doing actually works. Deep under their uniforms and badges they do have conscience that tells them there’s something wrong with what they are doing, and maybe groping fellow citizen’s scrotum is not how you defend your country. This is very good. Now if only more people would not be afraid to openly express their feelings about what is being done to people that actually are doing it – it may stop quite soon. If ordinary TSA people refuse to do it, then either this will stop or the bureaucrats that invented this idiocy would have to come out of their cabinets and do it themselves.
    The worst part of it is that it hurts all citizens on both sides of the security check, but only by keeping up with not accepting the abuse we can hope it would eventually stop. If we submit to it under the guise of “they are nice guys just wanting to protect us” it will only get worse.

  13. Lets pray they all get cancer from the xray machines. They are sick perverted scum, it will only get worse as only the sickets remain. You do not want your children in an airport.

  14. I could not possibly care less. Seriously. Not setting policy is no excuse for not standing up for what you believe in. If you don’t like performing these molestations, if you feel they are morally wrong…refuse to perform them, or simply quit. I find their pathetic mewling repulsive.

  15. “Just doing my job”

    Ugh. We are ALL responsible for our society. Just fking refuse. Sounds like the type of excuse German concentration camp guards would have had after the war, or those responsible for holding political prisoners in communist countries.

    Take a stand.

  16. don’t harass the TSOs who are doing their job and carrying out the policy that YOU AGREED TO COMPLY WITH when you purchased your ticket.

    But that’s not the case. My contract is with the airline, and I’m adhering completely to their conditions of carriage, just as I’m expecting the airline to fulfill those requirements completely.

    However, TSA is requiring me to submit to security policies that they themselves classify as “secret” and will not release. And threatening people with fines for breaking laws that only they know about.

  17. Fish,
    Re: comment #22 to Damien:
    Your statement has been shown to not be entirely correct. Professionals in the xray and physics field have written this letter to the government in their concern over the lack of medical safety with these scanners:
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ucsf-jph-letter.pdf
    Until I see that time has been taken to actually do the research around these scanners and their affects, I will not be going through them.
    And, I will be civil and polite to the people who will then have to feel me up (pat me down), while still voicing my dislike for the policy.
    I have already contacted my Senators and written letters to the TSA, and must now look for other ways to get these policies turned around.

  18. To the TSA agents who are hating your job.

    If you hate your job, quit. You were not drafted. You are not “serving” your fellow citizens. You are not doing a single thing that increases air travel security. (The only post 9/11 changes that have actually increased air travel security are reinforcing the cockpit door, and the passengers will now not sit quietly and wait for rescue).

    If you have a job that is useless and hateful, QUIT, and go do something that actually improves the world. I understand that WalMart is always hiring greeters…

  19. To those people who say the TSOs should just quit or refuse to implement the new security policies its not that easy. Because the only thing that will happen is the person will get suspended or fired. And of course many might think “great, no more TSO officers” but there’s always someone they can hire. It’s a low paying job, that a lot of people will take, sometimes because they think they’re making a difference (like I naively did when I first worked security) and other times because it might be the only job available to them. Even if there’s only 5 officers, an airport will still run… but the lines will be longer, and waiting time will increase. And if it shuts down then what? You can’t just assume that if all the TSOs in the country quit that security will disappear, it won’t.

    Instead what needs to happen across the board in the US and other countries is people need to lobby their politicians and government. This site is trying to do something: http://flywithdignity.org/get-involved/ – bitching and complaining on the internet won’t solve problems. Calling people names won’t do anything. Treat people with respect and you’ll get a lot more answers. Treat people like shit, and you’ll cause more pain, for everyone. Just a question because I don’t fly from the US that often, do the TSOs inform passengers of what they’ll be doing, do they ask permission to search? For us we had to ask permission, and if a person refused to go through the screening point they could return to are before security, without being sued or labelled a threat.

    In my opinion airport security needs to adopt and implement the techniques that El Al uses in Israel. They have the best airport security record of any country. And they’ve been doing things right before 9/11, backscatter images, and enhanced pat downs.

  20. Nobody is forcing you to get on a plane. You don’t like the security, take a bus. Drive. Walk. Or maybe you’d rather have a jet fly into the Sears Tower, or the White House, or the Capital. Or blow up with your wife and kiddies on it.

  21. As others have mentioned, no one’s calling TSO’s Nazis, but it’s completely apt to bring up that “Befehl ist Befehl” (“orders are orders”) did not fly in Nuremberg:

    “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under [international] law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”

    This is not to say that there isn’t legal precedence otherwise (My Lai was in some ways a reversal), but morally speaking… well, the TSO’s *should* be feeling horrible. Because they are acting in a way that’s socially reprehensible (why they’re being treated by the public the way they are), but choose to continue to do so.

    TSO’s that believe they’re serving their country should perhaps brush up on their civics and think long and hard about what kind of future they are contributing to. In terms of their contribution to public safety, they also might want to think about all the terrorists they’ve caught with their procedures, and how those resources might be spent in *actual* security.

    All that being said, I’m sympathetic to the TSOs. That they continue to “do their job” despite ethical qualms otherwise serves only to help propagate these policies. But then again, air travelers are also faced with this same ethical quandary. Do I want to get to where I need to be, or do I choose not to fly?

  22. “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 am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”

    Newsflash. You are not “professionals” and you are not “serving your country.” You are skill-less clowns who have attached yourself to the Federal salary teat. You are bit players in the Security Theater boondoggle.

  23. It really is simple. Either you are part of the problem, or you are part of the solution. There is absolutely no way that this “Security Theater” can be justified as being an effective means of fighting terrorism. My 4th Amendment rights are not up for grabs. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” What part of that is difficult to understand? All TSA “Officers” (I use that term loosely) should immediately refuse to perform any additional nude scanning OR sexual assaults.

  24. WTF? These people are doing their job? How farking long can you use that excuse? You either follow the constitution or you don’t. Maybe they should file suit against their employer and strike at the same time. I’m sick of all the people that would rather give away their freedoms, so many people have given their life to protect, this bs makes me want to puke. People need to grow a pair and stop living in FEAR. You might die on the way home tonight, trust in god and do your do diligence but for the love of God don’t give up your freedoms in the name of terror.

  25. Kim,
    You say, “I will not consent to an enhanced patdown.” When, in fact, you are saying you want to be patted down. You have one option that won’t touch you in the least, and you say no, I want to be “molested”, which, by definition, is consent.
    Also, by the logic “they follow orders, therefore they are like the Nazis” every single one of you who has a job is also a Nazi, because you follow the orders of your boss.
    And also, trying to fight the fine will just result in 11k plus legal fees. You can’t murder someone in cold blood and then get off because you think you don’t deserve punishment or that the victim deserved to die, which is analogous to fighting an $11k fine that you knew you would get.

  26. To all of you fools who think that security is theater, when is the last time an airliner departed from the US and was either hijacked and crashed or blown up? Oh yea, 9/11, before the vast majority of these policies were implemented. Without many of the things the TSA does there would be no civility in the skies, people would easily be able to get weapons on board and people would be dying left and right.
    You may think that the process is far too involved to make it worth the extra effort, and I agree, there should be two options: body scan or don’t fly. No opting out, no random second screenings. It would streamline the process, make flying safer, and save the government money.

  27. Alouise wisely opines: “In my opinion airport security needs to adopt and implement the techniques that El Al uses in Israel.”

    I don’t want to split hairs, but El Al uses such security measures on all flights, and all airlines use them to some degree in Israel. I’m a Druze (we’re Muslim) woman, born in Israel and of Israeli and US citizenship. I wish every day that we’d get Israeli-style security. It’d not just make the skies safer, it’d cut down significantly on my being harassed for my religion. Let me repeat that: I get less, and much more culturally sensitive, scrutiny in Israel than I do in the US. It’s just effective.

    I’m never asked if i belong to a terrorist cell in Israel. Usually we have a brief conversation in Hebrew (or sometimes English) and the polite, professional agent reviews my previous travel, the people I’m related to, and he or she monitors my behavior carefully. The interview takes five minutes. I’ve never been selected for additional screening. Usually, I don’t even get sent through the walk-through metal detectors. When I do, it takes all of 30 seconds. I’ve been patted down, respectfully, with the back of the hand, a couple of times. I got wanded once; the woman who wanded me apologized repeatedly because “we’re doing it to everyone today because of a threat.” I’ve flown out of Ben Gurion possibly 150 times in my life. Once again, it’s never taken more than five minutes. I’ve never been subjected to anything that could be construed as offensive by even the most easily offended mind.

    In the States, good luck with that. I’ve been interrogated by a gentleman who called me a “sand ni**er.” I’ve been slammed against the wall, whilst holding my baby sister, in Logan Airport and asked if I was a man in drag…after clearing security and having a gentleman ask if that was “some Muslim words” in my passport. (It was French. Which is in a US passport. I only used my passport for ID after the gentleman claimed there was no such state as Oregon so I couldn’t use my driver’s license.) I’ve been threatened with a cavity search…not by Customs, but by a TSA employee. I once was told that I could be denied access to a plane because I was in a ‘terrorist organization’ (I served with pride in the IDF for two years. The IDF is not a terrorist organization.) and that my last name was “too long for me to give a s**t about” by a TSA ID checker in Chicago. I’ve had another passenger attempt to get me tossed from a plane and only the pilot standing up for me kept me on. Other than the TSA at JFK or San Francisco, both of which are generally excellent, I live in fear of getting on an airplane, mostly because harassment is part of the deal, but none of this keeps flyers one iota safer. Locked cockpits, fight back. It’s all the effective actions that Americans have learned from 9/11. Everything else is targeted security theatre.

    So, yes, PLEASE bring Israeli-style security here. I’d love it. My fat Muslim ass will feel much safer from terrorists, regardless of their intent or origin, and low-risk travelers will fly through. We’ll all be treated professionally. We’ll all be safer in the skies.

  28. “American”,

    Your name is apparently ironic, since you could not be less American if you tried. We’re a free and brave nation, not a nation of cowards who pee our pants when we see our shadows.

    “Without many of the things the TSA does there would be no civility in the skies, people would easily be able to get weapons on board and people would be dying left and right.”
    Yeah, because the murder rate in airplanes before 9/11 was worse than that of DC. Newsflash! The TSA couldn’t prevent 9/11. They couldn’t prevent the shoe bomber. The scanners wouldn’t have picked up the underwear bomber.

    My odds of dying from a terrorist attack are far less than those of getting cancer from the body scanner, even if I believe the TSA numbers (which I don’t).

  29. @American – 9/11 can’t happen again. Hardened doors will prevent the hijackers from getting into the cockpit. The passengers will never let the hijackers take the plane. See, what happened on 9/11 was that people followed protocol, which assumed the hijackers would land the planes and demand ransom. No one will ever let this happen again.

    In fact, the only terrorist actions attempted aboard a plane bound for the US since 9/11 were stopped NOT by the TSA or other security measures, but by the /passengers/. Remember that. Heck, the underwear bomber was on the no-fly list, didn’t have a passport, the government was warned by his father 2 weeks before he tried to get on the plane…and he still made it on the plane.

    I saw a site the other day that listed 86 bombings since the beginning of commercial aviation. Some successful, some not so much. We managed to keep flying even after those events happened, without giving up our rights in the name of some semblance of artificial ‘security’. The TSA isn’t guaranteeing your security, nor can they. Sometimes, bad things happen. People die. We all accept that there is some risk in life. I will not give up my rights for the illusion that doing so will give me some sort of safety.

    Cargo is not 100% screened. Airport workers are not 100% screened. TSOs can be opted out of the screening process altogether – meaning, they can come & go from the sterile area and bring anything they like into it, and nobody would ever know it until it was too late. Now pilots are going to be fast-tracked. Children under 12 are exempted from the enhanced pat down. They know it’s security theater, and they’re trying to keep the backlash as minimal as possible.

    I served my country to protect and preserve your rights. Don’t be so quick to try to take mine. I will not surrender quietly.

  30. Not one ounce of sympathy for these folks.

    If the job is distasteful to you? Ethically and morally repugnant to you? Then you demand dignity for yourself and quit.

    You cannot reasonably expect a passenger to be respectful of you when you are searching their genitals

    Do the right thing – for yourself – and quit.

  31. “they are not rounding up or exterminating anyone!”

    Oh, so that’s the only thing the Nazis did wrong? If they’d invaded all the same countries, but just hadn’t rounded people up and sent them to extermination camps, they’d be classified as Good Guys?

  32. @Jenna, you said it.

    American is one of those people who are probably fine with 4pm curfews, cameras in every home and every room, and internet logs sent to the government for review. Despite the name American, I think he’d be much more at home in North Korea.

    I really wish we could let the market decide this, which is the American way. Make an airline for people with common sense, and then one run by TSA.

  33. I have no sympathy for those who choose to wear the TSA badge of dishonor. These perverts sold out their country and are little more than traitors. If insults like “pervert”, “sicko”, and profanity are the worst things they hear, they should consider themselves lucky. They deserve to go to prison at the very least for their disgusting actions.

  34. @American – you can’t reasonably expect everyone to submit to a strip search without probable cause, it’s ludicrious.

    Oh, and TSA itself is yet to stop a single terrorist, it *may* act as a deterrent, but at this point it’s becoming a deterrent to regular Americans as well.

  35. umm just so the tso called a nazi as long as you understand that most “nazis” said i just did what i was ordered to do. yeah you dont kill anyone and being jewish im sure this hit you hard and for that i agree the comment was harsh.

    when will this farce called security end? the back scatter machines are laughed at by isreal as a waste! and they say those dont work! these are the people who know airport security better than anyone. why are we paying for top heavy security company called tsa? and the name homeland security has a nice ring to it. it reminds me of fatherland and motherland and we know who used those names!

  36. Ugh. I could give a shit if these people don’t like their jobs. I’m sure telemarketers feel the same way, but it doesn’t make what they’re doing correct, does it? They chose their profession, and all of this BS about ‘serving their country’ and ‘making travel safer’ are complete shit…how many attacks have been prevented by screening common citizens? Seriously, look at the data available.

    I hate the conspiracy theorists and their nonsense about TSA pat-downs teaching the American public to be complacent with being unlawfully searched, but I see no logical, legitimate reason for the pat-downs in the first place, so the idea is slowly starting to hold water.

    If you are miserable at your job, get a different one. Eventually TSA agent turnover will get the point across…this makes everyone miserable.

    I *hope* that the person touching my crotch is fucking miserable. Why? Because the alternative is even more disgusting than being unlawfully searched, either by someone with gloves or with a dubious backscatter machine who’s long-term effects have gone unstudied.

  37. “American” (comment 77), imma let you finish, but your comment about everyone being Nazis is the stupidest comment of all time!

    You are a f star star retard… I can’t even bother to try to explain to you how dumb you just sounded…

  38. I’ve seen several posters say that if you don’t want to be groped you just have to go in the scanner. This is not true. If you go through the scanner and they see anything “suspicious” you will be groped. Apparently this can be as little as the decoration on the pocket of a pair jeans.

    These are overly invasive searches with no benefit. To date the TSA has not caught a single terrorist. To date the TSA has failed to prevent theft from checked baggage or even from their checkpoints. Until they eliminate theft from the baggage handling areas it is obvious that they are not well secured and the easiest way to get a bomb onto a flight would be to get a baggage handler to slip it into someone’s bag.

    The huge lines at the checkpoints are a major terrorist target. What would the TSA do if they actually found a suicide bomb in someone’s pants? What’s the procedure? I see nothing that looks like a bomb proof enclosure to toss them into. Are they going to make them sit in a chair until law enforcement shows up?

    We do have a right to travel by air without being groped or forced to present our “papers” and checked to see if we are “allowed” to fly. Do you remember when we used to laugh at the Soviets for living in a society where you couldn’t travel unless you presented your “papers”? Well, comrades, guess where we are?

  39. Flyingfish,

    The TSA *is* killing people. Estimates are that over 40 people die a month due to the extra traffic from people choosing to drive rather than submit to the TSA’s violation of their rights. When fully in place, the new backscatter machines can be expected to cause 8 or more people a year to die of cancer. Not only is the TSA killing people, they’re killing more people than the terrorists they’re supposed to be catching, but aren’t.

    As for “just doing their job” – so they want us to be willing partners while they touch us in a sexual way for money? That kind of thing is also illegal in most of the country.

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